Best Dairy-Free Summer Desserts

Consumer Reports is a noted buzzkill, so none of you should be surprised that they gave poor reviews to a couple of dairy-free frozen treats, as I recently reported. Those aren't the only treats for us in the world, fortunately. Starre Vartan, the self-titled Eco-Chick (and possibly self-named Starre, although who can tell these days?) reviewed Tofutti and several other brands on the Mother Nature Network. "Best Dairy-Free Summer Desserts" is her title for the article; I'm just reporting.

Coconut Bliss (and the Trader Joe’s version of it) is a slightly-coconutty flavored, richly creamy dessert. Seriously delicious, give it a try! It's gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free and vegan, and I like to mix it with the Cashewtopia (below) for a truly decadent dairy-free experience.
Best Flavor: Chocolate (which pairs ideally with the natural coconut base)

Rice Dream makes a frozen dessert based on its popular rice-based beverage. While it doesn’t taste like rice, it definitely doesn’t have the fatty, tongue-coating richness of traditional ice cream. Like Rice Dream milk, it has a bit of a watery texture, but not in a bad way; in the summer it feels like a guilt-free and more refreshing version of a heavier dessert. I find it ideal for rich-tasting smoothies and paired with granola for an afternoon snack.
Best Flavor: Creamcicle (great for smoothies with other fruits, totally delicious on its own)

Cashewtopia Gelato, by Organic Nectars is my absolute winner in the non-dairy dessert category. Made from cashew nut milk, it has a crazy-creamy texture and a is very filling, in the way that ice cream is (if you end up eating it for a meal, don’t blame me. And since it's sweetened with agave, it won't hurt your blood sugar, it's made from all raw ingredients, so retains a ton of the natural ingredients' nutrition, and is all organic. LOVE!
Best Flavor: Chocolate Hazelnut (it's a very mild chocolate but that pairs perfectly with the abundant raw hazelnuts in each bite)

Tofutti: I don’t love plain old tofutti all by its lonesome – like the tofu upon which it’s based, it really needs to be paired with something else to really ‘pop’ – I like mine with a bunch of berries swirled in (as you can probably tell, I like fruit with my desserts), or made into an ice-cream sandwich. Or you can just buy the famous and beloved Tofutti Cuties, which are mini versions of the traditional ice cream sandwich. Truly a vegan ice cream treat.
Best Flavor: Tofutti Cuties Sandwiches

Consumer Reports Downgrades Milk-Free Frozen Treats

It's not out yet, but you might want to keep an eye out for the July issue of Consumer Reports, which will appear on newsstands on June 5. (Magazines are always dated ahead. The idea is to make them seem fresh on newsstands. Monthly magazines appear early in the month preceding the issue date. Weekly magazines are dated one week earlier than their official publication. This system dates back many decades, to the heyday of newsstands, and now serves mostly to confuse everyone. It won't go away as long as there are print copies, though.) Anyway, the press release for the issue talked about the article on The best Frozen Treats for Summer. Non-dairy confections were also covered and they didn't rate very high.

So Delicious Dairy Free Vanilla Minis sandwiches had a mild artificial-vanilla flavor, and the wafers were soft and sticky. Tofutti Dairy Free Cuties Vanilla sandwiches consisted of gummy, artificially flavored innards between sticky wafers that tasted a bit stale.

The full report, which will also cover nutrition information and cost, is available in the magazine and on the website, consumerreports.org, although that requires a subscription for complete access.

Scream Sorbet

Sorbet is slowly becoming more popular. A few good restaurants would offer a selection of sorbets after a meal, yielding an intensely fruity treat that needed only a few bites to satisfy. Sorbets are big tastes, a sipper's delight rather than a gulper's. Brandies are less popular than beer, too.

With dairy-free desserts inching their way into the general market, sorbets are due. And new food processing technologies are making possible sorbets that go beyond fruit tastes into the weirder world that high end ice creams are also pursuing.

The New York Times Magazine - which did an article a few weeks ago on a man who made hibiscus beet, bourbon and cornflake, prosciutto, and chocolate smoked sea salt ice creams - has followed it up with one on a man who figured out a way to make nut-based sorbets.

Making frozen treats is as much about composition as it is equipment. "In some ways," [Nathan] Kurz says, "the other reason I started this business was that I’d been reading about El Bulli and how they were using Pacojets. Some people lust after cars, I lusted after kitchen machinery." Basically, he let a $4,000 gadget determine his fate. (He advises everyone to read about the process to understand this seemingly rash decision.) "Normally, you make ice cream in a batch freezer," he explains. "You freeze the outside and scrape along the outside as it [the ice cream] freezes. It's the same as the hand-churned thing you use at home, and it works great, if what you’re starting with is already smooth."

