Raspberry Almond Soft Serve in the Vita-Mix

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 chocolate,  banana-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:

And here is the delicious soft serve in a 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.