Memories of childhood Saturdays and a recipe for dairy-free ice cream

What were your Saturdays like when you were a child? Mine would always begin with my sisters and I huddled under duvets on the sofa, chomping on bowls of Rice Crispies with milk and giggling at Saturday morning cartoons.

They would end with mass. It never mattered how much we resisted that weekly trip to church, we’d be washed, scrubbed and dressed in our Sunday (or in this case, Saturday) best before being dragged reluctantly along to the service.

Our parents did try to sweeten the deal though. In an attempt to ensure that we didn’t fidget or fight during what often seemed like a never-ending service, our parents would promise us the ice cream of our choice from the shop across the road from the church once mass was over.

Peering into a freezer full of ice cream, trying to decide between a Feast, Cornetto, Freaky Foot or Tangle Twister became the Saturday night ritual of my childhood and I still associate ice cream with a treat.

It’s a treat that I’ve been unable to indulge in since I started to follow the OMS diet. And boy have I missed it!

Despite the fact that there has been a huge growth in free-from foods, I haven’t been able to find many ice creams I can eat.  A lot of dairy-free ices are made with coconut milk and because of its high saturated fat content, that’s not an ingredient for me.

Lately though, I have been hearing good things about ice creams made with frozen bananas. So last week I decided to experiment.

I must admit that my hopes weren’t high. Bananas may be sweet but I couldn’t see how they could also be creamy…

However, there’s magic in these ingredients. Combined, they create a flavour, a texture and a melt-in-the-mouth deliciousness that's just like ice cream. 

And you don’t just have to take my word for it. My partner Richard (who hasn’t had to abstain from regular ice cream like I have) likes this ice cream too. In fact, he said it might just be the best thing I’ve ever made.

So there you have it: it’s possible to combine five simple dairy-free ingredients to create a truly decadent treat – one that I think even my childhood self would have liked!

Sharon's mint-choc dairy-free ice cream

This makes two moderately-sized ice cream portions. If it's the sort of evening where you want to sit on the sofa, watch TV and gorge on ice cream, you're going to need a lot more!

3 frozen bananas

3 tablespoons cocoa powder 

2 tablespoons almond milk

1 tablespoon date syrup or sweetener of your choice 

4 mint leaves

• Peel and chop the frozen bananas. I find this easier to do if I chop the bananas into two-centimetre/one inch thick slices first. Your fingers will get cold though so it might be a good idea to wear a pair of rubber gloves to avoid the chill factor!*
• Add the chopped banana slices and the other ingredients to a food processor or liquidiser. 
• Blitz until smooth and enjoy. 

I'm planning to experiment with more flavour combinations in the next few weeks. I'm thinking chocolate and raspberry and rum and raisin. Do you have any other suggestions? What's your favourite ice cream flavour? Or what was your favourite ice cream when you were a child?

* In response to this post, smarter people than me have said that they peel, slice and bag their bananas before they go in the freezer. I'll be doing this from now on to avoid frozen fingers!

A good movie, a bad memory and a great cake

I went to the cinema to see The Theory of Everything last weekend. It’s the story of a young woman who falls in love with a young Stephen Hawking and the struggles she faces as they build a relationship, a family and a life together as his body deteriorates and eventually gives way to severe disability.

The two central performances are wonderful and this film is enormously affecting on a personal level. So, I’d recommend that you see it. But I’m not really here to give a film review. I’m here to write about a scene in the film that brought back memories of one of the worst times in my life with MS.

Most of you will know that Stephen Hawking has motor neuron disease, a disease of the central nervous system that leads to progressive disability and ultimately to death. Early in the movie, when he is being tested prior to his diagnosis, he is asked to do a simple task – to touch the thumb of his right hand to each of the fingers on that same hand.

Eddie Redmayne (who plays Hawking) is so convincing at portraying the confusion he feels when he realises he can’t do this.  Later, there’s a look of sheer anguish on his face as he tries to do it again at home. He suddenly understands he can no longer bid his body to do as he wishes. He’s losing control of his physical self.

My stomach churned as I watched this scene and I can feel it churning still. It could have been a scene from my life because my neurologist asked me to complete that same task before I was diagnosed with MS (I suppose it’s a standard diagnostic tool) and I remember the sense of shock I felt when I wasn’t able to do it. Although my brain was thinking the thoughts that had always previously resulted in moving my fingers, I couldn’t make them meet my thumb. My disbelieving eyes saw them miss every time. Despite trying over and over and over again, I couldn’t get them to do what I wanted.

This persisted for the six weeks that the attack lasted. At random moments of every day, I would try to complete the task again only to have my heart sink when I saw that I still wasn’t able to do it.