The Pacojet is simpler: "It doesn't include refrigeration, and part of its process is to make things silky smooth." It's true. You can add whole nuts and fruits to this machine and "still end up with a silky smooth texture." As he explains the process, "you freeze your sorbet chunky first in a one-quart container. Then the blade spins around; it goes from the top of the round cylinder down to the bottom at a rate of several thousand R.P.M. It takes four minutes to process."

He discovered that using a Pacojet meant he could add less sugar to his sorbet and yield more intensity from his main ingredient. His approach goes against everything that McGee and others who rely on the traditional methods counsel. They encourage adding water (to achieve the required puree that Kurz's equipment renders unnecessary), then lemon juice (to draw out the diluted product's weakened flavor) and finally more sugar (to compensate for all that extra volume). "We don’t add anything unless it tastes good," he says; that means they also won’t add anything that tastes like nothing, such as a stabilizer. The Scream stuff is thicker than other sorbets and made from fewer ingredients. With higher fruit content and no additives, it has the texture of gelato but is more concentrated in flavor.

His pistachio sorbet contains pistachios, water, sugar, and sea salt. Nothing else.

You won't find it everywhere, but a variety of farmers' markets in northern California carry it and he will soon open a storefront in Oakland, CA.

More importantly, he ships anywhere Federal Express offers overnight service.

Hain Dreams - Dairy-Free Multitudes

The Hain-Celestial Group is so gigantic that they're almost too big to see. I talk about new firms that enter the non-dairy and dairy alternative market because they're easy to spot when I walk by the shelves. Hain products are always there and it's hard to keep track of what's new. I've had them on my website product list forever, of course.

How big are they? Gape at this list:

Hain Celestial participates in almost all natural food categories with well-known brands that include Celestial Seasonings®, Terra®, Garden of Eatin’®, Health Valley®, WestSoy®, Earth’s Best®, Arrowhead Mills®, DeBoles®, Hain Pure Foods®, FreeBird™, Hollywood®, Spectrum Naturals®, Spectrum Essentials®, Walnut Acres Organic™, Imagine Foods™, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, Rosetto®, Ethnic Gourmet®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Linda McCartney®, Realeat®, Lima®, Grains Noirs®, Natumi®, JASON®, Zia® Natural Skincare, Avalon Organics®, Alba Botanica® and Queen Helene®.

The one, or ones, I want to talk about today are the Dream lines of dairy-free drinks and frozen desserts. They are all found at Taste the Dream.

There are four Dreams, Rice, Soy, Hemp, and Almond, each obviously named after the ingredient that is used as the base. Kidz Dream is soymilk and fruit juice smoothies.

The newest line is Chocolate Dream bars.

New Chocolate Dream dairy free candy bars are premium all-natural, solid chocolate bars crafted from cocoa that will satisfy everyone’s chocolate dream.

Available in five decadent varieties, they contain no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or refined sugars making them truly a dairy free and gluten free dream come true.

The five flavors are Dark Chocolate in Almond, Pure Dark, Rice Crunch, and Raspberry, and Sweet Chocolate in Creamy Sweet.

If you think you remember the Dream lines under another name, you're right.

The roots of RICE DREAM and SOY DREAM go back to 1971, when Robert Nissenbaum, one of the original founders, had opened Morning Dew Organic Food Market in St. Louis, MO. It was one of the first organic/natural food stores in the United States. Robert was very passionate about the relationship between diet, health and well being, as well as very concerned for the environment. He explored the natural vegetarian diet, macrobiotics, yoga, and organic gardening. He used his store as the vehicle to share his ideas and inform others about the benefits of this new way of living.

In 1982, Robert and another partner founded Imagine Foods in the Missouri countryside. Things really took off when he and his partner took some of their products including soy tempeh, an early version of RICE DREAM beverage, and RICE DREAM Frozen Dessert to a natural food industry trade show. The distributors were crazy about the RICE DREAM Frozen Dessert. The orders kept coming, and the company kept growing and changing, to offer the highest quality, most delicious all-natural foods.

In December of 2002, Imagine foods was made part of The Hain Celestial Group- the country’s largest and most respected natural and organic foods company. Imagine Foods is proud to be part of The Hain Celestial Group’s family of brands that provide delicious “better for you” foods loved by people of all ages.

Taste The Dream Consumer Relations
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc.
4600 Sleepytime Dr.
Boulder, CO 80301

Or call us at:
1-800-434-4246, Monday-Friday, 7am-5pm Mountain Time

If you would like more information about The Hain Celestial Group, go to www.hain-celestial.com

Shaved Ice the Coming Hot Summer Cooler

Mexicans have raspados, Koreans bingsu. The Taiwanese flavor their bao bing with palm sugar syrup. Cubans call their version granizados, Puerto Ricans name them piraguas because of the pyramid shape, and in the Dominican Republican they are known simply as frio-frio or cold-cold.

