Peachy Vanilla Ice Cream

I never realized how much I missed cream and all the sweet things you can create with it until I learned about Rich's Non-Dairy Whipped Topping. Although I try to use only ingredients that are available at most grocery stores this stuff was worth the trip

to our local Cash&Carry. You might even be so lucky to find it at a store near you.

I have also started using flax milk, which is only available at Wal-Mart in our area, but I love that it is creamy and doesn't have a weird after taste.

With today being the first real hot day of the summer, we couldn't think of a better way to cool off than with some yummy ice cream. Last year we tried out a lot of sorbets and our favorite one was a Peach Sorbet. Now that we've found Rich's we wanted to try Peach Ice Cream. This recipe turned out to be the perfect blend of vanilla and peach!

Peach Part:

2 large peaches, peeled, pitted and diced

1/4 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. honey

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and cook until the peaches start to soften and the juices start to get sticky, about 10 minutes.

Put the peaches 4 cup measuring cup and refrigerate until cool.

Ice Cream Part:

1 c. Flax Milk, vanilla flavor

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. Rich's Non-Dairy Whip Topping

Once the peaches are cool, puree them with a stick blender in the measuring cup. Add the flax milk, sugar and vanilla and give it another whirl with the blender. Then stir in the whip topping with a wire whisk. Don't use the blender or you might end up with slushy whipped cream. Pour this mixture into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions, which in our case was turning on the machine. 30 minutes later the ice cream has the texture of soft serve. If you like ice cream a little harder then just put the "soft serve" in a container and freeze for at least two hours.

Blueberry Pie with Sunbutter Streusel Topping

A few years ago I came across this recipe for a blueberry pie from Epicurious. In my mind it was perfect! The only problem with it was that it used butter and almond paste, two big no-nos in our house. With all the sweet, juicy blueberries from the farm I just had to recreate this recipe. Thankfully I was able to use Epicurious recipe as a guideline and found this recipe for the topping and substituted the butter and Sunbutter for the peanut butter.

Here is my recipe, changes marked with an *:

Filling:

4 c. fresh blueberries*

1/3 - 1/2 c. sugar, depending on how sweet the blueberries are*

2 Tbsp. cornstarch*

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest*

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium high heat. When the blueberries start releasing some of their juices, the filling will thicken. Take it off the burner and let cool.

Crust:

1/4 c. cold lard*

1/4 c. cold dairy free margarine (I used Nucoa)*

1 1/4 c. flour*

1 tsp. sugar*

1/4 tsp. salt*

3 Tbsp. ice water*

In a food processor fitted with a blade cut up the lard and margarine. Add flour, salt and sugar and pulse until pea size pieces start to form. Through the opening on the top add ice water one tablespoon at a time. When the dough comes together and pulls off the sides of the bowl it is done. Shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap . Let cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In the meantime work on the topping.

Topping:

1/4 c. dairy free margarine (Nucoa)*

1/2 c. plus 1 Tbsp. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. Sunbutter*

In a food processor combine all ingredients until they start to crumble into pea size pieces. Refrigerate!

To assemble and bake:

Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out the dough in between two pieces of plastic wrap. That way it won't stick and you and turn it over, check if it's big enough and put into a 9 inch glass pie dish. Once the dough is in the pie dish pour the blueberry filling into it and top with streusel.

Bake the pie in the lower half of your oven for about 50 minutes. I like the glass dish for this because you can see if the bottom is browning nicely, too. If the top browns too much too quickly cover it loosely with aluminum foil!

Serve with your favorite ice cream or whipped topping.