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Roasted Butternut Squash Ice Cream

October 19, 2017 · Natalie 14 Comments

Cold creamy and…cozy? Yes it’s possible and it’s called Roasted Butternut Squash Ice Cream. Cinnamon-spiced, maple-sweetened, vegan, and no-churn!

Is it weird that I sorta feel like I am cheating on pumpkin right now?

I love pumpkin ice cream. Deeply. But I am crushing prettyyyyyy hard on this alternative orange squash stuff. Pumpkin doesn’t need to know.

To be fair, this butternut recipe comes to the game with a few unfair advantages…

Novelty. We’re more than halfway to Halloween, so pumpkin {insert any dish here} has already happened on the internet. Twelve times with subtle variations. Butternut is a welcomed breath of fresh crisp fall air. Fall air is fresh and crisp, right? Cooler climate friends, fill me in.

Ease. So you probably missed it, but there is a silent and invisible “N” in front of the ice cream part. This recipe is made like nice cream only with butternut instead of banana. After the butternut is frozen you are only approximately 5 minutes and some cinnamon away from butternut squash ice cream at any given moment. Probably less – how savvy are you with a blender?

30 minutes at 400F. That’s right, it’s roasted. No matter how lazy I am, not even I can honestly say that canned puree is as good as roasted. At home. With love. Although I did buy it pre-cut…let’s not get carried away now.

All those reasons combined with the fact that this butternut ice cream was more recently on my mind/spoon are why I am sorta kinda MEGA obsessed. But I’m playing it cool. And not to worry, butternut can’t compete in the jack-o-lantern arena. Being scooped out, poked with sharp objects, and internally lit on fire – that’s all you, pumpkin.

I see you watermelon carvers. I see you and I say save your antics for the appropriate season.

Obviously there is more than just squash in that blender. You will also need:

Coconut milk. Nothing too crazy, just the light kind is perfect. You could use almond/any other milk but it won’t be as ice CREAMy.
Cinnamon + vanilla + salt because it’s fall so those are a given.
Maple syrup if you want your ice cream sweeter than squash is naturally. I used about two tablespoons for the whole batch, it doesn’t take much.
Frozen butternut squash in large quantities. Because the holidays are all about sharing, so it would be rude to not make extra…for your tomorrow self.

Yes I know “the holidays” usually refers to November/December affairs, but I’m just getting in the zone, okay? And how do we know we won’t still be butternut ice cream blending by then. Odds are you and your fuzzy-socked, blanket-burritoed self probably will.

In the name of roasting once and ice creaming all week, I roasted 2 pans worth of cubed or crinkle cut squash. That may seem like a lot, but it will seem like a lot less after roasting. (Also frozen squash makes for very yum smoothies, so there’s never too much!) The shape doesn’t matter, although it seems there is a consensus: crinkle cut = better. If you are a lucky enough ducky to live near a Trader Joe’s you can find it there already cut or cubed for pretty cheap. If you are a brave enough ducky to cut your own, please lookout for those precious little fingertips of yours.

After roasting, cooling, transferring to a bag, and freezing overnight (more work to say than to actually do, promise!) now comes the blending part. Which is my favorite part because it effortlessly flows right on into the eating out of the blender part.

If you blend all the frozen squash at once, you will end up with about four servings. Unless you are throwing your annual Butternut Squash Ice Cream Party, I recommend blending just half at a time because it really doesn’t re-freeze very well after blending. Any less than half will be difficult to blend. You will need a high-speed blender with a tamper for this, or a food processor. Either way you will probably have to stop and scrape down the sides a few times as you go.

The end result is orange and autumnal beyond your wildest wishes. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s called BUTTERnut squash before, you won’t again after you experience this texture.

Turns out cold AND cozy is possible after all.

Roasted Butternut Squash Ice Cream

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

Yield: 4 people 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Cold creamy and…cozy? Yes it’s possible and it’s called Roasted Butternut Squash Ice Cream. Cinnamon-spiced, maple-sweetened, vegan, and no-churn!