Americans have them as well. In Baltimore they're sky-blue and topped with marshmallows.

They're all versions of simple flavored shaved ice, the sophisticated adult version of the snow cone. (Sophisticated but down-to-earth. In a large enough city Indian street vendors sell golas and chuskis, which are flavored with rose, cardamom, orange and saffron.)

As Julia Moskin explained in The New York Times, the difference between the two forms of syrup and ice is profound.

[A] snow cone is usually a mound of crunchy hailstones sitting in a pool of synthetic sugar syrup. The ice is crushed into pellets that send shivers up into the brain, and the flavoring has no chance of being absorbed into the ice.

But there is another way. A way of scraping ice so that it falls softly into cups like a January snowfall, and soaks up flavor the way dry ground soaks up rain in July.

Apparently shaved ice will be the next Pinkberry. Eventually. Maybe. Unless you happen to be traveling or live in a city that is experimenting with these stores, though, you might be better off trying to make shaved ice concoptions at home. Moskin rated home machines.

Commercial ice-shaving machines cost thousands of dollars, but some low-tech home versions have recently come onto the market, for about $25 to $35. The two simplest, the Back to Basics (also called the Hawaiice) and the Hamilton Beach Snowman, both work well, if noisily, with ice cubes. The mechanics of these are simple: a plastic cup filled with ice has a blade on the bottom. A motor spins the ice while you press down, forcing it over the blade. It takes about a minute to shave enough heaps of dry, fluffy snow for four snow cones.

The machines work even better with the provided ice molds, though that requires some planning. The molds can be filled with plain water, or with mixtures of water, fruit purées and syrups to produce flavored snow (try making café con leche ice, then topping the snow with chocolate syrup). I plan to put some favorite sorbet, granita and cold-soup mixtures through the shaver, as the texture is so lovely and the process so simple.

A more complicated Hamilton Beach device, the Icy Treats, can supposedly be used to mix frozen cocktails as well as for shaved ice, but in my experience it didn’t do a good job of either.

You can find them at the usual online retailers or try a specialty service like Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Not surprisingly, the Hawaiians have been experimenting with ice and fruit for a long time.

Now the warning. People will put almost anything onto shaved ice, and that includes milk and cream. The New Orleans snoball, for example, comes in a regular and a "cream" variety.

If you have a milk allergy or want to stay strictly vegan, you should ask carefully for all the ingredients of what you're about to put into your mouth. To be sure, that always holds true. Just never more so when a new type of food comes onto the market.

Good Karma Milk Alternatives

Also at the supermarket this week I found products from Good Karma Foods, surely the quintessential natural/organic/alternative name.

Good Karma Organic Rice Divine and Organic Whole Grain Ricemilk products use the finest organic ingredients to give you a delightful eating experience indistinguishable from the even the best ice creams and dairy beverages. Our amazing products are Gluten Free, Dairy free, Vegan, Kosher, and Supports Green Farming.

They have three lines of milk alternative products.

Organic Rice Divine: Pints


Here’s the whole story behind Good Karma Organic Rice Divine™: We did it for you. You wanted someone to create a dessert no one had thought of before - - here it is. You didn’t want to worry about lactose intolerance or wheat allergies - - you don’t have to. You wanted uncompromised flavors that no one else had thought of before (or no one else had gotten right yet) - here they are.

Flavors: Banana Fudge; Carrot Cake; Chocolate Chip; Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge; Coconut Mango; Key Lime Pie; Mint Chocolae Swirl; Mudd Pie; Very Cherry; Very Vanilla.




Organic Whole Grain: Ricemilk

Get ready for the perfect ricemilk! Good Karma Foods as always, is excited to bring you yet another product of unparalleled quality and innovation. Welcome to the first beverage anywhere with 8 grams of Organic Whole Grain Brown Rice in every serving.Good Karma’s Organic Whole Grain Ricemilk contains all of the natural bran,bran oils, and other naturally occurring nutrients contained in Whole Grain Brown Rice! Our entire line is Organic, Creamy and Delicious! Enjoy Good Karma over cereal, in coffee, and best of all, in a tall cold glass.

Flavors: Chocolate; Original; and Vanilla.




Organic Rice Divine: Chocolate Covered Bars

The greatest frozen dessert we could create, and you don’t even need a spoon to enjoy it! Organic Rice Divine™ bars dipped in real organic chocolate and served on a stick. Just unwrap and enjoy. What could be easier? Available in Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chocolate. Three 3 ounce bars per box.Good Karma Organic Rice Divine™ - we’ve raised the bar on frozen desserts!

