Frozen Delights

If you can't afford delicatessens for the festive season, or if you're simply fond of healthy homemade cooking, I've come up with three quick and easy no-bake (vegan, gluten-free) frozen desserts that only require  a couple of hours freezing before serving. Feel free to add your own personal decorative touch and variations on certain ingredients, as suggested for each recipe.

Frozen Chestnut Cheesecake

Ingredients

Serves 8:

Crust
- 88 g almonds
- 36 g raisins
- 74 g dates

Filling
- 258g cashews
- 4 tablespoons chestnut purée, sweetened
- 147 g dates
- 118 ml hazelnut (or almond) milk
- 177ml water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Instructions

Process crust ingredients to a lumpy texture and press onto the bottom of a 18-centimetre diameter spring-form pan. Chill in the freezer while you're making the filling.

Process filling ingredients to a creamy paste, adding water progressively. Pour filling over the crust, smooth and tap sides to remove any air bubbles. Freeze for about 2 hours. 

Unclip pan at least 30 minutes before serving.

NOTE: This recipe is a frozen variation of my chocolate cheesecake.

Chestnut Ice Cream

Ingredients

Serves 4:

- 345 g chickpeas, cooked
- 4-5 tablespoons chestnut purée, sweetened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Instructions

Blend chickpeas and juice long enough until smooth. Add chestnut purée and vanilla and blend again.

Transfer to individual cups and chill for a couple before serving.

NOTE: It's best to add chestnut purée progressively and check whether it still tastes like chickpeas and also to ensure it's not too sweet for you. You may also replace chestnut purée with peanut butter or hazelnut purée or even cocoa powder. If you do, add some sugar, honey, agave syrup or xylitol. However, you must not substitute anything for chickpeas since the albumin they contain allows, once whipped into shape, to trap air and form an airy mousse up to eight times its original volume.

Frozen Peanut Crunchies

Ingredients

Makes 6:

Crust
- 150 g dates
- 100 g almond flour
- 120 ml coconut milk

Filling
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 120 ml coconut milk
- 60 ml almond milk
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 teaspoons xylitol (birch sugar)

Topping
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Instructions

Soak pitted dates in hot water for 15 minutes before draining and processing with the almond flour and coconut milk. Press crust into the bottom of the muffin tins and freeze for 20 minutes while you prepare filling.

Heat remaining coconut milk with the almond milk, peanut butter, xylitol and a pinch of salt, mixing well to a thick creamy mixture. Transfer as second layer over crust layer in the muffin tins and freeze for 2 hours.

Melt chocolate with oil on very low heat and add this final layer over the muffin tins. Freeze for 2 hours or more. 

Remove from tins at least 30 minutes before serving.

NOTE: You may replace peanut butter with almond butter or chestnut cream.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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