Has anyone made ice-cream or yoghurt?

[kelly]

Okay so this might sound like a silly qyestion, but...
...has anyone managed to make dairy-free ice-cream or yoghurt?

My 2-yr old son can't have lactose, milk-protein, or soya milk. However he is beginning to see other kids having ice-cream as Summer weather has arrived, and so I would like to make him ice-creams or yoghurts for him, but I don't know how and can't find anyone who has made this before.

I have special formula "milk" I can make up with water that he can drink (of course he doesn't like it, but i mix it into cereal for breakfast) so I could try making ice-cream or yoghurt with that? But I don't know how. Recipes I find talk about ice-cream makers and yoghut makers - anyone know what these are or if they really work?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,
Kelly.

[Pam]

Yoghurt is really easy to make and you don't need a machine to do it, just a flask. Your main problem will be getting a dairy free/soya free live starter. I use either Provamel plain Yofu or Sojasun cultured dessert but both are soya based. Basically you heat a pint of milk (any type) to tepid, mix in a couple of tablespoons of live yoghurt and pour into the flask. Leave overnight then tip into a lidded container and store in the fridge.

Ice cream can be made with or without an ice cream maker - it's just quicker and easier with one. You could make a traditional custard with egg yolk and alternative milk, flavour and freeze (you need to mix regularly during freezing if you don't have a machine). Alternatively, try making fruit sorbet which is usually fruit puree, sugar and water (sometimes with egg white). You should be able to find recipes on the web. A cheap ice cream maker (£20-£30) is basically a bowl filled with gel that you freeze overnight, then the lid has a paddle in it to stir the ice cream as it freezes, making a smooth consistency with no ice lumps. I have one and rarely use it.

As you are having to avoid both milk and soya you will probably have difficulty finding suitable desserts, but if you ask in a health food shop they might order some of the rice based desserts for you, though these are quite expensive. Have a look in the supermarkets for fruit sorbets, there are quite a few available these days. Oat milk mixed with Birds custard powder and sugar makes a nice custard, add cocoa for a change. You could probably freeze this to make ice cream.

[matt]

there's always the dairy free swedish icecream, health food shops and sainsury's and i think tescos. comes in several flavours. it tasted ok to me. i've also seen dairy free carob choc-ices in the local health food shop. so if you can afford them there's one way.

if not soya dream or the dairy free custard that is available should freeze down to something like icecream. buy a carton of either add a flavour and chuck in your normal freezer, every half hour or so give it a stir. i can't think why that wouldn't work though not actually tried it.

worth a go? let us know results.

have fun, whatever happens it'll still be edible.

[Pam]

Hi Matt

I've done ice cream with soya dream. It works ok but you still get that UHT sticky feeling left in your mouth when you've eaten it. I've also frozen Provamel custard style desserts which worked ok. To be honest I just buy Swedish Glace these days, even my hubby says it tastes better than real ice cream.

Kelly's problem is that her son can't have soya either so most of the commercial dairy free products are off limits. I don't know if there are any dairy free/soya free ice creams available. There was a taste test in a recent issue of Foods Matter (used to be called Inside Story) so I'll have to look it out and see if they found any soya free ones.

[kelly]

Thanks for both replies to my message.

You've made me feel braver - I'm going to try simply mixing up some of the special formula milk (Nutramigen) with Nesquik flavour and custard powder and simply freezing it. I will stir it around every half hour and see what happens...

Still if anyone else comes along this topic and has had experience in this, please let me know.

I'll keep you informed :-)
Thanks again,
Kelly.

[kelly]

or better still perhaps, dairy-free chocolate in the milk instead of flavour - perhaps that might make for a more convincing "ice-cream". Will try both I think

Kelly

[matt]

good luck, sorry missed the soya bit, i'm online first thing in morning. usually the lights are on but that doesn't mean i'm at home!!

[Pam]

Dairy free/soya free ice cream!!!

Made by Supreme (First Foods) and called First Glace who make Oat Supreme (aka First Milk). I've looked in Foods Matter who have carried out extensive taste testing of ice cream suitable for various allergies and this is the only one that is soya free as well as dairy free. They are marked up as being parve and kosher so you may well find them in a jewish shop. There are several flavours available.

Have a look at their web site :
http://www.first-foods.com/English.htm
and maybe e-mail them to see if they can tell you about any local stockists.

They also produce Supreme Choc Ices but are quite large at 120g and 83p each, so not really child sized.

Good luck in your search.

[matt]

since when were choc ices for kids? only for adults who act like kids!! i must have a look to find a local shop selling these. just for research of course not because i'm going to eat them all! :rolleyes:

[matt]

then i look at the website and discover they're made from oat flakes which means gluten, which means not for me. :angry:

oh well, life goes on.

[Pam]

Ok then Matt, try these:

Sunrise Carob Ices, 65g each, 38p

Tofutti Dipped Delights 52g each, 41p

The prices given are per bar but I don't know if they are sold by the box or individually. I've seen the carob choc ices for sale but have yet to spot any Tofutti ice cream of any sort. Neither contain wheat but the Tofutti one contains aspartame which is a big no no for some people.

The survey in Foods Matter has classed the Supreme choc ices as free from gluten, wheat, corn, soya, milk and egg. I wonder if it is an error as oats are first in the ingredients list? The two above do not appear to have wheat or oats in them but do contain soya.

[kelly]

Thanks to Pam for the URL to Supreme (First Foods) for the dairy free / soya free ice cream, I've e-mailed them to find out about local stockists but due to living outside the UK (in Gibraltar, which is on the Southern tip of Spain), I'm sure they won't have any stockists near me.

I'll keep you informed anyway.
And I'll keep trying to make ice-cream :-)
Thanks
K.

[Pam]

Sorry Kelly, I didn't realise you were out of the UK. Go to the Home page on that site and they have options for different countries, maybe a spanish one will be able to help you (if you speak spanish?)

[kelly]

Checked out the homepage, and the Spanish page is not there...
Oh well, it seemed like a great idea.

I think I'll have to try some Spanish searches for dairy-free stuff. My Spanish is okay for general day-to-day use (as we are brought up bilingual in Gibraltar - English and Spanish) so I'll see what I can find on the Spanish search engines.

Kelly.

[matt]

thanks for the tips pam i'll keep a look out. the gluten free bit is the awkward thing. the gluten in oats is different from wheat. some people can take it some can't. i can't be bothered to try as i don't much like the results if i can't.

re the obtaining in gibralter, do you know anyone in the armed forces? it might be worth writting to the base either to the commander or the medical section. explain your problem they must bring in frozen stuff from uk. maybe they might find a little space in the plane/boat freezer to do the honours. they probably won't but it costs nothing to ask.
likewise do you have any big supermarkets? tescos etc. again it might be worth asking the manager you only risk being told no.

good luck

[ann]

what about tofutti? not sure if this has soya in- def dairy free. They make 'Rock n Roll' which is like a vienetta ( i think thats the dairy vrsion anyway)

[scranL74]

what about tofutti? not sure if this has soya in- def dairy free. They make 'Rock n Roll' which is like a vienetta ( i think thats the dairy version anyway)

Where can you get this 'Rock n Roll' from? :drool:

[Pam]

If you can't get a local independant health food shop to order it for you, try Goodness Foods Direct web site, they now do frozen food by mail order in special boxes. You have to pay a bit extra but if you have a large order it should be worth it. They do loads of ice cream so you could buy in bulk for the next few months.