Flavors: Chocolate Chocolate Bars and Very Vanilla Bars

Tempt Hemp

A trip to the supermarket seems to find new milk alternative products each and every time. This week brought two.

First up is Tempt from Living Harvest.

Tempt™ Hempmilk is a delicious non-dairy beverage made from hemp seeds - one of nature's most perfect, planet-friendly foods. Perfect for your morning cereal or coffee, for cooking and baking, or to put the 'smooth' in your favorite fruit smoothie.

DAIRY & SOY FREE • VEGAN • TREE NUT FREE • GLUTEN FREE
CHOLESTEROL FREE • NON-GMO • KOSHER • LOW SODIUM
Hemp contains no known allergens

It comes in five flavors: Chocolate; Original, Unsweetened Original; Vanilla; and Unsweetened Original.

And now there is also Tempt Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert.



It also comes in five flavors: Chocolate Fudge; Coconut Lime; Coffee Biscotti; Mint Chip; and Vanilla Bean.

Much more information about hemp and the Tempt products at its FAQ page.

Hemp seeds are the edible part of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa L). They are a tiny, round seed, similar in size to a sesame seed. They have a light, pleasant flavor and taste similar to toasted pine nuts. Hemp seeds can be pressed for oil, milled into a protein powder, roasted or shelled and made into Hempmilk. Hemp seeds have been cultivated as a food for centuries in China, and many countries in Europe and Africa. All the hemp grown for Living Harvest products come from Canada. "

British Mom Markets Dairy-Free Desserts

I've done so many stories on moms who have created cookbooks or foods or entire stores based on their need to experiment with recipes for their allergic kids that I could probably fill this whole post with links.

Probably the biggest success story of them all was Patricia Wheway, creator of a whole line of free-from foods for a British supermarket chain.

Kristy Henshaw is meeting with similar success on a smaller scale. On the Lancashire Evening Post website, Melanie Wallwork reported that Kristy:

created a frozen, dairy-free dessert which is low in calories, boosts the immune system and can be enjoyed by diabetics and people with allergies.

The mother-of-one came up with the idea for desserts Coconuka and Coconice after struggling to find one suitable for her dairy-intolerant son Jacob, aged three.

The desserts use "a mix of brown rice milk, coconut oil, New Zealand Manuka honey and Echinacea – all known for their health giving properties. Coconice, a vegan alternative, is sweetened with fruit extracts and comes in three flavours, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla."

Those are similar to the several frozen desserts made with coconut milk that have been introduced in the U.S. over the past couple of years. It's a guarantee that the UK market will see many more coconut milk frozen desserts. It's the hottest new fad in the dairy-free world.

Yes, Virginia, There Is Vegan Soft Serve

I didn't want to leave you hanging yesterday when I broke the bad news that not all lactose-free soft serve is really lactose free. Some true non-dairy, vegan soft serves can be found. Even if you have to look for them.

Most vegan soft serves are an afterthought to regular ice creams or a small addition to a vegan grocery. Googling for vegan soft serve brings up many local stores but not much information on brands, flavors, or availability. You'll have to do that sort of digging for yourself.

I can mention that I've found three national brands of vegan soft serve.

Good old Tofutti:

Premium TOFUTTI soft serve mix is available in three flavors:
Vanilla, Chocolate, and Peanut Butter.

Unfortunately, the company has been concentrating on supermarket sales so while soft serve is available, it's not a priority.

Then there's OatsCreme:

Ingredients of Soft Serve OatsCremeTM by Flavor:

Chocolate
Water, Oat Flour, Dutched Cocoa, Natural Flavors,* and Vitamin E (Tocopherol)
Vanilla
Water, Oat Flour, Natural Flavors,* Vanilla Extract, and Vitamin E (Tocopherol)
Strawberry
Water, Oat Flour, Natural Flavors,* Natural Beet Color, and Vitamin E (Tocopherol)

And there is also Temptation:

Vegan Soft Serve Ice Cream

Restaurants and ice cream shops looking to expand their offerings to vegans, vegetarians, and lactose-intolerant (up to 15% of the U.S. population!) can use our vegan soft serve ice cream to get an edge over the competition. This creamy alternative is kosher parve certified and available in Fair Trade Chocolate and Vanilla varieties.

Temptation Chocolate Vegan Soft Serve Ice Cream
Vegan Beet Sugar, Corn Maltodextrin, Soymilk Powder, Fair Trade Certified(TM) Cocoa Powder, guar gum, xanthan gum, salt

Temptation Vanilla Vegan Soft Serve Ice Cream
Vegan Beet Sugar, Corn Maltodextrin, Soymilk Powder, natural vanilla extract powder, guar gum, xanthan gum, salt

If you can't find any of these locally, start asking for them. Or whatever other brands the store owner can find. The more demand, the more likely they are to carry vegan products. Even for something as taste-sensitive as ice cream.

