Happy New Year folks!
How have you been enjoying 2013?
I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing Christmas break filled with lots of fun and delicious treats!
I spent my break with friends and family in Sydney. I also spent a good chunk of my free time playing my new Christmas pressies on the XBOX, Lord of the Rings and Batman 2 Lego games 😀
I do have a bit of annoying news for myself though – and that is I’ve been feeling a bit intolerant lately. I’ve been feeling quite ill for the past few months. I’ve seen the doc, had my blood tested for a few things, and have also tried a few elimination diets to try and figure out why my digestive system was on the fritz.
Prior to this I’ve had similar sorts of stomach upsets but this was lasting a lot longer than it had in previous times. Long story short, I seem to have some sort of intolerance to wheat AND dairy – much to my disappointment as I clearly love both of these things with a passion. Fortunately I seem to be able to consume a smallish amount of either without much consequence but any more than that seems to have.. side effects. Side effects that I would rather not bore you with, but I’m sure you get the idea!
Anyway, that being said, while I still intend to share my favourite gluten and dairy recipes with you all (as I will still make them from time to time) I suppose I will be venturing into more gluten- and dairy-free recipes. Time to don my creative hat, as eating gluten- and dairy-free is certainly a new thing for me. I suppose I am still in a bit of a teething stage and part of me hopes that it may not be permanent (my blood test revealed that I am definitely not coeliac). All this being said, I am looking forward to trying out new GF and DF recipes and I will still of course be only posting the easiest and most delicious ones I can find!
One particular dairy-free treat I’ve missed indulging in the most (and especially in this heat!) has been ice-cream. I am a big strawberry lover and love all things strawberry scented and flavoured: ice-cream, body wash, shampoo, creams, all of it! So when I got inventing in the kitchen, it was not a tough decision about which flavour to try first.
I did a bit of brainstorming and figured I would make a strawberry syrup from fresh strawberries, blend it with coconut cream, then freeze. To my surprise, it worked out even better than I imagined.
This recipe is beautifully creamy with a great strawberry flavour and a light coconutty aftertaste. Not only is it dairy-free, it is also gluten-free and vegan, but I promise that you will not miss the usual cream and egg yolks normally packed into regular ice-cream!
If you wanted to try a different spin on this recipe, I expect this would also be a lovely treat blended with Greek yoghurt instead of the coconut cream.
I really was surprised at how well this recipe turned out – I kept sneaking bites during the photographing process, hehe. Even as I type, I’m still finishing off the last few scoops – pretty handy on this intensely hot day! I think this may well be one of the best recipes I’ve ever come up with! Another bonus is that this easy recipe is only five simple ingredients. Woohoo!
This recipe is a snap to put together, however it does require you to pop a can of good quality coconut milk in the fridge the night before (to separate the hardened coconut cream from the thinner coconut water in the can). I’ve heard of those who don’t refrigerate their cans of coconut milk overnight with success, but I haven’t tried it.
One day after refrigerating your coconut milk, flip the can, open it, scoop out the hardened coconut cream and place in a bowl. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge.
Slice up two punnets of strawberries and chop a medium sized lemon in half.
Add sliced strawberries to a saucepan, followed by a cup of water, a cup of white sugar and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Place on high heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Careful though, as this has a tendency to overboil! Keep an eye on it. After 20 minutes on high, lower the heat to medium-low and keep it on there for a further 20 minutes.
Take it off the heat when the strawberries are nice and syrupy. Cover and put in the fridge until completely cool (at least 2 hours.)
Pour cooled strawberry syrup into a blender and add coconut cream.
Blend until creamy and a pretty pale pink.
Pour into pop moulds and freeze until solid.
With the rest of your ice-cream mixture, pour into a plastic container and freeze in the fridge. Every hour or so, take it out and mix thoroughly with a spoon to break up any ice crystals forming until completely frozen and creamy. For an even better explanation on how to make ice-cream without an ice-cream maker, click here for David Lebovitz’s great tutorial. You could of course just pour this into an ice-cream maker and churn after blending.
