- I'm gonna be making the ultimate vegan ice cream.
It's gonna be the best vanilla vegan ice cream
you've ever had.
Is this wrong?
- This is very weird.
- I don't know.
- It tastes like when you walk into Home Depot.
(groaning)
- We wanna give the people what they want.
(laughing)
I'm gonna try these two methods that I've been researching.
So, the first one, I'm gonna be using frozen bananas.
We've got these bad boys frozen solid.
Oh, okay, that just looks like a weird, old finger.
I was rushing.
Okay, nobody wants this in their ice cream.
It's gonna reach out of a closet and get you.
While we're waiting for those to freeze,
I'm gonna try my second method, which is with coconut milk.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, don't provoke me.
♪ You keep pushin me aside and I can't ♪
We're gonna get there, Vaughn, promise.
Smooth, not a chunk in site.
Okay, so we've got these frozen, peeled,
pre-peeled bananas that I made.
Oh, yeah, love that sound.
Oh, that's nice, actually.
I'm gonna go freeze this,
and then we can go check on these two bad boys tomorrow.
That's not ideal.
That's not the sound you wanna hear.
I can chew it.
Tastes like a banana.
Van Leeuwen's is really delicious,
but do you think they would give us tips?
- Should we go to Van Leeuwen?
- Yeah, let's just do it. - Alright.
- Okay, so we called Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
and it turns out the founder of the company,
Ben Van Leeuwen, is gonna be working today.
So, we're gonna go get some tips and tricks from him.
I cannot believe this is happening.
- Epic.
- Alright, here we go.
Woo hoo!
(upbeat music)
I need to make the ultimate vanilla vegan ice cream.
- Okay, cool.
- Would you give me a tip on kind of
how to bring out the vanilla flavor,
but to not let the coconut overpower it?
- Oh, that's good.
Mmm.
So, we think the best way to make vegan ice cream now
is using coconut cream, cashew milk,
cocoa butter, and coconut oil.
So, each of those things plays a different role
in creating a super luscious, chewy, creamy vegan ice cream.
It's a good meal.
Other than the sugar, it's completely healthy.
- I was gonna ask you, can my cat eat this?
Because sometimes she licks my ice cream.
Today I'm feeling a lot more confident
because I got to talk to Ben freakin' Van Leeuwen,
and now I'm gonna show you
some of the things that I learned.
So, the first thing we're gonna do is take these cashews
that I soaked overnight and we're gonna make cashew milk.
So, I'm gonna try to gracefully dump this in here.
I don't know if that's even humanly possible,
but oh, good god. - You got it.
- Honestly, not so bad.
Oh, yeah.
- [Vaughn] Oh, mama.
- [Merle] Is that good?
- Oh, wow, that looks so good.
This is thick.
How many Cs?
- I think it warrants three.
- Cheers.
- Okay, so now we're going to put the coconut milk
in with the cashew milk.
Two cups.
Now it's time to sauce it up.
I'm gonna make simple syrup.
So, that's just some water and some sugar.
Let's mix that baby up.
Why?
Saying what?
I don't wanna talk about it.
It's finally melting.
I am also melting.
The cocoa butter, I'm pretty sure,
is gonna help it stay fairly solid while the coconut oil
should give it that meltiness that we want in an ice cream.
We don't want it to be rock solid
like the coconut nightmare we saw yesterday.
Oh, now's the time where you can add
the flavor that you want, now that you have the base.
I'm gonna use actual vanilla bean
'cause we're fancy schmancy around here.
So, now we're gonna take this and we're going to chill it
for an hour or two.
We were supposed to freeze this for 24 hours.
- Go put that (bleep) thing
in the freezer right now, Merle.
- I'm sorry!
I'm sorry.
Alright, I'm gonna get the compressor.
We're gonna test out our first batch
of Van Leeuwen influenced ice cream.
It's so creamy and delicious. - Wow.
- Oh, look at that.
It said just to press start.
Oh my God (clapping).
We might have actual hope here, guys.
Oh my God, I think I actually did something right today.
Look at that, and we haven't even frozen it yet.
(groaning) Oh my God.
- No, I got it.
Here we go.
- [Both] Oh!
- Get outta there, you.
Wow, I'm very impressed with us.
- That is beautiful.
Oh, mama.
- No, that's really good.
That's like milk.
- Yay!
So, now I'm gonna freeze this because,
I mean, we gotta eat it,
and then tomorrow we're gonna try to perfect the flavor.
I think we've got the consistency down,
but now we wanna get that delicious vanilla flavoring
and try to lose the undertones of coconut.
So, my plan is to kind of
balance the fats out a little bit more.
I'm gonna use less coconut oil
and I'm gonna use more cocoa butter
so it has less of a coconutty flavor.
