Chocolate Ice Cream

If there is something that can help you stop craving on a hot summer day, it is ice cream. With this lovely creation in your freezer, you can easily resist the ringing sounds of ice cream cars passing by your house. You will be all smiles because you know you have something much better waiting for you.

When I say ice cream, I mean the real thing. If you have no ice cream maker, you can blend frozen fruits and make the most lovely one-minute- sorbets in the world. This is how I did it… until just now. Since I got this wonderful equipment for my birthday, I am hooked on trying out all possible combinations with flavors and what my garden is offering me. The first spoon I took was a real revelation. I had never tasted such a full ice cream flavor and texture. Nothing can exceed the creaminess of a raw ice cream, made of sweet cashew nuts and fresh picked fruit in your garden or… pure chocolate!

This recipe is based on one of Sarma Melngailis. I was totally new at making ice cream two weeks ago. So I started with an existing recipe and am trying out things now. For this recipe I left out the coconut. It is not always as simple to find them and I rather taste the chocolate. Add some more coconut butter instead to have a hint of memory to coconut. I prefer discrete tastes above an insistent flavor. This is the way you can start looking for your own preferences. Just try and taste.

An ice cream maker doesn’t have to be expensive to do an excellent job. You can purchase a regular one for about $30 or $40. Even Cuisinart is very affordable here. So if you have a celebration coming up, put it on top of your list or just buy one yourself to treat yourself on a healthy and easy to make snack or dessert. Here comes your good mood food!

Preparation to think of first! To receive a smooth ice cream texture, it is always necessary to soak the nuts you are using, even cashews. Soak one cup of cashews for about four hours or longer in filtered water or spring water. Do this in the morning, when you get up. If you have to work, your cashews will be ready for use when you get home and feel like making something special.

Tools You Need

Ice Cream Maker

* An ice cream maker. Even a cheap one will do just fine and delight you with the real thing you have been longing for.

* A blender

* A small and a large bowl

* Measuring cups

* Measuring spoons

* A whisk

* A timer

* Some spatula’s, small and big

* A small bottle to apply chocolate sauce. If you don’t have one, take a square piece of paper, make a funnel of it, and cut a small tip off at the smallest end. Now you can draw with the sauce on your plate. Or simply use a spoon.

Ingredients for chocolate sauce

* 3/4 C raw cacao powder

* 3/4 C Maple Syrup or Agave Nectar (Maple Syrup combines great with chocolate and gives it an extra dimension)

* 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract without alcohol

* Pinch of sea salt

* 2 TBS melted coconut butter for a full flavor

The making of chocolate sauce

Always start with the part where you have to prepare food. So first melt the cacao butter while you are working on the next step. This will save time.

Now blend all ingredients at lowest speed, except for the cacao butter. By the time this is done, the butter is ready.

Add the liquified cacao butter slowly at the slowest speed. Your chocolate sauce is ready! Take a lick! Ever tasted this?

Take the sauce out of the blender but don’t clean the blender. It’s all meant to come together and you don’t want to spill anything of this goddess sauce.

Ingredients for ice cream

* 1 C of soaked cashews (they have soaked in water and became bigger)

* 1/8 C of coconut oil

* 1/2 C of spring water

* 1 C Agave Nectar

* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* 1/4 tsp of sea salt to bring out all flavors even more

* 3/4 C of the chocolate sauce you just made

The making of ice cream

First melt your coconut oil “Au Bain Marie”

Blend all ingredients except for coconut oil until very smooth!

Add the coconut oil slowly on lowest speed.

This is your cashew creme and chocolate sauce. Keep a bit of the chocolate sauce aside to add lusciously on your ice cream later.

Mix both emulsions together in your blender until they are one. Done!

Set aside a few hours in the refrigerator till the mixture has cooled off.

All set to go. Follow the instructions of your ice cream maker. Usually you have to turn on the machine before you start pooring. Than let the machine do the work.

Set the timer; twenty minutes for soft ice, forty for scoop ice cream.

Peeking after about ten minutes…

Ready to taste! Heavenly! You can take a scoop and treat yourself already. Put the rest in the deep freezer.

]]> http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/29/ravishing-raw-chocolate-ice-cream/feed/ 1 http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/26/zucchetti/ http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/26/zucchetti/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:49:54 +0000 Marie-Claire http://ravishingrawblog.wordpress.com/?p=58

Zucchetti!

One of the things I thought I would never be able to miss is pasta. I was a real pasta lover before I went raw and although I had only been eating the whole food versions for years, it was a scary thought it wouldn’t be part of my diet anymore. So the first thing I wanted to replace by a raw creation was spaghetti. And guess what! It is de-li-cious!