Note: This ice-cream is also a little icy after freezing. David Lebovitz once again comes to the rescue with tips on how to soften home-made ice-cream – click here to read on!
Dairy Free Strawberry Ice-Cream (an original recipe by Cooking Crusade)
Makes: 1 litre strawberry ice-cream (approx)
Time to prepare: Overnight for the coconut cream, about 1 hour for the strawberry syrup, 1 minute to blend and about 2-3 hours to freeze.
1 can of coconut milk
2 punnets of strawberries, washed and hulled
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup of water
the juice of half a small lemon
Equipment needed
chopping board, small knife, 1 small saucepan, 2 bowls, wooden spoon, a food processor or blender, ice-cream pop moulds
To start this recipe you need to begin one night beforehand by putting your can of coconut milk in the fridge. You can make the strawberry sauce 2 hours ahead of ice-cream making time, as it needs to be cooled, but if you’re starting the night before that would probably make things more convenient to cool it overnight in the fridge and you’re ready to go the next morning.
- Slice strawberries and place in a saucepan. Sprinkle over sugar and add water. Turn heat on high and heat until sugar melts. Simmer for about 20 minutes on high, but please keep an eye on it, as this mixture is prone to overboil! (I learned this the hard way!) Lower heat to medium-low for about another 20 minutes until the strawberries are quite syrupy, but there is still quite a good amount of liquid. Take off the heat and pour into a bowl, cover and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until completely cool. You should have about 600mls of liquid in total.
- While the syrup cools, remove the can of coconut milk from the fridge and flip (be careful not to shake it). Remove can lid, drain off the watery liquid and scoop out the hardened coconut cream at the bottom of the can. Place in a bowl, cover and place in the fridge while syrup cools. This should slightly thicken the cream.
- When syrup is completely cooled, pour into food processor, or a blender. It is not too difficult a job to blend, so even a cheap blender should do the trick. Blend until creamy and a pale pink.
- Pour into popsicle moulds and freeze for about 2 hours or until frozen solid. To release from the popsicle moulds, run the moulds under hot water to help loosen the strawberry pops. Serve and enjoy!
Hope you are all surviving the heat and having a super lovely week!
xoxo
C
Simple and delicious – I love it! Sorry to hear you’re still having issues, I do hope they sort out soon. xx
Thank you JJ me too 🙂 x
This looks sooo good for summer! I think I’m going to have to try this to avoid using my oven to make desserts 🙂 Great job, Christine! Hope you start to feel better too!
Thank you Kat! Hope you enjoy the recipe 😀
Those look delicious! I love the shot with the coconut cream on the rim of the blender. Gluten and dairy are common cross-sensitivities. Another common one is coffee, so watch out for that.
Hehe thank you Gaby! Hmm interesting, thank you for telling me! Fortunately I don’t really drink coffee that much and since I’m avoiding dairy, I’ve been mostly skipping it but glad to know!
I hope your digestive system settles down soon. I would never have known there was coconut cream in that ice cream. It looks delicious and perfect for the weather today!
Thanks Jacq 🙂 Gosh I am dying for it to cool down!
Oh I am sorry to hear about your health issues. I hope you are feeling better soon. In the meantime, I look forward to your GF and DF recipes and from the looks of this, you are definitely on to something good! Oh what I would give for one of these right now – it’s 36C after all!!
Hehe thank you Anna! In a weird way it has been good because I’m trying all sorts of yummy things I never would have before which is definitely fun 🙂
Coconut and strawberry, such a delicious combo, you wouldn’t even miss the dairy!
Thank you Sara, I definitely think you don’t notice it missing. I love how creamy coconut cream is hehe 🙂
That looks so delicious, great idea using the coconut. Definitely going to try this
Thanks Ghilaine! Hope you like it and thanks for your comment 😀
Sorry to hear about your intolerances but so far it’s resulted in a pretty delicious looking ice-cream so maybe it’s a good thing!