Keep Those Frozen Calories Low

One of the best things that non-dairy frozen desserts have going for them is that they are almost always lower calorie than the dense-with-butter-fat true ice creams. More butter fat doesn't have to equal more flavor, as anyone who has had a true chef's creation sorbet can attest.

Molly Kimball gives this sound advice along with a jumbo sprinkle of facts about various frozen dessert treats in her New Orleans Times-Picayune article.

Sherbets and sorbets are two more diet-friendly options. They may be made with real fruit purees, or with fruit juices, concentrates, or flavoring extracts.

What's the difference between the two? Sherbets may contain dairy, while sorbets and ices are dairy-free. A 4-ounce scoop of either can have as few as 60 calories if it's made with primarily fresh-fruit puree, or as much as 160 calories if it contains mostly juices and concentrates. ...

I realize that for the true ice cream purist or gelato connoisseur, only the real thing may do. But for those simply looking for a cool, refreshing treat, frozen yogurt can be a great low-calorie option. Soft-serve frozen yogurt typically has 90 to 130 calories per half-cup serving, with the no-sugar-added varieties as low as 80 to 90 calories. An added bonus: nearly all yogurts are low in fat and saturated fat.

When it comes to the selection of mix-ins and toppings for your frozen treat, fresh fruit is an obviously nutritious choice, adding a boost of antioxidants. Just check to see that it's actually fresh fruit, not fruit that's packed in syrup. For a bit of decadence, add a dollop of whipped cream for under 50 calories.

Just be sure you're not topping one dessert with another. Think about it: Does anyone really need to add a brownie or a candy bar to their ice cream?

Kimbell also reminds us, and if she doesn't, I do, that we don't really need those double - or triple - scoops. Or the dipped waffle cones. And that if we have to indulge in a whopper of sugar on top of fat on top of sugar, all sprinkled with more sugar, that we don't need to do so every day. If you have small indulgences on a regular basis, the titanic bargeloads that retail stores push at us to pry more dollars out of pockets will start to seem like too much, even of a good thing. A bite to satisfy, not a supersize to bloat.

Malta Gets Lactose-Free Ice Cream. Why Not Us?

Americans, if they think of Nestlé at all, might have an image of chocolate bars and other comfort foods. In fact Nestlé S.A. is an insanely huge multi-national conglomerate based in Switzerland, whose products and activities span the globe. The U.S. market sees only a tiny fraction of the brands it makes internationally.

For some people that's a good thing. According to the British newspaper the Guardian Nestlé is one of the most boycotted brands in the world. A boycott has been fitfully instituted against the company since the 1970s because of the way it markets milk-based baby formulas to poor mothers in third-world countries. The vast majority of those mothers would be likely to have healthier children if their breastfed their babies.

Can you put the two sides of the company together? In reality, we do every day. Few of us notice which multinational conglomerate is the ultimate source of the products we fill our shopping carts with. Few of us can keep accounts of the pluses and minuses of their activities in 200 countries or follow the accusations made by activist groups supported or disabused by the business press. Doing so for every one of the tens of thousands of products in a supermarket would drive us all even nuttier than we are today. The modern world and capitalism depend on it being too large for any individual to comprehend.

I'm driven to these thoughts by, of all things, a press release that a newspaper on the island nation of Malta printed as a news article.

Ice creams for coeliacs and lactose intolerant consumers

Coeliacs and lactose intolerant consumers can this year enjoy a wide range of Nestlé ice creams which have been produced to address the needs of such conditions.

The Nestlé gluten-free ice creams, which include the Hello Kitty cup and stick, Indiana Jones cup, Nesquik sandwich and stick and Cremeria Fior di Latte and Lemon Sorbet are the result of specific manufacturing processes studied down to the finest detail, right from the selection of ingredients until the manufacturing stage. Nestlé continues to monitor its processes in all the packing stages, in order to ensure the utmost compliance with the standards that have enabled the company to attain the cross grain symbol. The symbol, which is printed on the product, indicates the product’s safety and guarantees no gluten presence in the product.

The lactose-free range of ice-creams, which include the Cremeria chocolate and vanilla tubs are produced with the same specific manufacturing processes but address the needs of consumers who usually, due to this condition, do not take any milk based ice cream. Although these ice creams have a very low lactose content of 0.4 per cent they still enjoy a genuine flavour and are made with only fresh Italian skimmed milk which is highly digestible.

The gluten-free and the lactose-free ice creams are available in all supermarkets and leading stores throughout Malta and Gozo.

The Republic of Malta, which includes the islands of Malta and Gozo, is home to fewer than half a million people, smaller than the county in which I live.

