Ah Summer. A time for picnics, legitimate excuses to drink outdoors during daylight hours, and terrifying the citizens of Liverpool by getting my milk-bottle-white legs out in public. It’s also the time of year where my office turns into a microwave. Since Summer decided to make an appearance here, I’ve been spending my weekdays hugging my desk fan and daydreaming about coke floats, milkshakes and pretty much anything involving huge scoops of frozen treats. On Tuesday, I would have happily paid someone to come to my office brandishing an ice cold chocolate malt topped with peanut butter ice cream. Alas, it wasn’t to be. And whilst I attempted to scratch my itch by having a Toblerone Milkshake for lunch on Friday, it just didn’t hit that sweet spot. “Bugger this for a game of soldiers” I thought to myself. “If Liverpool won’t provide me with decent ice cream, I’ll just have to make some myself”.
Kavey, the lady behind Kavey Eats holds a monthly blogger competition called Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream. This month’s theme is ‘chocolate’. Well, I don’t exactly need any encouragement to create some chocolate ice cream, but I thought it would be a bit dull to just present you with a simple cocoa creation. I’ve been cooking with a lot of coconut milk recently and thought it might make a good base for a frozen custard. And what better accompaniments are there to a coconut milk custard than a shitload of dessicated coconut and chocolate chips?
I’ll admit – at first I thought this ice cream would never see the light of day. I (cleverly) managed to scramble my first custard necessitating a trip to ASDA which saw a gust of wind blowing up my billowy Summer skirt and accidentally revealing my underwear to the neighbours. (Classy, eh?) Then I cracked out the ice cream maker only to discover that I’d forgotten that the churning drum needs to be frozen for 24 hours beforehand – a process which required some serious reorganisation of my freezer. By the time I finally got around to making it, I was cursing ever having the idea in the first place. Then I tasted it, and it all became worthwhile.
This ice cream is a delight – soft and easy to scoop straight from the freezer, sweet with a little bit of bitterness from the dark chocolate chips. A bit like a posh frozen Bounty. If you wanted to be all sophisticated, you could add some cocoa nibs. Or, if you feel like gilding this particular lily, I also imagine that it would work pretty well in this spiked milkshake. All I know at the moment is that there’s currently half a tub of this in my freezer, and it’s all I can think about.
COCONUT-CHOC-CHIP ICE CREAM
You will need:
- 400ml full fat coconut milk
- 200ml single cream
- 100g caster sugar
- 6 (free range) egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 100g dessicated coconut
- 100g dark chocolate chips
- First, place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer and chill for 24 hours. (I know this sounds obvious, but if I don’t tell you, you’ll no doubt forget).
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy. Heat the coconut milk, cream and vanilla essence until almost boiling (little bubbles should be forming along the sides). Slowly pour the cream into the egg yolks, whisking all the time.
- Pour the custard into a clean bowl, and place this over a pan of boiling water (make sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water, otherwise your custard will scramble). Heat the custard gently until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Cover the bowl with a piece of greaseproof paper, pushing it into the mixture (this will prevent it developing a skin). Leave the custard to cool for half an hour, then place it in the fridge for another half hour.
- Add the dessicated coconut to the custard, pour into an ice cream maker and churn for 15 minutes. Then add the dark chocolate chips and churn for another fifteen minutes.
- Serve either by itself, or in waffle cones.
