Raspberry Almond Soft Serve in the Vita-Mix

by Valerie on June 13, 2010 · 5 comments

Berry soft serve in bowl

Last weekend, as Washington was in the grips of steamy rain atop yet another 90 degree day, I resolved that today would be the day I make soft-serve in the Vita-Mix.  After all, I had managed to talk myself out of buying the Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker  at the ridiculously good price on Amazon because of the Vita’s ability to make soft serve.

So I read the Vita cookbook and Averie‘s vegan soft serve posts (mint chocolatebanana-vanilla, and mango-banana) for tips on technique.  I also checked out both Oh She Glows and Choosing Raw but realized that they make soft serve in the food processor, while I had my heart setting on making soft serve in the Vita-mix (this is the whole convincing myself I really do not need an ice cream maker because I bought a Vita).

All my research made me realize overblending had been my problem with the first batch of soft-serve I had attempted a few weeks ago – no wonder I ended up with a delicious chocolate smoothie instead of soft-serve.  Averie had a really useful tip for Vita users, where she recommends blending at Level 2-3 for 10 seconds and then blend at level 8-9 for 20-30 seconds and to not overblend.  The other tip I found in the Vita cookbook is to use the tamper and keep pushing the ingredients down into the blades.

So with all that knowledge, I put 1 cup of almond milk, 6oz frozen raspberries, 2oz blueberries, 1/2 pound of frozen banana chunks and 2 teaspoons non-alcohol-based almond extract in the Vita, closed the lid and set a timer for 60 seconds on the microwave so I could track the blending.  I blended at Level 2-3 the first 10 seconds, all the while pushing the frozen fruit down with the tamper, and then blended at level 8-9 on high for another 40 seconds. 

By then the Vita was making awful noises and I was so terribly afraid of breaking it, and I realized I was past the 30 second cutoff in Averie’s soft serve tips for Vita users, so I stopped the blending and peeked inside.  And lo and behold, there were the four perfect mounds of soft serve the Vita cookbook says should happen when making a frozen dessert:

Soft serve in the Vita

And here is the delicious soft serve in a bowl:

Berry soft serve in bowl 

I had originally intended to use a 1/2 pound of frozen raspberries and no frozen blueberries, but had found the remnants of a bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer so decided to include those. I could not taste the blueberries at all, so feel free to make this recipe with 1/2 pound of raspberries.  The next time I made it, I did exactly that and it was just as delicious, though not quite as sweet.  This recipe (1 pound of frozen fruit for 1 cup of almond milk) made about 3 generous servings.   And knowing I can whip up such deliciousness in the Vita means I am going to hold strong and not give in to buying that ice cream maker.

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 The Curator June 15, 2010 at 4:33 pm

Mmmm!!! Looks delish!

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2 Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga) June 16, 2010 at 7:49 am

glad the tips worked for you…i made soup many, many times…until i figured out what i needed to do! glad u got it down pat too!

and the fudge email, thank you :)

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3 Chloe, Butterfly Cupcakes June 17, 2010 at 11:01 am

Yum, looks great, I would love to attempt to make my own icecream.

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4 Susan @ SGCC June 19, 2010 at 3:29 am

That looks seriously delicious! I just can't get enough fresh fruit desserts this time of year. I want a Via too!

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5 Gena June 24, 2010 at 6:36 pm

Nice work! As I've mentioned on my blog, I'm not a fan of the Vita for soft serve, because it gets too smoothie-ish for my liking. But yes, it's possible, and you did a fabulous job here.

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