I've been taking a stab at this dairy-free lifestyle for a while now. Everyone has a different reason for making this decision, and for me it was due to allergies. I've had a progressive lactose-intolerance that has been getting worse over time (which logically makes sense: mammals are not meant to imbibe milk after a certain age so most humans do develop some level of intolerance and it does get worse over time as we get farther in years from our milk drinking age). As that has started to affect me more and more, I started moving away from dairy and noticed other health issues arising when I did partake, which lead to an allergy diagnosis. Now, minus milk, I love dairy. Butter is the best, cheese is my favorite snack, and oh man do I love ice cream. So this decision has been forced on me more so than a personal decision; I was alright cutting back but removing dairy entirely was like a slap in the face. Since this happened later in life, I'm well aware of how things should taste and feel, so I am pickier than others for sure. Sometimes I'll make the concession with cheese or butter, limiting my quantities, taking a combo of allergy medicine and lactaid, and paying the price for my decisions. But ice cream...who eats 1 Tbsp of ice cream? So I've been searching for some good replacements.
Cado ice cream had become my hands down favorite. Made with avocado, the texture is perfectly creamy. I am actually inspired to attempt my own at home. The flavors are good too, but very limited. Seriously. There are 3 flavors. The chocolate is divine, and so rich that you really don't need or want a whole lot, which is great because these pints are a tad pricier than others. The mint chip was alright, it would probably be great if I enjoyed peppermint, but I don't. The other flavor, which I have yet to try, is lemon. I also expect great things, but I crave other flavors so have been searching.
So Delicious offers a few varieties. I have only tried their coconut milk and cashew milk varieties. I have no problem with the tastes of either. My issues are more of a texture thing (I'm a very textural eater). The coconut milk ice cream is hard like a sorbet, which is not an initial issue, I just find it to be gumy as it softens up. Generally speaking, this is a problem I have with coconut milk across the board: soups, smoothies, ice cream...there are very few applications where I do not find the texture becoming gummy. I'm sure over time you get used to it, but I'm stubborn so moved on to cashew. This actually isn't bad in terms of texture, just much more similar to a frozen custard so it's a thicker, richer ice cream. Pretty good overall, but I still found avocado to have a texture closer to what I craved.
I've also given Ben & Jerry's almond milk ice cream a try. It's honestly somewhere in between the coconut and cashew milk versions. Admittedly, I started out with chocolate fudge brownie so there was a fair amount going on in that pint. However, texturally I found this to be very pleasing and a happy medium between coconut and cashew. Still not as great as avocado, but definitely a closer and more easily available option. The only real hang up here is that the almond flavor is very strong. Even with all that chocolate going on, the almond came through strong. It wasn't bad, but I can see it being something I won't want all the time.
While shopping around a couple weeks ago I came across Nana Creme. I'm not the biggest banana fan honestly, but I like it in things. I always include banana in my smoothies, am a fan of banana bread, and even like it in a fruit salad. I'm just not a fan of bananas on their own. So, I figured a banana based ice cream would probably be fine, especially as I went with Brownie (which was on clearance at my local Jewel, so bonus!). This was just not for me. The banana flavor was overpowering and I barely noticed the chocolate. My roommate tried it too and he thought the banana flavor was too artificial, like the banana runts. So this brand is a hard pass for me.
My most recent excursion was originally to search for Talenti sorbetto, which someone had posted on the Deliciously Dairy Free Facebook group. Talenti makes a delicious gelato, so I really wanted to try their sorbetto. Unfortunately my local Jewel did not carry the sorbetto, but I did find Sorbabes which is a vegan sorbetto. I grabbed the coffee almond flavor and it was delicious and creamy, very similar to the Hagan Daz coffee ice cream. This might actually replace Cado as my favorite...time will tell!
Now to try out some whipped creams. My boyfriend got me a dispenser for Christmas, and so far I have only tried making a coconut whipped cream. This tasted alright, but I found I had to remove my dispenser about 15-30 minutes prior to when I wanted whipped cream as it got too thick in the refrigerator. This week will be full of some experiments....check back in to see which recipe is the winner!
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