Yet the Maltese people will have access to a range of lactose-free and gluten-free ice creams greater than everything sold in the United States by all companies combined.

I can't comprehend this. I'm happy for the Maltese, obviously. I don't want to take away their good fortune at the expense of ours. Perhaps they're being used as nothing more than a living test market. These products are apparently available nowhere else in the world. Perhaps these treats, if well accepted, will one day sit on freezer shelves on every continent. (Antarctica excepted, to be sure.) In the meantime what explanation can be given for the fact that the millions of American consumers lack these basics?

Why?

Cool Summer Dairy-Free Frozen Desserts

"Time for some sweet treats to beat the heat!" wrote Allison Ryan of the LaSalle, Illinois NewsTribune. Yes, it's the start of summer and no matter the temperature outside all the news outlets are going to give you summer beat the heat recipes. (Wait. Didn't I say something just like that only a day or two ago? Answer: Yes.)

No matter. Dairy-free recipes are always good to have and its going to swelter sooner or later no matter where you live. (I don't know if I have readers in Antarctica, but if you take the really long view...)

Ryan gave recipes for Mango-Watermelon Granita, Coconut/Soy Milk Ice Cream, and Banana Ice Cream, all dairy-free and vegan.

There's even a video to help you with the directions.



Take that, summer heat!

Sorbet: Dairy-Free But Watch the Sugar

Though the northeast is suffering through a June that features far more rainy days than scorchers, the calendar and the astronomers proclaim that we've arrived in summer. And since editors are slaves to calendars, garnering material weeks or months early to appear on the proscribed date, frozen dessert articles are appearing like clockwork. If anybody under the age of 50 understands what that metaphor means.

Therefore we have Erin Lindholm on amNewYork, who provided a terrific reminder that most frozen desserts are sugar-filled candy confections. They taste great, they satisfy the craving for coolness in the heat, but they need to be occasional treats. You can't load up on the cool stuff and then eat your way through the rest of the day without taking these extras into account.

Sorbets are especially subject to this blindness. Because they're fruit-based and often dairy-free, even fat-free, most people will think of them as a light and less calorific alternative to ice cream. That might be true. Even so, you might be surprised at the sugar wallop they're packing.

While it’s true that sorbet’s a lower-calorie, lower-fat (often fat-free) alternative to ice cream, and it’s made of fruit and often dairy-free, that’s not a green light to eat the whole pint in one sitting.

“It should still be considered a treat or dessert unless it’s homemade, and you know what’s really going into it,” noted nutritionist Liz Stein.

The first step, said Stein, is to check the sugar. For all their appeal, “sorbets are still loaded with sugar.”

In the four market brands taste-tested for this article — Ciao Bella, Haagen Dazs, Sharon’s and Whole Fruit — sugar per serving ranged from 19g to a whopping 38g, which is a huge variable when we’re talking about a scoop of frozen delight.

Second, said Stein, is figure out where the sugar’s coming from. The fruit accounts for some of it, but "you want to choose a sorbet that has natural sugar, as opposed to high-fructose corn syrup." Case-in-point: In four samples, we found everything from cane sugar to plain old "sugar" to corn syrup.

I'm not as much a foe of high-fructose corn syrup as Stein. Sugar is mostly sugar, with four calories per gram no matter what the source. Cane sugar is the same thing as "plain old sugar." Corn syrup is the simple sugar glucose. Sugar is glucose plus fructose in equal parts, but converts to glucose inside the body. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is also glucose plus fructose, with a variety of blends from 42% fructose to 90% fructose depending on the needs of the final product. As a commercial syrup it also contains water, usually one-quarter of the total. This means that HFCS only has three calories per gram. It's made commercially starting from a corn syrup base.

I know that many people get hysterical over the tremendous amount of use of HFCS in consumer products, because it is much cheaper than sugar. (Remember that it's one-quarter really cheap water.) The science is not clear that HFCS promotes obesity or has any truly bad effects on the general population. My feeling is that any sugar consumed in large quantities is going to have an effect on obesity. It wasn't the switch to HFCS that made Americans obese, it was the change in habits, the lessening of physical activity, and the growth in portion size that made supersizing the new normal.

Back to the point. Go ahead, have a small sorbet as a summer treat. No reason at all to cut out treats entirely. Just remember that fruit or not, you're eating a cupful of sugar, with some cups having even more sugar than others. Moderation in all things, except moderation.

Sorry, No Dairy-Free Ice Cream at Baskin-Robbins

Baskin-Robbins sent out a press release to talk about its new spring line of soft serve ice creams. Nothing unusual there and normally not anything I'd pay attention to.

But a line in the release caught my eye.

