10 Minutes or Less Coconut Ice Cream Recipe

I feel like my titles often sound like infomercials.  Maybe I missed my calling in that industry. Anyway . . .

Life is insane, and I suspect that that's just life. Will the insanity of it ever end? Probably not, therefore I should just accept it, go with it, and embrace the insanity. I've even been contemplating adding to the insanity, or at least more than I've already added.

So I volunteered to teach cooking at my church's summer-camp to kids that range in age from 2 to 17. That may be the definition of insane. So this spring, beside the normal craziness of life, I've been cutting and sewing about 50 aprons in various sizes, testing recipes and planning for two weeks of cooking classes.

For the most part, things have been going smoothly, but there's one class with whom I've been struggling to find a recipe that fits all of my criteria (I know, I know. Me and my criteria are good buds. But without standards, my world will just fall apart).

What are my criteria:

1. Age appropriate. It has to be something which that specific age group can fully participate in. For example, I'm having the 2 yo's dip pretzels in chocolate and decorate them with nuts and sprinkles. Later that week, I'm having the 14-17 yo's make sushi from scratch.
2. No meat. With the exception of the sushi, I'm trying for mostly vegetarian foods. Not that I'm a vegetarian, but I don't want to deal with the extra bonus of meat germs, e-coli and salmonella.
3. Time. We have to start, finish and clean up in 45 minutes or less. This is my deal breaker for most recipes, since many of them take longer than 45 minutes to prep and cook. 
4. Tasty. I'd like to make things that most of the kids will eat. We are trying out new recipes, but having 5 children, I know something about what most kids will and will not eat. There's no way the majority of them will eat stuffed grape leaves or moussaka, but they might eat hummus and homemade flat bread.
5. Whole foods and real food. I want to use basic food as ingredients. Using one of Michael Pollan's definitions of food: Things that your great-grandmother would recognize as food. I may use can garbanzo beans to save time, but I want no box mixes or no artificial food like stuff. If the kids learn nothing else, I want them to learn that food does not have to come from a box or can to be tasty and easy to make.
6. Allergies. Most people have food allergies at one time or another. I would like for these kids to learn that they can still eat tasty, easy to make, real food despite their allergies.

So here's my problem. I have one class where the allergies are dairy and eggs. It's one of my younger groups, so I don't want to do Middle Eastern food with them.  I also want to tire them out a bit so that they're not so rambunctious. And I want to actively participate in what they make.

One of my main ideas is "Ice Cream in a Bag." Not a new concept, but it's something many kids have never done before. Just google "ice cream bag," and you'll get hundred of sites.  Now add coconut milk to the search field, and after 200 sites, still not a single recipe for "Coconut Ice Cream in a Bag" that doesn't contain eggs or dairy.

After some experimentation yesterday, here's what I came up with. Though, after 4 experimental batches, I don't think I'll be eating anything with coconut in it for a long while.

Coconut Ice Cream in a Bag (10 minutes or less)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk (make sure it says milk, not juice or cream)
• 1 TBSP powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of xanthan gum or guar gum
• ice - about 4 cups
• rock salt (most grocery stores sell this all summer long. A bag's about $2, and will last quite a while.)

You also need sturdy gallon and quart zipper bags. Freezer bags are usually thicker than storage bags. Storage bags will break.

In a medium sized bowl, pour in the coconut milk, add the powdered sugar and the vanilla. While you are briskly whisking, sprinkle the pinch of gum into the mixture. By a pinch, I mean about 1/4 of a 1/8 tsp measuring spoon. Just a little bit. Sprinkle it slowly. If you pour it too fast, it will clump.

Place the quart zipper bag in a large cup (you can see this above). Pour in your mixture. This process keeps the mixture from sticking to the sides and concentrates it at the bottom.

Zip the bag, then take a bread tie and tie off the bottom area where the mixture is. This helps keep the ice cream together during the freezing process.

Place 1/2 cup rock salt in the gallon zipper bag. Pour in enough ice to fill it about half way. Mix the salt and ice together until the salt is distributed evenly throughout the bag. Place the quart bag with the milk mixture into the center of the ice mixture. Zip the larger bag and wrap with a towel.