I think it is, definitely gives me an opportunity to really start getting inventive hehe. Thanks for dropping by Claire 🙂
YUM!! The colour is so vivid and inviting. I love how you’ve used coconut instead of cream or milk so the flavour must be divine!
Thank you John! Yes I’ve never tried strawberry/coconut before but it was a combo that worked quite well 🙂
Sorry to hear of your intolerances but it looks like you’re embracing your new eating habits really well. These ice creams would be so delicious and so very handy with all this extreme heat xx
Thank you Charlie! I am definitely enjoying these new kitchen challenges. I have to say I’m so glad its so much cooler today 😀 but summer is always an excuse for ice-cream hehe 🙂
Looks lovely! Just what we need in this heat! and making the most of summer strawbs too.
Thank you Sarah. I love making new strawberry recipes – best berry ever in my opinion 🙂
So sorry to hear about your dietary issues but at least now you can focus on GF and DF recipes. Your ice cream looks superb and I really wouldn’t mind a scoop or two (or three) to indulge in during this sydney heat wave!
Yeah exactly. In fact I’m actually quite happy that I really don’t miss out on as much as I imagined and so many restaurants and cafes these days have plenty of fantastic yummy DF and GF options which is great 🙂 Thank you for dropping by Tina and hope you are staying cool x
Wonderful recipe and photos Christine – I’m definitely going to have to give this one a go. I heart strawberry too! Don’t feel too disheartened about the intolerances, it’s a pretty common thing but at least you’re taking the steps to make yourself better. Plus you get to experiment with even more amazing and good-for-you recipes!
Thank you for the encouragement Kirsty 🙂 I agree with you completely! Will definitely be getting lots of yummy recipes and inspiration from your lovely blog xx
Oh Christine, so sorry to hear you have been unwell! Hope that going DF and GF for a little while helps to sort it all out for you!
As for your scrummy icecream… yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM!
Looking forward to giving this one a go, and thinking of maybe going half and half coconut cream to greek yoghurt, as I just LOVE the tang of yoghurt… sorry… i’m a terrible influence in the DF dept… however hit me up with some GF recipes! I also suffered some ill effects a few years ago and went GF for a year on my Drs advice. Cleared up nicely 😉 Best wishes! x
Hehe thank you Allysia! I think Greek yoghurt would work well with this.. no need to apologise, as I used to be a massive yoghurt lover myself and so I completely understand 😉 hehe. Hope you’ll be able to find some yummy gluten free recipes on here too from now on! xoxo
YUM! Coconut cream? That’s genius. I will have to try it. Sorry to hear that you’ve been unwell. =( Hope it all gets better soon!
Aw, thank you Celeste 🙂 Hope you like it xox
Happy New Year! These are lovely, scrumptious, and delicious!! I love the coconut milk in the recipe 🙂
Thank you and the same to you!:)
Lovely pictures and recipe! I really like that it is dairy free 🙂
Thank you Natalie and for dropping by too!
Happy new year! I’m so sorry to hear that, hope you’re feeling better with your new diet now. But this looks very refreshing and wonderful, and I can’t believe it’s dairy free. Love the shots!
Happy New year to you too Linda! Yeah I really am feeling much better now (much to my slight annoyance. haha.) Thank you, that means a lot to me coming from the amazing photos on your blog dear x
Just letting you know I’m making these tonight! Strawberries are cheap in Australia and the weather is HOT. Good to catch up with your blog again x
Oh lovely! Thank you Meg, I hope you like it!! Let me know how you go xx
Happy New Year Christine! I so know that terrible feeling when you find out your digestion cannot tolerate something you love. I hope you are feeling better soon and that you nail your intolerances quickly and easily. From one intolerant to another – let me know if you need any advice!
Thank you Martine! Thank you so much for the offer – I am sure to need some tips and tricks you may have! And I am of course looking forward to trying all the yummy recipes on your blog too xx
Oh dear DF AND GF…your tummy is not happy with you. I hope it’s just a passing thing…but luckily there are so many DF & GF options these days…plus you seem to be an inventive cook. Your icy poles look FAB!