Ingredients

Scale

Approximately 8 cups (1kg) cubed butternut squash
1/2–1 cup light coconut milk
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp maple syrup ((optional))

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Spread the butternut squash between 2 baking pans lined with parchment paper.
Roast for 25-30 minutes at 400F or until fork tender, flipping halfway through to avoid burning.
Allow to cool. Transfer to a plastic bag and freeze overnight.
The following day, break apart the squash chunks and add them to a high speed blender or food processor along with 1/2 cup coconut milk, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and maple syrup (if using).
Blend using a tamper or stopping to scrape down the sides frequently. Add more coconut milk slowly as need be to get a creamy thick soft serve consistency.
Scoop into bowls. Top with nuts and extra cinnamon. Enjoy!

Notes

I recommend blending right before serving, so if you just want one or two servings halve the amounts and save the rest of the frozen squash in the freezer for later. It will last quite a while frozen, and tastes great in smoothies too!

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Gooey Pumpkin Cake Bars

October 16, 2017 · Natalie 55 Comments

Blend, bake, and devour. These Gooey Pumpkin Cake Bars are that easy to make and taste like pie meets cake in a healthy vegan and paleo form!

I always thought the words gooey and cake together was a contradiction – if it’s cake it’s cakey, and if it’s gooey you messed up. Well unless the words two sticks of butter were also involved in which case any and all levels of simultaneous gooey-ness and cake-ness are reasonably attainable. But I have found butter-less gooey cake wonderland, and friends it’s a very delicious pumpkin place.

Have you noticed a trend of recipes being labeled “blender muffins” or “blender pancakes” or “blender candy corn”? The thing is I make almost everything in the blender whether it’s labeled blender or not. It would probably be more efficient for me to label recipes “un-blender” for those rare instances the blender won’t do all the work for me. Wait…actual stirring and spoons and arm strength is required? Kay, BYEEEE. I went to yoga, I don’t need to mix muffin batter too.

This ~~laziness~~ appreciation for the versatility of the blender has led to not only cameo appearances by my Vitamix in all videos lately, but also some Will It Bake? adventures with random un-measured ingredients blended into a batter(ish) form and baked. Like clean-out-the-fridge smoothies but warmer. Usually they are just blob/bars that never make it to the internet, only to my stomach. But when I found myself recreating one particular pumpkin-y one three times over the course of a couple of weeks, I started to feel a little wrong about not sharing.

So I shared. And then I video-ed. And now here we are, celebrating this mistake of a magical creation that can’t decide if it’s cake or bar or pudding or square pie.

Does it even matter though? Crackly golden outside and gooey pumpkin center and loads of spice and DONE. Oh and zucchini! Did I mention there was zucchini too? So with the dates and pumpkin these guys are killing it on the fruit front (even if two out of three feel like vegetables).

Like I said these bars were born of random blending, so effort required is minimal. But I tweaked and refined a little to get the measurements just right and the texture just irresistible.

They are grain-free made with coconut flour and tapioca starch. Sweetened with just a very small handful of dates. Mostly made up of pumpkin and zucchini. With a little added richness from almond butter. And spiced with a heaping spoonful of pumpkin pie spice.

I also tested an oat flour version for you even though I love the grain-free one so much more that I urge you with all my heart to invest in a bag of coconut flour and make the original. Please. For me. Do you accept bribes in the form of pumpkin bars by chance? Oat flour has this way of sucking all the almost-pie energy right out of them and turning gooey into chewy. Not cool.

The coconut flour version (a.k.a. the favorite child), on the other hand, looks like cake but once you bite in you will be hit with all the pumpkin pie vibes. And you can use much less flour which means the pumpkin flavor is stronger and sweeter with fewer dates too.

I guess what I’m trying to say is make the grain-free version. Unless you absolutely HAVE to make the oat version. But make the grain-free version.

P.S. There may or may not be something creamy coming later this week that on top of one of these bars tastes like fall exploded and landed on your plate. Just sayin…