I was searching for the recipe for “Eating Bird Food’s” delicious vegan key lime pie, based on avocado, that I have made, to great acclaim from clean eaters and not.
Along the way I spied this recipe, using the same base and creating chocolate mint chip ice cream that is vegan. It brought me back to my family in Cincinnati and the way that we used to try to recreate Graeter’s chocolate mint chip ice cream at home. My aunts found that the most successful DIY was to buy mint Eskimo pies and break them up and freeze them up a bit more.
The reason that works so well is that the Graeter’s version of any of their chocolate chip ice creams uses very thin, very high quality chocolate as the chips. They are a candy store and bake shop as well as having their cult-worthy ice creams, so they know how to do chocolate candy. Unlike semi-sweet chips which are actually coated to melt more slowly, the Graeter’s chocolate actually melts in your mouth even though it is mixed with ice cream.
So now that Brittany had supplied a reliable green vegan base for the ice cream, my job was to come up with something like the Graeter’s chocolate. And to do it without the soy that is ubiquitous in most chocolate.
I think I did a pretty good job figuring it out. I will tell you the whole secret later because I am at the pool now. Here are some pictures to whet your appetite.