However, I did eventually recover and was once again able to make my fingers and thumbs do exactly what I asked of them. But I have never forgotten how frightened I felt when I lost control of my body. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at the dinner table or watching TV or being driven in a car, I absentmindedly find myself touching my fingers to my thumb, as if subconsciously reassuring myself that all is still well – that I am still well.

And so far, I have been.

I attribute my continued good health to my diet. And whenever I feel tempted to eat butter, cream and chocolate, I remind myself what it felt like not to be able to use my right hand properly.
I used to have to remind myself of this quite often, especially when I would think of Mary Berry's banana bread - which was once my go-to banana bread in the café and at home. 

But I don't have to control myself with such mind games anymore - at least not when it comes to banana bread. I've come up with a recipe that is not the same as Mary Berry's but it's just as delicious and it packs a much bigger nutritional punch.

I thought I'd share it with you today.
200g mashed ripe bananas* (this will require two to three bananas, depending on their size)
1 tablespoon almond milk
50g olive oil (choose one with a mild flavour)
25g cocoa powder
50g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
75g sugar
60g walnuts, chopped 
20g banana chips, chopped (optional)
3 tablespoons cocoa nibs (optional - especially if you are strict about OMS)
1 egg

• Preheat your oven to 170 C/340 F.
• Line a small loaf tin with some baking parchment. I find that the easiest way of doing this is rubbing a left-over butter wrapper over the inside of the tin, scrunching the parchment into a ball with my hands and then using my fingers to shape the parchment to the bottom and sides of the tin. The scrunched-up nature of the paper makes it much more pliable.
• Combine all of your ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into the lined tin and place in the centre of your oven.
• Cook for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy the cake with a cup of tea (and if you can, go to see the movie!)

* There's no such thing as over-ripe bananas. The blacker they are, the better they will be for baking, producing super-moist cakes.

All the goodness and none of the guilt

Anyone familiar with my eating habits will know how much I enjoy my sweet treats. Made with butter, sugar, chocolate and lots of billowing whipped cream; they used to be my reward of choice at the end of a long day or hard-working week. So how have I managed to cope now that I can no longer eat such foods?

At first I must admit that I sulked and simply avoided sweets altogether. I went from being someone who baked every day in the café to being someone who when my boyfriend asked me to bake a cake a few weeks ago couldn't remember where I had stashed my cake tins and baking ware!

I just couldn't get enthusiastic about baking without what I thought were the absolutely vital ingredients of butter, chocolate and cream. Nor could I muster excitement about what I saw as the 'fake' ingredients many people use as substitutes. Margarine instead of butter? Yuck.

But slowly I began to realise that there were other options and that's when I came across this recipe by Deliciously Ella. It seemed quick. It looked easy. It only had four ingredients, all of which are real and natural. It was surely worth a try.

And do you know what? It was good! But seeing as I'm a recovering chocolate addict, I was bound to find it not chocolate-y enough. So I added more cocoa and some cocoa nibs*.   

And do you know what? It was better!

My boyfriend liked it too and suggested adding some fruit. So I added some raspberries to the mix. 

And do you know what? It was best of all.

Try this. It's healthy. It's sweet. And most importantly, it's delicious.

Raw brownies (adapted from a recipe by Deliciously Ella) 

2 cups (160g) dates

1 cup (90g) pecan nuts or walnuts 

5 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp cocoa nibs

2.5 tbsp maple syrup

20 raspberries

• Remove the pits from the dates.
• Place the nuts and cocoa nibs in a food processor and grind until they resemble breadcrumbs.
• Add the dates and blend.
• Add the cocoa powder, maple syrup and raspberries and blend again.
• Press the mixture into a lined baking tin and place in the fridge for three hours or until set.
• Cut into squares and enjoy. These will keep in the fridge for four or five days (but that's presuming you don't devour them all at once!).

*Cocoa nibs are cocoa beans that have been roasted then separated from their husks and broken into small pieces. They do contain some saturated fat – which is what I have to minimise as part of my OMS diet – but it is much lower than that of finished chocolate and because cocoa nibs are unprocessed, the fat is safer for me too. Others following the diet may prefer to avoid cocoa nibs altogether but I need my occasional chocolate fix – even if it does come with a little guilt! Those of you following a less restrictive diet than I do can eat this with no guilt at all!

Addendum 09 June 2014: I made these last week and because I knew I wasn't going to eat them all in one go (not even a chocolate fiend like me could do that!), I put the cut-up squares in the freezer. Going back for a chocolate fix this weekend, I discovered that this made them even more delicious. They don't really freeze; they just become a lot firmer. And if you give them a minute or two to warm up (really, you don't need to wait longer than that), they become melt-in-the-mouth delicious!