So, that's basically what we're gonna be working with
with this batch.
Now I have that batch whipped up
and I'm gonna let is churn for an hour.
And in the meantime, I'm gonna test another recipe.
I'm just playing with the levels
of cashew milk and coconut milk.
So, we've got ice cream flyin' all over the place right now
is basically what I'm saying.
Here she is!
- Oh, yeah.
Hm.
- It kinda has a bad breath aftertaste.
- I don't love it.
- Papery, wooden kinda thing. (laughing)
- The flavor's very odd.
- What do we do?
I don't know what to do.
- [Vaughn] Oh, wait, Claire!
- Claire, help us. - Let's get Claire
to taste this. - Claire, please.
Taste this and be mean,
but then be nice and tell me the texture's good.
- 'Cause I know you guys have been working
really hard on this, but this is very weird.
- So, okay, so what this is is...
- You need a lot more vanilla.
- More vanilla?
- Yeah, one...
I don't think one bean's that strong.
I think that we can up the vanilla
just to kind of overpower that flavor.
- I'm scared.
Wood and Play-Doh.
Okay, we have been asking for help
and people keep telling us it doesn't taste good,
but nobody knows how to fix it.
I don't know what to do.
I wanna keep testing 'cause it's already Friday
and we've been shooting this since Monday,
and also, we're running out of resources.
And this isn't a Game of Thrones budget,
so we can't afford to keep buying stuff.
Okay, no, I'm just frustrated because
I just want it to be something that I'm proud of,
and I'm not proud of what we have so far.
I'm getting so desperate I almost feel like we should DM Ben
and just ask him for help.
- Like Ben Van Leeuwen? - Yeah, I don't know.
- [Vaughn] DM him, you should seriously DM him.
- I feel like a maniac doing this.
Hey, Ben, I'm so sorry to bother you,
but we're having an ice cream crisis.
Oh my God, am I actually sending this?
- [Vaughn] Send.
- Now I'm just gonna be sitting here watching it.
This is turning into a reality TV show.
- [Vaughn] Whoa, look at that.
(mumbling)
- Sorry, I'm so annoyed right now.
It just tastes like wood and licorice.
The texture's good,
and now I just wanna cry because we're out of money
and we're out of time and...
- It's okay, Merle, you're gonna make it work.
So, there's cocoa butter in it?
Can I taste it?
- Yeah, I actually didn't even taste it yet.
- Oh, that's a little weird.
You know, it's like...
It tastes like when you walk into Home Depot
and you smell the weird wood in the air.
- That is what it is. - What?
- It's so bad. - It tastes like wood.
- This is what it is. - It smells like wood.
- Wait.
- That is the weird aftertaste.
- Why didn't we taste this before?
- Close your eyes and walk into Home Depot.
- Smack my fanny and call me Sally.
That is what it is!
- Here's what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna take it down from six tablespoons of cocoa butter
to four and I'm gonna bring up the coconut oil
from two tablespoons to four.
We're gonna add in the coconut milk and the cashew milk,
and then we're going to emulsify it.
I'm going to actually start the blender
with these in it already,
and then I'm going to slowly pour in the sugar water mixture
to make sure that they really blend together.
Woo, emulsify!
It sounds like a great spell.
We'll be cutting around that.
I'm gonna go chill this, and I'm gonna chill,
and then we're gonna churn it and call it a day.
We're almost done.
- Knock on wood. - Knock on
whatever you have nearby.
Oh, there's some wood.
(country music)
- We don't wanna over churn it.
- Okay, I'm gonna churn it off.
(laughing)
Should we take a little teeny taste of it?
That is so much better.
- [Vaughn] No, really?
- You're about to scream to the heavens.
- Oh my god. - I know!
It's so much better!
- My god, wait, that's so good!
- [Merle] I think we've figured it out.
- [Vaughn] Oh my God.
- I'm so happy right now.
- [Vaughn] This feels like victory.
- Oh, mama.
Whoa, we are done.
I'm ready to wrap this puppy up.
Let's get some people in here to try it.
This is a very important taste tester
because Rachel's vegan.
- This is gonna be some Gordon Ramsey review right here.
- The eye contact is everything.
No pressure.
- Holy (bleep).
- It's (bleep) delicious.
- [Merle] Yes!
- I am so impressed.
- Yeah, this is nice, this is good.
- This struggle was so real.
Easily the hardest Tasty video I've ever made,
and certainly the longest.
I don't know if I could've done it without you, for sure.
I think I probably would've given up.
- Oh, stop it.
Let's eat some of that ice cream.
It's really good. - I mean,
we have like 19 tubs of ice cream now.
Woo, let's go see Mama Mia Two, not a plug.
(upbeat music)