Yeah I hope it is too. But I am very lucky that there are lots of options out there now, and thank goodness I can still eat carbs! I would die if I couldn’t, haha. thank you Mel xx
It’s sad when our bodies change and we have to adjust life but maybe you’ll find heaps of new things to love. Like these popsicles 🙂
That’s what I’m thinking too! Thanks for dropping by Maureen x
These look great! I have been dabbling in coconut cream based ice cream but it hasn’t been an overwhelming success. I’ll try your recipe next. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Stephanie. I hope you have some success with this recipe.. Enjoy!
Can’t wait to try this! They look so delicious.
Thank you Angie, I do hope you enjoy them and thank you for dropping by!
I will save this delicious idea for some warmer weather…although at least it’s raining today instead of snowing! I hope your change in diet brings you some comfort…but I know it must be tough to give up both wheat and dairy…yikes.
Yes I imagine you may be experiencing a bit of a colder Christmas than we are hehe. Thank you Liz 🙂
So sorry that you have been having health issues but it sounds like you are taking up the challenge well. Your strawberry pops sound great.
Thank you Karen. I’m just so glad that there are so many GF and DF options available on the market now 🙂 Thank you for dropping by!
No one wants to hear that they have to adjust their diet to gluten free or dairy free, its such a devastating moment. That favourite brie cheese I like to eat at every meal – I can’t have that anymore. Bummer.
These ice-creams look really delicious, I look forward to reading more of your GF & DF recipes over the next year.
Ah yes I’m feeling that a bit right now. Cheese is a tricky one to substitute as well – sorry to hear that you miss out on your fave brie, I do love a good piece of cheese myself! Thanks for dropping by Lizzie and I hope you’ll enjoy the recipes I post 😀
I have tried making ice cream with coconut milk. This recipe looks wonderful!
Thank you Zoe! I can’t wait to try new flavours too 🙂
I swear, you make the prettiest things. Also, there’s just so many parts of this that I love. Can’t believe it’s dairy free and looks that dreamy creamy…Mmmmm!!
Aww thank you so much lovely – that’s so kind of you to say! xox
Sorry to hear about your health issues, but congrats to you for taking care of them. Who’d miss dairy with these terrific strawberry pops? Great recipe – thanks.
Thank you John 🙂 and thank God for coconut milk! haha
These look truly amazing, I love the beautiful hue of pink.
Aw thank you Mich, that’s very kind of you to say. I just love pink things too hehe 😀
Aww…I’d hate to be intolerant to anything! Well if all your future recipes turn out as good as this, I’m sure you’ll be enjoying even more delicious snacks than before!
These strawberry ice-cream pops look so pretty and sound delicious! I’ve only ever had normal strawberry ice cream and I thought that was really good- strawberry with coconut sounds even better!
Thank you Von! I hope so hehe. I’d never had strawberry and coconut before making this either but I was surprised how well it turned out!
Christine , I nearly drool ! lol Your frozen treats are just too pretty ! I just love ice cream and been eyeing some moulds so that I can make some ice pops 😀
Hope you’ll feel better soon and take care !
I’m going to bookmark your recipe and will make it when it’s not too cold in this side of the world ;D
Oh thank you Anne! I bought these moulds very cheaply at Daiso (for $2.80 to be exact) and I just love them! Thank you for dropping by!
how upsetting for you, maybe this will be a new era in cooking and discovering. Hope you feel better soon. have you come across kara coconut cream. You can use the whole lot and there is no coconut milk water. You can use the whole lot. I love your recipe it looks so delicious
I hope so 🙂 Thanks Tania. I haven’t, no! That sounds fantastic, I will definitely look it up, thank you so much for the tip!
Perfect for summer and keeping refreshed!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Definitely, thanks CCU 🙂
We love anything strawberry! I can’t wait to have strawberry season back. 🙂 I’m jealous right now of your warm and strawberry season!
Wow!
They look really good and they are fresh!
loving your blog! 🙂
Thank you Zoey! 🙂