Vanilla Coconut Milk "Ice Cream"

While looking for alternatives to ice cream with a cow's milk base, I found this one on another food blog (cavemanfood.blogspot.com). This recipe has a few mods, however, and the fact that I have no ice cream machine added another twist to the process. The result was amazing, though, and worth the extra effort.

The original recipe called for vanilla beans, and Henry's sells them for $11 (two pods). I wavered back and forth...should I be spendy or not? I believe in eating well, but we're also on a budget, so I scrapped the vanilla beans and used a high quality, pure vanilla extract that we already had at home. Another modification is that the original recipe called for up to 3 tbsp of raw honey. Since I know that honey is supposed to be limited (if at all included) in Paleo, I did cut it back to ~1.5 tbsp.

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk (regular, not light or reduced fat)
2 eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (organic if you can)
1 tbsp lavendar flowers, chopped (optional, I used some from my yard)
1-2 tbsp raw honey

Equipment:

Glass bowl
Medium-sized pot
Whisk
Silicone spatula
Ladle
Glass or metal pan

Directions:

This ice cream recipe requires you to make a custard first, then freeze the resulting thickened liquid. It's really not hard but does take some time and patience.

To make the custard:

1. Set up a double boiler (I used a glass bowl that just fit inside the medium-sized pot). Fill ~half way with water, and bring water to a simmer. Do not bring water to a rolling boil.

sidenote: What does simmering water look like? My best estimate was that there were big, fat bubbles forming at the bottom that would break off and float upward.

2. Add the can of coconut milk and the lavendar flowers (if desired). Heat, stirring frequently, until the milk becomes hot but not boiling.

3. Meanwhile, crack and whisk 2 eggs in a heatproof bowl.

4. Have the ladle and whisk ready. When the milk is hot, ladle out 1 scoop. With your other hand, begin whisking eggs. Simultaneously pour (slowly) the hot milk into the eggs. You are tempering the eggs here and bringing them slowly up to temperature so they do not scramble.

5. Add another ladle of hot milk and continue to whisk. Now, pour the warmed eggs into the double boiler with the rest of the milk.

6. Continuously whisk the milk/egg mixture until it thickens (for me, this took ~15 min). The heat may not have been high enough, but I didn't want to risk scrambling the eggs.

7. Remove bowl from heat. Once cooled enough so you can put your finger in without burning yourself, whisk in the honey and vanilla extract.

8. How to make ice cream without a machine? I found this great set of instructions here. The result (the next morning) was very hard, but I left it out for a few minutes to soften before scooping out.

Pour into glass pan and follow directions for making ice cream without a machine

The result is delicious and well-worth the effort as a special treat!