So far my blog posts have been
about various issues close to my heart to do with managing my allergy. This is
the main thing I want to address with this blog as I hope to encourage more
allergic young people to experience an uncompromising student life. However
part of managing my allergy is making sure there is good food to eat and as
someone who has lived with a milk allergy all my life I feel like I’ve tested
out a good few dairy free products that I want too share with others :D
I have what I like to refer to as
a passion (for some reason my flatmates prefer to call it an addiction), to a very special frozen desert.
Ice-cream. I can’t even begin to explain exactly why this mouth-watering food
is just so completely delectable. Ice-cream is there for me in the tough times,
when I have three essays due in one week and the good times like when I
discover it just sat there in the freezer.
I like to think of myself as
something of a dairy free ice-cream connoisseur, I’ve tested out many and as
soon as I hear about another I’m out the door and down to the supermarket
quicker than you can say Knickerbocker Glory.
So you can imagine my sheer euphoria
when I heard about a certain Mr Ben and Mr Jerry deciding to make dairy free ice-cream!!
Within hours I had heaps of
friends tagging me in posts about the ice-cream on Facebook. Ben and Jerry’s
are undoubtedly the king of ice-cream, their wacky flavours are the stuff of
legend and I joined in with the rest of the dairy free internet in gawping at
the stuff. At the back of my mind though I still had a nagging suspicion. As a
company that create dairy ice-cream too would the milk still be present in the
non dairy ice-cream factory? I was concerned that this ice-cream dream might be
too good to be true…
And sadly I think I was right! I
found this article by a dedicated Dairy Free blog by someone who got to go on a
tour of the factory and speak to the people who make the icecream. Check the
full article out here http://www.godairyfree.org/news/ben-jerrys-non-dairy-ice-cream is the quote that made my heart sink:
‘With highly sensitive milk allergies
(and other food allergies) I would use caution with Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy
Frozen Dessert. Hannah inquired on site and they do use the same equipment
for both their non-dairy and dairy-based ice cream flavors. The lines do
receive a very thorough and complete washout between batches, which may be
enough for those who are vegan, lactose intolerant, or who have a milk allergy
that isn’t overly sensitive to trace amounts of dairy.’
Cross
contamination is a massive issue for anyone with a severe allergy, we all dread
reading those seven words ‘Produced in a factory that handles milk’. But at the
same time seeing this written on a packet does always make me feel reassured
that the company understands the risk and takes it seriously. I would rather be
protected by this than eat the product and have a reaction! I have tried to
contact Ben and Jerry’s just to ask them if they are aware of this problem
(surely they’ll lose a big percentage of people buying it who have a milk
allergy?) and to ask them if they are going to put this information on the tub.
I also inquired what precautions they are going to have in place in their scoop
stores to prevent further cross contamination eg. Using a different icecream
scooper for the non dairy icecream, not having the dairy and non dairy tubs
next to each other so bits can drop in etc.. I still haven’t received a
response and this was a number of weeks ago so I might just wait and see what
the tubs say when they first appear in UK stores.
Looking around Ben and Jerry’s
website I am massively impressed by them as a company. They strive to be an
ethical company, only using Fair-trade ingredients and in their dairy ice-creams
using produce from animals that have been well cared for. They listened to the
cry for dairy free ice-cream and responded with 4 exciting flavours. But
although their intention is good I’m concerned that they need to take more care
when marketing this ice-cream. Perhaps this is why they’ve gone for the label
of non-dairy rather than diary free, however it is stll massively important
that they mark up the potential traces of milk clearly on the ice-cream tubs.
It seems to me that they only had vegan and lactose intolerant people in mind
when they created their non dairy flavours.
So what shall we do now we may not have
a dairy free Ben and Jerry’s face stuffing session to look forward to?
I thought the
best thing to do would be to have a celebration of all the amazing dairy free
icecream that IS safe for people who are allergic to milk!!
First of all I have to start with
Swedish Glace. This lovely tub was there for me when I was a little kid back
when dairy food was hard to find and expensive to buy. A bowlful contains
memories of sitting in my nana’s kitchen, eating it out of my frog bowl with a
slab of ginger cake. It is smooth, creamy and absolutely delicious. The flavour
has altered slightly over the years but it is good quality and tastes so good.
I have managed to politely convice (shove it down the throat) of a number of my
friends who have all liked it, one friend even told me she liked it better than
dairy ice cream! It's usually about £2.45 a tub which for dairy free ice-cream is good.
There doesn’t seem to be as big a variety of flavours these
days but Swedish Glace will always hold a special place in my heart for leading
the way in dairy free ice-cream.
Next up is Almond Dream, I was
unsure of it at first as I’m not massively keen on Almond milk but I was drawn
in by the variety of unusual flavours which I’d never had the chance to try
before. Let me confirm this ice-cream definitely does not disappoint! The
flavour is rich and amazing; the two I have tried so far are Mint Choc Chip
which was very refreshing and Salted Caramel which is my fave! The ice-cream
itself tastes gorgeous and then every now and then you hit a pocket of Caramel
filled heaven. The only thing about this is it comes in quite small tubs and
can be expensive, however it depends where you buy it from (At Waitrose it’s a
hefty £4.50! But at Asda it’s only £2.50 and when you compare it to a fancy tub
of Ben and Jerry’s it’s well worth it) From a bit of googling I've discovered this has been around for a while in America, and that they've even made some chocolate coated ice-cream bites and choc ice things before!! I may have to investigate this further...
