Rum raisin ice-cream sandwiches

“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd be truly dead.”

Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer 

I think the reason I never liked ice cream (I know, how can that be?) is that I've never liked dairy. I'm perfectly fine with sorbet and vegan ice cream. Especially this one. The raisins are plump and the cashew base makes it so creamy.

I'd advise you to start with 5 g of maca powder if you've never used it. I found it takes quite a bit to adjust to the flavour that can be overpowering at the beginning. You can use almond flour instead of coarse almond meal, the cookies will look less "rustic".

Rum raisin ice-cream sandwiches
(vegan, gluten-free, grain-free)


Hemp and maca cookies
(vegan, gluten-free, grain-free)
(yield: 8 cookies)

100 g coarse almond meal
30 g hemp flour
5-10 g maca powder
5 g baking soda
pinch of salt

30 g maple syrup
30 g coconut oil

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Stir in the wet ingredients and mix until it forms a dough. Roll out dough onto a surface lined with parchment paper and sprinkled with almond flour. Cut dough with a 7-8cm round cutter.  Bake for 13-15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Transfer onto wire rack and let cool completely before freezing them. 

Rum raisin cashew ice cream
(vegan, gluten-free)

280 g cashews, pre-soaked 1 hour at least
85 g raisins
4 cl rum
20 cl water
70 g maple syrup
juice from 1/2 lemon
a few drops of vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
more water, if needed

Soak raisins in rum for 15 minutes. In the meantime, in a blender, blend the pre-soaked cashews with 20 cl water, maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. You might need to add a little extra water depending on desired thickness. Add in the raisin and rum mixture and mix well. 

Now two options:

- line 4 ramekins the size of your cookies with parchment paper. Fill the ramekins (up to 3 cm) with cashew ice cream. Freeze for at least 3 hours. Remove the ice cream from the ramekins and place between 2 frozen cookies.

or

- pour cashew ice cream into a freezer container Freeze overnight. Let thaw for 15-20 minutes. Using an ice cream scoop, sandwich a big scoop of ice cream between two frozen cookies.