Now set your timer and shake vigorously for 5 minutes. If you're like me, you'll dance around and filk songs to pass the time. "Shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake.  Shake Your Ice-cream, shake your ice-cream."  Or the more popular: "Well, shake it up, baby, now, (shake it up, baby).
Shake that ice-cream, (shake that ice-cream). Shake it up high (shake it up high). Shake it down low (shake it down low)" Well, you get the point. It makes the whole thing quite a work-out and keeps the kids from getting too bored by shaking a bag for 5 minutes.

Now check the quart bag to see if the mix has a nice ice cream consistency. It'll be more like soft serve than boxed freezer ice-cream. If it's not, shake it some more. If it's good, remove the inner bag, wipe or rinse off one corner, nip the corner with scissors and squeeze it out into a bowl.

You're done. Eat up. Put some toppings on it. Add some sprinkles. Or eat it plain. It has a strong coconut flavor, but it's really good. Just don't make and try to eat 4 batches in a row. Sometimes it's okay to waste failed experiments.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake in Under 10 Minutes

I have a few moments while my jelly jars are being sterilized to pop this one down.

Maybe I'm evil for making this recipe. Hopefully it doesn't lead to many pounds gained from lack of self-control (and I can relate to that), but it turned out so lovely and tasty.  I'm not a gluten-free girl by any stretch of the imagination, but even I liked this.

Every 2 weeks I teach a history co-op for middle school aged kids in my homeschool group. I was getting ready for the co-op one morning, when one of the mom's husband stopped by and asked if he could throw a quick surprise birthday party for his wife. How sweet!!

Here's the crux, one of our 5 families is totally gluten-free, and I hate leaving people out. I didn't want to burden the husband, who was being so nice, so I threw on my super-quick thinking "thinking cap" and came up with a solution.

A few years ago, a friend posted to her blog a recipe for chocolate cake in a mug - a quick combination of ingredients you could microwave in a coffee mug and would produce a chocolate cake. It was horrid!! I've rarely tasted anything worse. But I figure the concept has been hashed out a few times since then.

I searched for a recipe, not a gluten free one - I knew that would be a waste of time - and found one that had descent reviews.  I needed to increase the serving size to 3, but I didn't want to use more eggs (that was the main problem with the first one - tasted too eggy). Yet to increase the serving, I needed more flour and thus the binding agent needed to be increased (I subbed the milk with coconut milk, which is much creamier). 

This is the can of coconut milk I bought at Whole Foods. But any Asian type grocery will have coconut  milk. I had to open the whole top after the milk congealed in the fridge!

What I threw together in 5 minutes with what I had around the house was so tasty, I wanted to share it. So many people are having to go gluten-free, and that shouldn't stop someone from spontaneous indulgence!

Gluten-Free Microwave Chocolate Cake Recipe
Yields 3 servings

Ingredients
4 TBSP butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 c coconut milk (can use regular milk too, but it will affect the flavor)
2/3 cup gluten free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill AP GF Flour, but really any kind would work - I'm trying 100% garbanzo flour next time)
3/4 tsp Xanthan gum
3 TBSP cocoa powder
1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Directions:
Spray a medium microwave-safe bowl with non-stick spray and set aside. I used a 6" by 6" square glass casserole pan.

In a small mixing bowl or large cereal bow, combine the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Use a wire whisk to mix together until fully mixed.

In a small plastic container that can be lidded, combine the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Make sure your dry ingredients are all at room temp, otherwise it affects the way it mixes and you won't get a smooth consistency. If you don't have time to let it set out and get room temp, microwave it on low (as low as the microwave can go) for 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Pop the lid on the container and shake until well mixed. Add to the creamy mixture and blend with whisk until smooth. Pour into greased bowl and smooth with spoon until even.

Cook in the microwave on high for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched.

Let it cool five minutes, then serve. It doesn't even need icing. You can top it with whipped cream or drizzle some melted semi-sweet chocolate chips on top. Or treat it like a brownie and top it straight from the micro with vanilla ice cream! Very tasty, even for the non-gluten-free folk! You won't miss the gluten, and it's a high protein low carb (let's just ignore that pesky fat) snack using the garbanzo bean flour.