Why is dairy-free ice cream/sorbet so expensive?

[lightningandsnow]

The kind that doesn't taste like shitty popsicles, I mean.

(Also, it is rather annoying how my digestive system hates me. The only thing that helps a bit is cutting out dairy. Sigh.)

[Moondog]

1. It's a rule.

Any food product with the word "free" following a hyphen must cost at least double the regular version, and taste terrible.

[LeftyMom]

2. You can make your own, you know.

There are a whole bunch of cookbooks for dairy-free ice cream, at least one blog dedicated to recipes too.

Personally I think Temptation is totally worth the money. If you can get that where you're at, anyhow. We can't here but I eat that stuff like it's going out of style when I travel. The coconut milk So Delicious is pretty good too.

[Chan790]

6. A recipe..

(adapted from a recipe from Veganomicon: The ultimate vegan cookbook)

Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight. The cream will solidify and rise to the top. Scoop the cream off the top and reserve the coconut water for another use. Actually put all the ingredients and utensils in the fridge overnight...the colder everything is, the better your results will be.

1/2 cup coconut cream
1 cup soy milk (or any other non-dairy milk you'd like. I'd not recommend coconut unless you want coconut-flavored ice cream)
3/4 cup sugar
6 oz. silken tofu
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until consistent. Pour into ice cream maker and follow instructions for your ice cream maker.

This recipe is for vanilla.

For chocolate, reduce sugar by 1/4 cup and add 8oz. of cooled melted chocolate to blender.

For peanut butter, increase sugar to 1 cup and add 1/2 cup of peanut butter to blender.

For red bean, replace peanut butter in above recipe with 1/2 cup pureed red beans.

For green tea, add 2 teaspoons of matcha powder.

For coffee or espresso, replace 1/2 cup of non-dairy milk with 1/2 cup cold espresso or strongly-brewed coffee.

For any berry, you'll need 3/4 lb. of fruit, thinly-sliced-or-chunked. Add 1/2 of fruit to a saucepan with 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon of arrowroot powder and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 7 minutes. Cool to room temperature and add to blender. Add 1/2 fruit to ice cream maker.

Generally, ice cream flavorings get added to blender and anything you want in the ice cream (chips, cookie dough chunks, fruit pieces, nuts, etc.) get added to the ice cream maker.

[lightningandsnow]

18. Oh, cool!

Thank you!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. "Shitty Popsicles"...what a name for a band.

Tonight, at Six Flags...Bret Michaels & opening act Shitty Popsicles. Tickets $3.00 in advance or $1.99 at the door.

[lightningandsnow]

4. ...

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. I don't want to pay that much. I'll offer this stick of gum.

It's been in my pocket a while, hope that doesn't matter.

[flvegan]

7. Soy Delicious Purely Decadent is a gift from the ice cream gods.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/purely_decadent....

[wearenotmissing]

9. I'm Jealous

We don't have anything like that in England. We have Chocolate, vanilla and neopolitan.

Well, at least we have that.

[kentauros]

13. Actually, you should have it in England,

through Whole Foods. I know they carry that brand. In fact, they carry quite a lot of Turtle Mountain's products

[jobycom]

10. That stuff'll cause Ice Creamgasms. nt

[Pool Hall Ace]

20. Oh boy, bells and whistles going off here.

Now I can satisfy my choccie cravings, and not raise my cholesterol level.

[wearenotmissing]

8. YEs WHy?

My daughter has to be gluten free, wheat free and dairy free and the older I get the more I have to eat that way too. The dairy free ice cream is from the GODS though. Thought it might taste rubbish but it is delicious.

[jobycom]

11. Limited market.

You can't sell it by the barrel at Sam's, so production and distribution are more costly. What they do make they have to distribute in smaller shipments to Austin and San Francisco (and just a little to Tampa), so per container it costs more to ship, has a slower turnover rate, has a higher return and non-reorder rate, etc. Producers have to charge more to break even, and stores have to mark it up more to make it profitable.

[csziggy]

12. Real Sorbet is mostly fruit, which is expensive

With a sugar solution added.

Get your own ice cream maker and make your own sorbet. I've also made a form of sherbet, which is fruit with some dairy added. You could adapt recipes for sherbet to a non-dairy substitute.

For my ice cream maker, I make a simple syrup of one cup water with 1 cup sugar or Splenda (use your choice of other sweetener). With sugar, you need to heat it, with Splenda, just pour boiling water over the Splenda and stir. Add pureed and sieved fruit to make 1 quart of mixture. You can add additional flavors, such as vanilla or other extracts, liqueurs, or put mint or other herbs into the sweetener mixture to infuse with flavor, etc. Chill the mixture, then follow directions on the ice cream maker.

To make my lazy cheap sherbet add one quart milk or substitute to the fruit mixture - with my little ice cream maker, that makes two batches, since I can only freeze one quart at a time. Usually I plan on sorbet, then my hubby asks for sherbet instead so I have not adjusted the recipe for one quart of sherbet. I use fat free milk, so a fat free substitute would work just fine.

I've got all kinds of other, fancier recipes for making sorbets and sherbets, but this is easy and uses what I normally have on hand. Do not skip sieving the fruit puree for most fruits unless you are willing to deal with the change in texture. Apples leave a nasty film/layer if not sieved. Strawberries have the little seeds. Peaches were not bad when not sieved. That is all I have tried so far.

[Captain Hilts]

14. Because they know only wealthier people eat and, therefore, can afford the higher price. nt

[kentauros]

15. Or,

they know that some of us treat it as a true "treat" and only buy it once in a blue moon

[dembotoz]

16. because people will buy it.

[kentauros]

17. Hey, I buy high-cocoa content chocolate bars

that cost $3-4 each. But I don't buy them every day

Some things are just worth the extra cost.

[YesGirl]

19. Dairy-free and Worth Every Cent!

Has anyone tried Purely Decadent made with Coconut Milk? It's insanely delicious!



And they have dollar-off coupons here:

http://turtlemountain.com/products/coupon.html