The introduction of Baskin-Robbins new Soft Serve products also follows the recent launch of the company's BRight Choices(TM) treats. BRight Choices are better-for-you options that have all the great taste and quality customers expect from Baskin-Robbins. BRight Choices menu options include fat-free, dairy-free, no-sugar-added and light ice cream offerings.

Wait. Baskin-Robbins has a dairy-free ice cream? Wouldn't that be news?

It would be, if it were true. The BRight Choices menu options do include no-sugar-added ice cream offerings and light ice cream offerings. So by all the logic of the English language it should include fat-free ice cream offerings and dairy-free ice cream offerings.

Well, here's their BRight Choices products page. As you can see there, the fat-free choice is frozen yogurt. And the dairy-free offerings are two flavors of sorbet.

Nothing wrong with sorbet, which is fruit and ice and normally tasty. But its not ice cream, not even imitation ice cream, not even a "creme" frozen dessert. It shouldn't be on the same list with real ice creams or with frozen yogurt, a dairy product that is much closer to ice cream than sorbet is.

The Baskin-Robbins web site is careful to call their BRight Choice options "treats" rather than ice creams. Their press releases should be equally careful. And somebody who knows the business should be reading them before they go out the door.

Tofutti Founder David Mintz

I write frequently about Tofutti, the manufacturer of 50 to 60 dairy-free milk alternative products.

For many more words about Tofutti and its founder, David Mintz, you need to turn to The man who gave the world Tofutti, the cover story by Warren Boroson in the latest New Jersey Jewish Standard.

Apparently we have a new Tofutti something - a flavor? a frozen dessert? a "crackberry" clone? - coming soon. One that made Boroson, a Tofutti virgin and not exactly a convert, rave.

Later, another employee gave our daring and resourceful reporter a spoonful of a new Tofutti product, called Flowers, made from the nectar of flowers that hummingbirds love.

I can't find another reference to Tofutti Flowers anywhere. Whet our appetites, why don't you?

"Everyone needs a little Booja Booja now and then"

UK and German consumers with a sweet tooth just got a treat.

Emma Eversham on the industry site BigHospitality.co.uk wrote about Booja Booja.

Confectionery company Booja-Booja has launched its dairy and sugar-free chocolate 'ice cream' in a 110ml size to help restaurants, pubs and hotels boost their dessert and snack offering for allergy-sufferers this summer.

The dessert, named Stuff in a Tub Hunky Punky Chocolate, is a mix of agave, cashew nuts, cocoa powder and water and is ideal for customers who cannot eat dairy or gluten.

Booja Booja's Stuff in a Tub range includes Keep Smiling Vanilla M'Gorilla, Coconut Hllabaloo, Feisty Winjin Ginger and Pompompous Maple Pecan which are available in 500ml pots.

All Booja Booja products are organic, dairy-free, wheat-free and gluten-free and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Those are names and a half, indeed. The rest of the Booja Booja line is a bit more gourmet. Their website features loads of high-end and dairy-free chocolate truffles.

The website is also available in German for continental customers.

500 Ice Creams, Sorbets & Gelatos

No matter what the calendar says, you know summer is around the corner when the stores are full of bathing suits and the bookstores start pushing frozen treats.

Julie Gilkay of the Appleton, WI Post-Crescent alerted readers to 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets & Gelatos: The Only Ice Cream Compendium You'll Ever Need.

An ice cream companion? Who needs that? It's that "500" in the title that makes all the difference. To bulk out the book the author, Alex Barker, includes:

gelatos, sorbets, granitas, water ices, frozen concoctions, sundaes, sodas, slushes, bombes and terrines. Dietary limitations are addressed in dairy-free ice creams and low-fat, sugar-free ices.

Sorbets, granitas, water ices, and slushes are sugar and water and fruit.

Bombes are made in a rounded mold and so sometimes are called domes. The layers are often ice cream but can be fruit ices.

A terrine is a kind of molded dish usually used for baked foods or pates. You can use a mold to make layered frozen desserts as in this Frozen Apple and Blackberry Terrine dessert recipe.

You can find it on the Frozen Desserts page in my Milk-Free Bookstore.

A "Lactose Intolerant Friendly" Frozen Dessert?

Another day, another frozen dessert. Everybody loves ice cream, yet everybody and their diet guru friends are looking to avoid the very things that make ice cream so delicious: the fat and the sugar and the carbs and the milk and the cookie fudgey syrupy stuff they add to make ice cream even higher in fat and sugar and carbs and etc. So company after company puts out a variation that knocks out one of those goodies and hopes that it can compete.

The latest is Arctic Zero, whose press release makes the standard claims of delight.

