Since I hate sites that make you read a whole story to get the recipes, out of the five different ice creams, here were the two highest ranking ones. I’d recommend reading more about these recipes

Silk Ice Cream

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp xantham gum
  • 2 tbsp light corn syrup
  • 1 1/3 cups + 1 tbsp of Silk Heavy Whipping Cream Alternative
  • 1 cup - 1 tbsp of Oat Milk (you can substitute other milks, but do your math to recalculate the fat, see notes below)
  1. Combine sugar and xantham gum
  2. Put corn syrup in medium pot and stir in oat milk. Add sugar mixture and whisk until smooth.
  3. Set pot over medium heat and cook, stirring to prevent a simmer, until sugar is dissolved (3 minutes).
  4. Remove pot from heat. Add in cream alternative and whisk until combined.
  5. Let the base cool, transfer to airtight container and refrigerate at least 6 hours, but preferably 24 hours. It will last two weeks in the fridge and 3 months in freezer.

Makes about 3 cups.

Salt & Straw Coconut base

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded Coconut
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp xantham gum
  • 3/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut cream (Aroy-D and boxed, not canned)
  1. Heat oven to 300F
  2. Sprinkle shredded coconut in even layer on sheet pan & bake, shaking occasionally about 5 minutes until coconut is even dark amber in color
  3. Meanwhile, stir brown and granulated sugar together with xantham gum.
  4. Combine toasted coconut, corn syrup, and 1 cup water in small saucepan. Add in sugar and whisk until smooth.
  5. Set pan over medium heat and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat to prevent a simmer, until sugar is dissolved (3 minutes).
  6. Remove pan from heat and stir in coconut cream.
  7. Let the base cool, transfer to airtight container and refrigerate at least 6 hours, but preferably 24 hours. It will last two weeks in the fridge and 3 months in freezer.
  8. Strain before using. It will be very thick, use a rubber spatula to force it through a fine mesh strainer or sieve.

Makes about 4 cups

How To Use These Recipes

Neither of these recipes have salt or vanilla extract. They are bases that can be used to make any flavor and I expect you to tweak the salt in it accordingly. If you’re going for vanilla, just add about 2 tsp of homemade vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. If you’re adding in more sweetness, you’ll need more salt to pair things back. The second recipe will be slightly sweeter than the first and have a much stronger coconut taste. The first will not really have much of an aftertaste and you can get creative mixing in cashew milk into the oat milk (make sure to mind the fats).

The first one is slightly tweaked as the fat in whole milk and HEB original oat milk are not the same. Salt & Straw’s normal base has 2 2/3 cups of liquid and (106 + 10.6 = 116.6g of fat total). In our vegan version we have the same amount of liquid, but we add in an extra tbsp of the heavy stuff to offset the missing 5 grams of fat.

There are four things you really need to mind when making ice cream:

  • Sugar
  • Fat
  • Water
  • Salt

There are calculators and resources out there to balance these things. But these factors affect texture, hardness, softness, and taste. Things can get really complicated if you add in other factors like lactose is a sugar but it’s not as sweet gram-per-gram as granulated sugar. Salt and alcohol depress the freezing point of the mixture, which changes the curve of the ice cream tempature. This is a whole rabbit hole that I’ve peered down and sort of guessed at. Feel free to read up on some great resources to help wrap your head around it.

The Taste test

6 testers. 5 ice creams. 2 two store-bought brands.

All ice creams were cookies and creme with gluten-free oreos.

Ultimately the two store bought brands were by and far better than the lowest performer (which was universally hated). The lowest was just coconut milk, corn syrup, and corn starch .

The two store bought ones were the HEB store brand and a brand called Bellefontaine. Reading the comments, many people noted that the store bought brands tended to be sweeter and not be as hard. All the homemade ice creams froze very hard (likely due to them having less sugar ).

Why Make Vegan Ice Cream?

I’m not vegan. I just think vegan things are really interesting. In some ways, making regular ice cream isn’t as exciting because it’s going to be good every time. It’s like playing a video game where you can’t lose. Great for relaxing, but not very stimulating.

Why not challenge yourself?

Looking Forward

I want to revisit this in the future and tweak a few things. Make smaller batches. Add in a vegan milk powder. Etc.

So perhaps there will a follow onto this article.