Chocolate Gelato

I was searching for a simple chocolate gelato recipe that was not terribly unhealthy. Most of the recipes I came across called for heavy whipping cream or half and half. I finally stumbled upon this recipe by Alice Medrich. I new right away this was going to be good and was happy find that the base is whole milk rather than cream. Unfortunately I did not have any Scharffen Berger cocoa powder so I used ghiradelli instead. I followed the original recipe pretty closely although I did not have a mesh strainer so I skipped that step. The recipe that follows is my verision.

Ingredients
3 cups whole milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions
Mix 1 cup milk, sugar, cocoa and cornstarch together in a bowl until completely blended. In saucepan, heat remaining 2 cups milk over low heat. When hot, add cocoa mixture and continue to stir over low heat until all ingredients are dissolved and mixture is very smooth. Pour mixture into a shallow glass plan, cover with a layer of saran wrap (make sure saran wrap is touching mixture) and chill in freezer until very cold (about 2 hours). Once mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker.

Vegan Breakfast Muffins II

Yum! I think this might be the best version of vegan muffins that I have developed so far. I know a muffin recipe is good when my fiancee Lee chooses to eat one for breakfast over a leftover brownie or granola! This recipe is similar to my Vegan Breakfast Muffin recipe but has different spices and carrots! The great thing about the Vegan Breakfast Muffin recipe is that you can experiment with different kinds of flour, fruits and vegetables. My favorite thing about this muffin recipe is there is absolutely no added sugar.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour flour
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cups applesauce
1 very ripe banana mashed
2 whole carrots grated
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp soy milk
8 pitted dates chopped into tiny pieces

Directions
Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Bake at 450 for about 13 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

*I baked my previous Vegan Breakfast muffins at 400 for 17 minutes. My oven temperature is always off and so I often check it with an oven thermometer. I thought I was baking these muffins at 400 but it turns out I was baking them at 450. Anyway, this recipe works baked at 400 or 450, but if you bake at 450 it will take about 4 or 5 minutes less time.

Variatons
*You can substitute any combination of flour that you like, as long as you have 1 1/2 cups total. I have tried buckwheat, oat flour and spelt flour so far.

*You can add any kind of chopped fruit, shredded vegetables (carrots or zucchini), nuts or dried fruit. Two weeks ago I added chopped strawberries and it was delicious.

*If you prefer a sweeter version you can add up to two Tablespoons of honey or agave nectar. If you want to add more that two tablespoons honey or agave nectar you can reduce the soy milk or olive oil by an equal amount.