Saturday, April 3, 2010

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

I love coconut in many forms, but my favorite is just simply toasted!  I have been wanting to experiment using coconut in ice cream for a while, but since it has been cool, I have held off.  But since it has been warm lately I felt like it was about time!  I was wondering if coconut milk would behave in ice cream as well as heavy cream, which is what I normally use.  It ended up with a little more icy texure, somewhat like sorbet, but more creamy!  This was double coconut ice cream since it contained the milk as well as toasted coconut stirred in at the end...and ended up being simply heavenly!  Instead of the sugar overload that most people add to ice cream, I decided to go for agave nectar, a more blood sugar friendly alternative, as well as a tropical sweetener!  I am very pleased with the result of this ice cream experiment, and if you have an ice cream maker, I would urge you to try it!  It is going to go perfect with the strawberry mango toasted coconut crisp I also made today (recipe to come soon). 

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

1 15 oz can organic full fat coconut milk
3/4 cup organic whole milk
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 vanilla bean
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted

Whisk together coconut milk, milk, and agave nectar in a bowl. Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise with a sharp knife. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and reserve the pod for another use (such as placing in a jar of sugar to give it a lovely flavor). Add seeds to to the bowl along with the extract, and salt whisk well to blend. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to package directions (mine takes about an hour, and is still a little soupy like the consistency of a malt, but firms up in the freezer). When ice cream is done freezing, stir in toasted coconut, and pour into a tupperware container, and place in the freezer for at least a few hours, or preferrably overnight to ripen for best results. Makes about 4+ cups of delicious ice cream! Once you make this you will never want store bought again!
Dried Coconut on Foodista
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3 comments:

  1. I love shredded coconut! And coconut ice cream is deliciously creamy.If you won't mind I'd love to guide foodista readers to your site.Just add your choice of Foodista widget at the end of this blog post and it's good to go.Thanks!

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  2. Amy this sounds amazing! I don't do dairy too well (which is one of the reasons I got my own ice cream maker in the first place!!) - do you think I could use soy or almond milk instead? And maybe a splash of coconut extract too! Haha can you tell how excited I am?

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  3. I would just use lower fat coconut milk to replace the milk...soy or almond might freeze funny (get too icy). But hey, you know what, experiments are always fun, and you don't know until you try :)! If you do use one of the two you suggested let me know if it turns out...I would be interested in other options as well :)! The coconut extract sounds good! Have you been able to find any that isn't artificial? I used to buy some organic stuff, and now I can't find it anywhere! All I can find is artifical...kind of bummed because I liked using it!

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