In fact, you don’t have to miss anything when eating raw. You can make a raw version of every cooked recipe. I know, at the beginning there is so much to read and learn and it can be very overwhelming. But after a while, when you don’t have to look at all these recipes anymore and getting the hang on creating your own varieties, you will come up with new things.

A good way to go when you are just starting is: follow the recipe the first time and then start changing, adding, creating to your own taste. You will be surprised how easy and fun it is to re- invent your new diet and lifestyle. The best part of all this is, that you don’t have to know anything about cooking!

So let me tell you about spaghetti, made of vegetables. You can choose any long vegetable you want. If you are craving for the feeling, looks and taste of real spaghetti, zucchini is the best choice. It is al dente without cooking, has a pretty neutral taste with a touch of fresh sweetness, and just as cheap.

I like my sauce with little bits of chunks, but if you prefer a real smooth sauce looking like a Bolognese, let the blender run a bit longer until you have the consistency you like.

You will find the recipe in my FREE eBook “Raw For 3 Days!”

If you would like to receive this step by step book, enter your email address in the sign up box and I will send you the link where you can download “Your Step-By-Step FooDprint”

You can present your Zucchetti in different ways, depending on the occasion. Are you running late or aching for an ordinary looking spaghetti? Then just throw and stir up very well until all slices or angel hair is coated. It will look like this then…

Or if you get a special friend over for dinner, take a ‘ring’ and make a little tower of the pasta and sauce. Put it on a bed of chervil and basil leaves or fine lettuce and you have a lovely, fancy starter that will impress for sure… Or you can treat yourself after a week hard work with a nice looking dinner in the garden.

]]> http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/26/zucchetti/feed/ 7 http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/19/pure-food-for-radiant-health/ http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/06/19/pure-food-for-radiant-health/#comments Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:12:30 +0000 Marie-Claire http://ravishingrawblog.wordpress.com/?p=12 Deliciously Raw!

Welcome to my raw food blog! I would like to take you with me on this culinary journey. Becoming “Raw” will open your world. This is my experience and that of many thousands of others who went on this adventure with certain hesitation and now are making the journey of their lives. Whatever the reason for your visit to my blog, I hope you will find the things and answers you are looking for. Even more, you can post me your questions. I will try to answer them as quickly as possible. I look forward to your comments!

My raw journey began about a year and a half ago, when I was still dealing with my recovery of five serious diseases occurring simultaneously in 2005. I planned my healing very systematically, step by step. It took me several years to find a doctor who believed, diagnosed and treated me the right way. But it was only when I discovered rawfood that I made huge progresses and I could pick up the thread of my life again.

That’s why I want to inform everybody about what we aren’t been told. Because it is not about what we know, it is about what we don’t know. With this knowledge and consciousness you can take the power in your own hands and protect yourself against illness. Or if you have been suffering of vague complaints for years, seeing many doctors who tell you over and over again that you are just fine, or that ‘nothing can be done’, or that ‘it is all between your ears’, you can now take your life into your own hands, strengthen your body and make ravishing progresses in a short time. Let’s do it!

If you’re at the very dawn of this transition to a new diet and lifestyle, excitement is often accompanied by uncertainty. The questions, possible excuses-to-not-having-to-do-this including cynicism is making it all much harder on you than necessary. ”But how do I start? What should I eat? Can I only eat salads? Hey I’m not a rabbit! How can I enjoy eating? And some wine? How can I go to restaurants with friends? And what about my family? The children? How can I be sure that I will get all my vitamins and proteins? Raw in winter? You must be crazy! And at parties?”

Sssht. Quiet. “Alles kom reg” they say in South Africa. We will go step by step. You’ll be surprised how quickly you will get there.

Raw food is so simple. And yet, it is much more than the celery stalk or carrot out of your fist. Let the delicious possibilities surprise and seduce you. The principle is very simple; nothing is heated above 108 ° F. Some prefer to keep it at 118° F. but 108 °F. is the safest limit, if you want to keep all enzymes alive in your food. Above this temperature almost all the enzymes, vitamins, minerals and proteins die and your food becomes lifeless.

“Eat Dead Food and you will look dead.” Dr. Ann Wigmore said frankly and oh what she was right. She stood at the cradle of numerous investigations of the entire scope and we thank so much knowledge and powerful recipes to her life long dedication. Raw food gives you new, unsuspected energy and vitality. It makes your body so strong that it can heal itself of its illnesses. Eating raw will focus you, sharpen your concentration, enrich your soul and make you feel whole. Choosing a raw lifestyle takes you back to the roots of your existence, your pure essence and the fundamental principles of all life: nature. And yourself!