- She's green. She's mean.
She's ready to beat Rachel Green.
- She is so competitive, this woman.
- One for you. One for me.
- We don't need any of that baloney.
We are golden.
- Hey, what's up everybody? It's your girl, Merle.
- Hello. I'm Rachel.
- And today, we're gonna be making
two different kinds of vegan ice cream
at two different price points.
- So one of us will be making a $4 vegan ice cream,
and the other will be making a $44 ice cream.
Crazy times.
- And then at the end,
our good friend Jasmine is gonna come in here
and see which one she thinks has the best value.
- I trust Jasmine.
- Oh yeah.
- She's got a great eye and nose.
- Taste buds?
- And taste buds.
She's got a great mouth.
- Oh God!
- No, but she's like a really good taste tester.
- She's great.
- I just really value her opinion.
- So heads will be expensive. Tails will be cheap.
- Yes.
(dramatic music)
(sad music)
(screen beeps)
- I can't see it.
Heads!
Expensive! Finally!
- Oh (beeps).
- But also, $44 for ice cream?
I feel like somehow I'm still always at a loss.
- She is so competitive, this woman.
You literally won twice in a row.
What do you want from me?
- So I'm cheap.
I feel right at home.
I like a good budget. I like a good deal.
I'm a Costco girl.
- She's scrappy. She's happy.
Get used to it.
- Get used to it, folks.
- Here we go.
All right. So I've got the $44 ice cream,
which means I get to be lavish.
We got money to spend today. (cash register chimes)
And so I've decided I'm gonna make
a delicious matcha ice cream.
And believe it or not, ceremonial-grade matcha
actually carries quite a hefty price tag.
And not only are we gonna make the matcha ice cream,
we're also gonna put a whole bunch
of delicious, expensive stuff inside and on top of it.
So the first thing we're gonna make
is the macadamia nut blondie.
The reason that we're using macadamia nuts
is because they're very complementary to matcha,
and they're expensive, so we can.
So the first thing we're gonna do is add some flour,
some baking powder, and some salt to a bowl,
and we're just gonna whisk that right up.
So what would an expensive ice cream be
without vanilla from an actual vanilla bean?
So I'm gonna start by just cutting this pod in half.
Warning: be very careful when using sharp knives.
Then we're going to scrape out the insides.
There it is.
And now, I've got some organic granulated sugar,
and then we're gonna use our very clean hands
and mix it together with our vanilla bean.
Now, I'm gonna add in some brown sugar,
some melted vegan butter,
we're gonna add in some applesauce,
and then even more vanilla with some vanilla extract,
because why not?
We're gonna take our whisk,
and we're gonna just mix that altogether.
It smells incredible.
It actually smells like the vanilla lotion
I used to put on myself in eighth grade
from Bath & Body Works.
I really thought that was selling me to the fellas.
It did not work.
Now, we're gonna combine our wet ingredients
with our dry ingredients.
And finally,
we're gonna fold in our dry-roasted macadamia nuts.
Now that we've got our batter all mixed up,
we're gonna add this to a loaf pan.
I'm just gonna smooth this out so it's even on the bottom.
We are going to bake this at 350 degrees Fahrenheit...
that's 180 degrees Celsius...
for 35 minutes.
We let this bad boy cool for like 15 minutes,
and now we're gonna cut this wee baby loaf into chunks.
So now it's time for us
to get into making the base of this ice cream.
So I'm gonna mix together my matcha
with some organic sugar.
From here, it smells so good.
Oh. That was like $1.50 I just spilled out of the bowl.
Now we're gonna combine our water
and some more organic sugar over a medium heat.
I'm just gonna whisk this up
until the sugar has completely dissolved.
This should only take around two minutes.
I'm gonna go ahead and add back in
my matcha/sugar concoction.
And mix that up.
Ooh, that color is gorgeous.
Now, we're gonna add in some cocoa butter,
which I think will help to achieve a more
dairy ice cream experience.
Then I'm gonna add in some coconut oil.
And lastly, we've got a little bit of salt.
And we're gonna stir this up until the coconut puck is gone.
Okay, so now we're gonna continue making our base.
And the first thing we're gonna do
is make some homemade cashew milk.
I've got some soaked cashews here,
so I'm gonna pop those in,
and I'm gonna add in some water,
and we're gonna blend that right up.
Now we have our cashew milk. It's all smooth and creamy.
And I'm gonna go ahead and add in some coconut milk.
I'm gonna just blend this on the low.
(blender whirring) Low and slow.
And while that is blending,
I'm gonna add my matcha mixture from earlier.
Oh my gosh.
Now we're gonna transfer our mixture over to this bowl.
And now we are gonna chill this for one hour.
All right. So I've got my chilled matcha mixture here.
I'm gonna go ahead and transfer that
to my ice cream maker.
Using an ice cream maker, I think, is 100% worth it,
because it's gonna give you that creamy, smooth texture
that you would get from dairy ice cream.
