They call Seattle the Emerald City, but we’re voting for a name change: The Ice Cream City.

That beautiful, drizzly metropolis on the Sound is FULL of fun, quirky, inventive artisan ice cream makers – and they’re all getting together in May to celebrate their delicious, delicious craft.

Seriously, you guys, it’s like someone invented this just for us. And you’d better believe we’ll be there.

This fab post from the Capitol Hill Seattle blog tells the story of the Festival’s origins (not, actually, for two odd podcasters on the Palouse). Kurt Timmermeister, owner of Kurt’s Farm Shop, pretty much just thought it would be fun to get all Seattle’s ice cream makers and ice cream lovers together – BRILLIANT.

We’re psyched to revist some Seattle favorites, and REALLY psyched to explore the city’s wider ice cream offering (especially Timmermeister’s – check out the flavor list in the blog photo. Jersey Cream! Quince!)

But first, you can hear us geek out about it in this month’s episode:



SO: Be prepared. The next episode (probably several episodes) will feature ALL the fun of the Seattle Ice Cream Festival. If you’re an ice cream maker who would love to give a few minutes for an exclusive interview, drop us a line. And you’d better believe we’ll be documenting it live on Twitter and Instagram.

—-

And now, this week’s Adventures in Ice Cream Recipes, Vegan Coconut Edition.

Cara’s recipe of choice originated with Girl Cooks World – and, in a strange turn of events, we recommend sticking with the original rather than following Cara’s tweaks.

One change, though: ADD BOOZE.

We’ve decided to add this to our Cardinal Rules of Home Ice Cream Making. We’ve had too many batches come out hard as concrete, and we’re done wasting precious ingredients. It only takes a teaspoon or two to lower the ice cream’s freezing point and ensure a softer scoop, and we KNOW you at least have a really old bottle of vodka somewhere in the depths of your cupboards. (We do.)

Following the Add Booze Rule paid off for me this week, and I ACTUALLY MADE DECENT ICE CREAM. And it was vegan to boot.

I was inspired by Serious Eats’ Foolproof Vegan Vanilla Coconut recipe, but made enough changes (due to stubbornness, mostly) that I think it merits its own recipe. Serious Eats DEFINITELY gets credit, though, for the simmering suggestion to break up the coconut milk fat globules – though my attempts at blending were … uh .. unsuccessful.

Tara’s Winging It Vegan Ice Cream Recipe



This is for a mini batch that serves 4.

1 can coconut cream (the stuff you get in an Asian market, not the syrupy stuff you get for making pina coladas)

1/2 cup or so of water

1/8 cup honey

An overflowing 1/4 cup white sugar

1 ½ tsp whatever booze you have in your cupboard

A little bit of vanilla

1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of salt

1. Put everything but the vanilla and salt in a saucepan and whisk it pretty often until it simmers, then remove from heat.

2. If you have an actual good blender or an immersion blender, give it a little blend. If not, whisk it a little extra and try not to burn yourself.

3. Chill in fridge for however long you have (a couple hours or overnight is good), then prepare in ice cream maker and freeze until scoopable.

Excellent with chocolate chips and toasted coconut on top

—

And before we go, some excellent ice cream news for North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene will soon be home to TWO ice cream shops.

Abi’s Ice Cream is local and opened in March, and their Brown Sugar Bourbon sounds magical.

Sweet Peaks is a small chain out of Montana that just opened THIS WEEK!

We’ll be spending a Saturday in Coeur d’Alene soon. As Cara says, “They’re coming to us now!”