Chocolate Sorbet- no dairy, no ice cream maker

Chocolate Sorbet- no dairy, no ice cream maker, no problem.

The best vegan or dairy free desserts are the ones I make in spite of that. Fresh fruit is obvious but chocolate? Ice cream? But somehow I fell down an internet rabbit hole and landed in the land of aquafaba, which is fancy talk for bean water. Yes, the liquid that you normally discard when you open a can of garbanzo (or almost any, really) beans. Turns out not only is it an awesome substitute for eggs in baking but if you add sugar it also makes an amazing vegan merengue. Even as an egg eater this intrigued me and, as it happened, I was cooking a pot of black beans for last night’s dinner. Long story short my black bean aquafaba did not whip up but in this land of happy accidents my failed merengue became a scoopable and deliciously chocolaty sorbet without having to break out the ice cream maker.

I’ve been looking for an ice cream/sorbet recipe to share that doesn’t require an ice cream maker and this magic bean juice just might be the ticket. And when the next round of hot weather hits I’ll be there for you in my kitchen freezing things.

Because I’ve been eating chocolate sorbet all afternoon it’s turned into a dessert first and damn dinner sort of day. I have no inkling what else to make for dinner but I fear there would be some sort of penalty for feeding the family red wine and chocolate sorbet for our evening repast. Not a legal one, we are all adults, but that is just the sort of thing that Dad would share with our elderly neighbors or his cardiologist and my caregiver reputation is out the window. So instead I’ll just have to squirrel the rest of the sorbet away for myself and make something with vegetables in it for family dinner.

Some thoughts:

You can’t taste the black beans at all through the chocolate/coffee/vanilla but it adds a decadent dark and rich color to the sorbet without using bar chocolate.

The Vegan Merengue-Hits and Misses group on Facebook is an excellent resource to see what can (and sometimes cannot) be done with magic bean water.

Chocolate Sorbet- no dairy, no ice cream maker

ingredients

• 1 cup black bean juice- either reserved from a can of black beans or from cooking your own
• 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
• 8-10 whole coffee beans
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

directions

1. Heat the black bean liquid over a medium low heat and add the coffee beans, allow to simmer for about three minutes until just a hint of coffee flavor comes through. Strain out the coffee beans and remove from heat
2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until slightly thickened but not necessarily fluffed- at least three to five minutes. I did not apply best practices to achieve a merengue like texture but you could and report back.
3. Pour into a lidded freezable container and put in the freezer, stirring thoroughly every couple of hours until set.

Chocolate Sorbet- no dairy, no ice cream maker

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Ingredients

  

• 1 cup black bean juice- either reserved from a can of black beans or from cooking your own
• 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
• 8-10 whole coffee beans
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Heat the black bean liquid over a medium low heat and add the coffee beans, allow to simmer for about three minutes until just a hint of coffee flavor comes through. Strain out the coffee beans and remove from heat
• Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until slightly thickened but not necessarily fluffed- at least three to five minutes. I did not apply best practices to achieve a merengue like texture but you could and report back.
• Pour into a lidded freezable container and put in the freezer, stirring thoroughly every couple of hours until set.

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