And now we're gonna cover this up,
and we're gonna let this baby churn, baby, churn
for 27 minutes.
(ice cream maker whirring)
So our ice cream is a churned up.
Now we're going to lift this up and out.
Ooh.
I'm gonna transfer the ice cream to my little baking pan.
So we're gonna put a third of it in there.
I'm gonna layer in some of these little blondie chunks.
One for you. One for me.
Next, we're gonna put another third
of the ice cream on there.
All right. More blondies.
All right. Our last layer of the old ice cream.
And finally, I'm gonna top it off.
It just exudes money to me.
So now, we're gonna go ahead and freeze this
for anywhere from six hours to overnight.
Okay, so now we're gonna make our black sesame
and gold fleck brittle.
We'll just start by laying out our sugar in our pan.
We're gonna let that heat up,
and after we've been stirring it
for like four to five minutes,
it's gonna develop like a deep golden amber color.
I'm gonna take it off the heat.
Now, I'm going to add in my black sesame seeds,
a little bit of salt, and then mix that together.
Whoa. This is wild looking.
And while this is still warm,
I'm gonna quickly move this over to my baking sheet
so I can spread it out.
We only want it to be about a quarter-inch thick.
All right, now we're gonna go ahead
and take some little gold flecks,
'cause what would the expensive recipe be
without edible gold?
And we're gonna place that on there because we can.
This almost looks too pretty to eat.
That's how you know it's good.
I want the person to feel bad when they're eating it,
like they're ruining something.
This is looking delectable.
And now all I gotta do is just leave it here
and let it cool down completely.
It's brittle time, baby.
We've got our brittle here. Solid.
And we're going to put it in a plastic bag.
I know.
Plastic bags, not the best for the environment,
but hey, I'm not perfect.
No one is. Moving on.
We're gonna take this suspiciously-sized rolling pin,
and we're going to use it to crack our brittle.
(pin pounding)
Oh, that's not cracking at all.
(pin pounding)
There we have it.
Now, it's time for us to assemble our ice cream.
Pretty.
This is looking gorgeous.
She's green. She's mean.
She's ready to beat Rachel Green.
Her last name's Gaewski, but you get it.
And I'm ready to win.
- Okay. So it's my turn to make some vegan ice cream.
So I only have $4 for my ice cream.
That's a really tiny budget.
Because I don't have that much money,
I'm gonna make a base out of homemade oat milk
and actually some aquafaba.
First, I'm gonna get started
on what's going inside the ice cream.
So I'm gonna start with some chocolate-covered pretzels.
This is actually a hack
if you want to save even more money.
I'm gonna use some powdered sugar,
cocoa powder, and water, and stir this up.
So this is like ultra, ultra cheap.
So now I'm just gonna take some pretzels.
Dip them in here. Just give them a little toss.
And we're gonna transfer our chocolate pretzels
onto a baking sheet.
Look at how delectable these look.
They're so shiny.
It's almost like we put coconut oil in them, but we did not.
So now, I'm gonna let these sit for about an hour
to harden up.
(upbeat music) (pin pounding)
This feels really good, actually.
(pin pounding)
Oh. (beeps)
Okay, so we have our roughly broken-up pieces,
and now I'm gonna get started on the peanut caramel sauce.
I'm going to add water, organic brown sugar,
natural peanut butter.
Stir for about four or five minutes
until it gets a little bit bubbly
and thickens up a little bit.
Merle's probably making like a hibiscus melon
with a sprinkling of gold dust, you know?
But guys, we don't need any of that baloney.
We are golden.
This is just how we want it.
We can take it off of the heat.
So now we're gonna get started
on the base of the ice cream and I love oat milk ice cream,
but oat milk is expensive.
So what I'm gonna do is add in some oats
to a little blender, and we're gonna add in some water,
and this is actually gonna be more like an oat milk cream.
So we're gonna blend it up.
(blender whirring)
So now I'm going to strain my oat milk
in this little sieve, and with this pole,
you can do all kinds of things.
You can make an oatmeal face mask, put it in your compost,
and those are your only two options.
Great.
So now, I'm gonna add in some coconut oil
and a little bit of powdered sugar,
and we're gonna stir that up.
Then we're gonna make the second part of our base.
So we have some aquafaba here,
which I'm gonna add to the bowl.
And I got this from a can of chickpeas,
so it's basically free.
It cost pennies.
Now, we're gonna add a little bit of cream of tartar,
and what that's gonna do
is it's going to help the aquafaba hold its shape
once we whip it up.
And then we're going to add a little bit of vanilla,
which is also one of like the most expensive ingredients
in this whole thing.
So now I'm gonna whip this up until it triples in volume.
(mixer whirring)
Very satiny. There's like a sheen on it.
So now, I'm gonna add in a little bit of powdered sugar,
sift in a little bit at a time,
and then we're gonna mix it in with the mixer.