Next on my list of tried and
tasted is Booja Booja. This is something I have only ever received as a present
because it’s just so expensive!! I have only tried Vanilla and Chocolate
flavour which were both good, I have a fellow icecream loving friend who
reviewed their ginger flavour for her blog here http://ecstaticallyem.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/booja-booja-dairy-free-ice-cream-review.html so that’s on my next
birthday wishlist! Personally I would never buy Booja Booja for myself because
I really don’t think its worth £6.99 for one tub! It is nice but I think the others
are just as good, possibly even better for a much cheaper price. I guess it’s a
lot healthier but if I’m honest being healthy is the last thing on my mind when
I crave a bowlful of ice-cream! Booja Booja is lovely and unique in taste and
texture but it’s just a bit too pricey for my liking.
For years I’ve dreamed of eating
Cornetoo type icecream and now that dream is fulfilled! Tesco seem to have
cottoned on to the fact that people eat dairy free deserts (see my previous
blog post about their dairy free chocolate mousse) and they have come up with
these beauties. This is good quality ice-cream, the strawberry and vanilla both
taste great and the cone is filled with solid chocolate and strawberry sauce. I
think I’m in love <3. I think the price on this one is great too, these are
a really good treat and totally worth the price, £2.00 for four.
Finally is a new discovery. Ice-cream
has always sounded like something too complicated to bother making, but then I
started hearing rumours of a one ingredient ice-cream that require no hastle.
The one ingredient? Frozen banana! Yep I had my suspicions too but after a day
of lectures spent fantasising about all the different flavours I could add to
it (Rocky road ice-cream? Bakewell tart?) I gave in and bought 2lbs of bananas
from the fruit stall on Northumberland street. I chopped the banana into little
bits, stuck it in a freezer bag in the freezer and the next day tipped it into
my food processor. I almost held my breath as I blended it for about 60 seconds
and it was only in the last 5 I realised it was actually working!! Seriously
this ice-cream is phenomenal!! How did we cope as a human race before we found
out you could just blend banana to make ice-cream??? HOW???! You do need a food
processor but it’s a useful piece of kitchen equipment for making soups and
smoothies too. I managed to get a mini food processor for just £13.50 in ALDI
which is a bargain considering how much ice-cream I’ve made already with it!
The first time I tried making it I used my hand blender which just couldn’t
cope and almost overheated so I had to let it rest for a bit and gather its
strength. Food processors are the way forward! I’ve tried a couple of flavours
which I’ve posted below, and if I try any other good uns I’ll post them too. This
ice-cream won’t replace the shop bought ones bus as a student this homemade
ice-cream means I can afford to eat it almost every night.
So that’s it for my ice-cream ravings,
I encourage you to treat yourself and work your way through this icecream bucket
list. (You know you want to).
Are there any icecream loving
dairy free people out there who agree/disagree with my ice-cream choices?
Comment below if you’ve found any good products/recipes. There are a number of
other ice-creams I’ve found that have claimed to be dairy free but when I’ve
taken a closer look they’re produced in a factory with milk, so it’s always
worth checking the tub even if it claims to be dairy free.
I’ll try and find out more info
about the non dairy Ben and Jerry’s fiasco and will post it here when I do!
Speak soon,
The Allergy Student xxx
Ice-cream from frozen
bananas
Ingredients
Bananas!
I tend to by a small bunch of bananas and just put a couple
of handfuls of them when theyre chopped up into bags and use each bag as one
portion when I’m peckish.
1.) Peel each banna and slice it length ways then cut it
into slices.
2.) Put a couple of handfuls into each freezer bag and place
in freezer, freeze overnight.
3.) Bash the bag about a bit on the work top and try and
separate the slices a bit whilst they are in the bag (this makes them easier to
blend if they are separate)
4.) Blend for 50-60 seconds. At first it will form what
looks like breadcrumbs, keep going and all of a sudden it will form a creamy
block. Once you see it doing that stop the blender and have a proper look. When
its at the consistency you want eat it!!
I’ve found that the more days the banas are left in the
freezer the stronger the bana flavour gets. That’s fine if you’re making bana
icecream but if youre just using it as a base layer your better off sing it
sooner rather than later.
Chocolate
When adding the frozen banana to the food processor drop in
about a tablespoon of coco powder. The more coco powder you add the stronger
the flavour will be J
I once put some of this icecream into a little tub in the freezer and then when
I took it out ate it with a blob of peanut buter on top *salivates onto keyboard*
Coffee
Put a teaspoon of coffee into a mug and cover it with enough
boiling water so that it dissolves, you literally don’t need much at all
because it’s the strong coffee flavour you want. Levae it to one side and when
it has completely cooled add a few a teaspoons of it (I put in about 4) to the
frozen banas then blend. Tis beautiful.
These are just my two favourite ones I’ve tried so far but
I’m sure you could put just about anything sweet in and it would taste good!
PS This is the longest post I’ve posted so far and it’s just
all about food! ;) #icecreamisbae