At Only 136 Calories Per Pint, It's Just What The Nation Ordered

A protein shake in an ice cream form with 136 calories and 20 grams of whey protein concentrate per pint. Targeting the childhood obesity epidemic with a delicious all natural dessert product that is both fat and gluten free, lactose intolerant friendly, and has no sugar alcohols.

Cool, that's... Wait a minute. "Lactose intolerant friendly?" Suddenly, my antennae have gone up. What exactly does that mean? How much lactose is there in Arctic Zero exactly?

You're not going to find out from the press release and I don't see any nutritional information on the Arctic Zero website.

There is a clue, and it may not be the one you think. "Whey protein concentrate" is an obvious warning sign for those who know that the whey portion of milk is where the lactose can be found. I usually tell people to avoid whey protein concentrate because of its high lactose percentage. However, there are many varieties of whey protein concentrate and some are as low as 10% lactose. That's still high, especially when you consider that milk is only 5% lactose.

The clue you probably won't recognize - unless you're a dedicated follower of this blog, which puts you into the info elite - is the sweetener Arctic Zero uses.

How is Arctic Zero™ sweetened?
Arctic Zero™ uses the patented all natural sweetener Whey Low® (nothing to do with whey protein). Why did we choose Whey Low® Sweetener? ...

We wanted an all natural sweetener that had all the benefits of low calorie and low glycemic, without any weird flavors or side effects.

Sounds good, although the benefits of low glycemic is an odd phrase. But what about Whey Low?

You dedicated readers may remember back to 2007 when I posted Beware Whey Low.

Why beware? Because, as the Arctic Zero site acknowledges, "Whey Low® is a scientific blend of three natural sugars: fructose, sucrose, and lactose monohydrate." A lactose-containing sweetener? Of course, the amount of lactose in a package of Whey Low used as sugar substitute is too small to matter. I'm not sure that still holds true when lots of it is added to a food as the main sweetener.

So I would hold off on Arctic Zero unless you're in the mood for a trial and error experiment.

Gelatissimo Frozen Dessert to Debut for Passover 2009

I try to cover kosher foods because there is a category of products called parve (sometimes spelled pareve) that are "neutral" foods, foods that contain neither meat nor milk.

Apparently some new ones will be introduced at a big food fair, Passover 2009, said The Gourmet Retailer.

A slew of new kosher product introductions -- many with a healthier, more upscale appeal -- are set to debut in time for Passover 2009, according to Menachem Lubinsky, editor of Kosher Today and co-producer of Kosherfest, the largest international kosher food and beverage trade show. Passover 2009 begins at sundown on April 8-April 16.

"Passover '09 will very much follow in the tradition of the last few holiday seasons where there were many new products introduced, including healthier and more upscale foods," said Lubinsky. "The notable exception will be that the industry is making an effort to produce items that offer more value, taking into consideration the large number of customers who have been adversely affected by the recession."

And in particular:

Organic, gluten- and lactose-free Gelatissimo frozen dessert

I can't find any additional information about this product, and I wonder whether it will still have the same name when it comes to market.

After all Gelatissimo is a major real gelato ice cream made in Australia and marketed throughout Oceania.

And there is a gelato store named Gelatissimo in New Canaan, CT. And a separate one in Washington D.C. and another in Encinitas, CA. Again, all serve real Italian-style gelato which is a real ice cream product.

Google is your friend.

KōV Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert

Who's the hottest person in the entire food business? Some anonymous food chemist who figured out a process for turning coconut milk into a non-dairy base is my guess.

Consider. Within the past year I've posted about Sid Wiggy's Coconut Creations (sweetened with agave), Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss (sweetened with agave), Turtle Mountain's So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt and Purely Decadent coconut milk frozen dessert (sweetened with agave), and Stogo's vegan ice cream alternative (sweetened with agave).

Coincidence? Four in one year? All of them sweetened with agave? I don't think so. I mean, how many people even know what agave is? (It's the juice of a Mexican cactus, a form of fructose sugar called inulin.) I guarantee that some chemist figured out the combination of coconut and agave and has been peddling the rights all over the country.

Four? Let's make that five. My latest find is KōV Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert. It uses a cococut milk base and it's sweetened with agave. That's less coincidental than getting a straight flush in poker.

Our delicious and creamy non-dairy frozen dessert is made from all natural ingredients like coconut milk and agave. Flavored with fresh ginger root, ground vanilla, fair trade cocoa powder and pure peppermint extract, KōV [pronounced cove, and standing for kosher, organic, and vegan] delights the taste buds. Even better, KōV is vegan, kosher, has fewer calories, carbs, and a lower glycemic index than ice cream and other non-dairy frozen desserts.

Like Sid Wiggy's and Stogo's, KōV is another local product, found in stores in and around Philadelphia. They plan to introduce more products in the future.