(mixer whirring)
Sift, sift, sift.
(mixer whirring)
So I'm just gonna add in the oat milk cream,
in two different parts
and kind of fold that in very carefully.
We want to be very gentle.
Beautiful.
Now, I'm just gonna drizzle in about a quarter
of this peanut butter/caramel mixture.
And I'm just gonna give it a couple more folds
and just try to maintain that little swirl
I've got going on.
Okay, so now, I'm gonna pour in a third of this mixture
into my loaf pan,
and I'm gonna do another quarter of my caramel drizzle.
Now, I'm gonna take a third of my pretzels
and just sprinkle them over here.
And now, I'm just gonna kind of swirl it up
with the back of a fork here.
And we're gonna just repeat that now.
Okay. So this looks great.
So now I'm going to just pop it in the freezer
for six hours, or even up to overnight.
Look at that.
In the blink of an eye, our ice cream is done freezing.
All right, we're gonna scoop this.
It's very light.
It's very airy, which, I mean, makes sense,
'cause it's aquafaba, right?
And now, I'm just gonna decorate it
with a little bit more of my chocolate-covered pretzels.
Beautiful.
I'm excited. This looks delicious.
And now, Jasmine is gonna taste-test our ice creams
and pick a winner.
- Jasmine! You made it. - Hi!
- Hello. - I'm here.
- Merle and I made two different vegan ice creams
at two price points.
One is cheap and one's expensive.
Why don't you go ahead and first try the one on your right?
- Okay.
Well, with my eyes,
they're telling me there's some chocolate-covered pretzels.
Mmm.
Wow. This is really good.
I mean, I don't know how much it cost,
but it tastes delicious.
It's creamy.
There's a chew with the toppings
that are mixed into the ice cream.
The base. Aquafaba?
- You're correct.
- Really? - Yeah.
(Jasmine laughs)
I am shocked right now.
See, I told you.
She's like the taste-testing expert. She know.
- Go ahead and try the second ice cream.
- Well, immediately, I'm thinking this one's more expensive.
I'm seeing gold, I'm seeing a black sesame bark,
and the matcha is a very nice, brilliant green.
Immediately, I'm just thinking
that it could be the expensive one, based on visuals.
- I mean, I don't know why there would be gold
on an expensive one.
- Nobody's done that before.
- Doesn't check out to me.
- [Jasmine] Oh, what's that?
Ooh. Cookie dough?
- Good guess.
- Guess what nut is that? Hazelnut?
- Macadamia nut.
- I was, I was...
- It's okay. It's okay.
- The texture of the ice cream is very dense and very milky.
I'm always surprised at how well
you guys can replicate the creaminess of these foods.
The matcha's not too sweet,
but there's a very elegant sweetness.
- All right, so that ice cream on your left is $44.
- What?
- And then the ice cream on your right is $4.
- Oh my goodness.
- Which one would you say has the better value?
- The matcha macadamia blondie ice cream
was absolutely delicious.
Very nice and dense,
and you can tell that the matcha is very high in quality.
Also, I know that gold flakes don't really add much
nutritionally, but visually,
I just think it really sets it apart.
Plus, a black sesame bark?
I just can't say no to that.
For the peanut butter caramel swirl ice cream,
I mean, it's so creamy, so delicious.
Each bite has a bunch of different crunchies,
and it was just packed with flavor.
So this is tough,
but at this point, taking in the different prices...
- Ahh!
What was that gurgling noise?
(screen beeps)
- All things considered, if we're talking about best value,
I'm gonna have to go with this one.
- Wahoo! Yeah, doggy!
- Aye, aye, aye, doggy!
- Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
(Merle clapping)
- Thanks, guys. I love you.
- All right, Merle.
So we now, the two vegans,
are gonna give this ice cream a try
and tell you guys what we think.
- The matcha one, to be fair, looks like actual ice cream.
- It does.
- Mmm.
- The texture on this is insane.
- [Merle] Yeah. It's very, very close to ice cream.
- Those macadamia nut blondie chunks.
- They add a nice little toasty flavor.
- All right, let's do the other one.
- The difference in the visual already is just like,
yeah, you can tell it wasn't using an ice cream machine,
but also just aquafaba has a very distinct texture.
- I like it. I think it's good.
- Mm-hmm.
- I love pretzel pieces in ice cream.
I do think it deserved to win in this challenge-
- Mm-hmm.
- But the texture on the matcha ice cream,
it's so much better.
- Both are good options. But I agree with you.
I think yours deserved to win.
Nicely done on both of us.
- Mm-hmm. I'm proud of this.
- Yeah, me too.
Thank you so much for watching.
Please let us know what you'd like us to make next-
- In the comments below.
- Comments below.
Bet you've never heard that one before.
- Never.
- [Merle] Yeah. The knees can't do it like they used to.
- [Rachel] I'm in a position no one should ever be.
- [Merle] I know. That was interesting.
(upbeat music)