Coconut – Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream

Coconut - Chocolate truffle ice cream, served w. rustic plum tart

I have another solution for the west coast heat: homemade coconut ice cream, laced with chocolate truffle shavings. I love chocolate chip ice creams but when the chips are just frozen chunks of chocolate, you know the variety that sticks in the crevices of your molars for a few minutes, I consider that an inconsiderate oversight on the part of manufacturers. So, for this recipe I shaved chocolate truffles into the batch. It was all made in my kitchen, using my good old arm (getting older every day =() in place of an ice cream maker. The prospect of doing this yourself may seem daunting, but it’s actually easy, surprisingly so. All you’ll need is a mixing bowl (preferably steel so that you can freeze it) and a Saturday (you’ll need to devote a good ten minutes to the project, spaced out over a 4hr period). The recipe I used is adapted from David Lebovitz’ Coconut saffron recipe: 

Coconut – Choco Truffle ice cream
(makes 4 small servings…anything smaller than an overflowing bowl is ‘small’ where ice cream is concerned) 

1 cup coconut milk (canned stuff will do the trick)
2/3 cup half and half (the original recipe calls for heavy cream, but I like to keep it light wherever I can)
1/4 cup raw cane sugar
shavings from 2 chocolate truffles 

Freeze your steel bowl. Bring the coconut milk, sugar and half and half to a boil. Reduce heat, then simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Pour the mixture into the frozen steel bowl, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled (this should take about 1.5 hrs). Transfer the bowl to the freezer.

here you can see how the outer edge is frozen

After 30 min, check on the mixture. The sides should be beginning to freeze. Whisk the mixture to break up the ice crystals forming on the sides and throughout (you can also use an electric beater). Put the mixture back in the refrigerator for another half hour. Repeat this process at least three times. On the 3rd or 4th time transfer the mixture to a storage container and freeze overnight. The ice cream will be ready to serve the next day!!

Almost vegan, but not quite. The compromise of using coconut milk and half and half resulted in an ice cream that is very quick to melt once spooned into a bowl. It might be better to go the sorbet route for the vegan option, until becoming comfortable enough with non-traditional ingredients that act in place of creams and eggs. I will experiment with real ice cream, e.g. good and fatty cream based ingredients in the future. So, stay tuned for that. 

ALSO: I almost forgot!! The Culinary Physics lectures mentioned in The future of Food have begun, and are available to watch during the live stream hosted from Harvard’s website on Monday nights @ 7pm EST. The next lecture will be streamed on Monday, October 4th and is called Heat, Temperature and Chocolate. Can’t wait!!