AND I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE BEFORE WE ATE IT. :-(
Look at our ice cream carnage! My container is below the canister of Chunky Monkey. All gone!
Everyone loved the heck out of it, and it was gone before I could snap it. I admit, it is a massive failboat express on my part, but sometimes the memory of the food/dish is better than any picture you could take. Since it's Girl Scout cookie season, I decided to order up a bunch of my favorites, the Samoa. For those who aren't in the know, Samoas have a shortbread base, are drenched in caramel, sprinkled with coconut, and drizzled with chocolate on the top and bottom. Intense, right? These were begging to be put in an ice cream. I remember back in the day, Edy's had a chocolate ice cream with Thin Mints in it...Samoas should be given a chance to shine too!
Please take note that I do know that Edy's made a Samoa Ice Cream with caramel ice cream and ribbons of caramel and fudge...but it sucked. I knew I could make it better.
After hunting for a bit, I found an extremely easy recipe for coconut ice cream on All Recipes. You only need 3 ingredients (not counting the shredded coconut which I decided not to use because I was going to use the cookies as my mix in), one of which is already sweetened.
Using a blender or food processor, combine 1 can (14 or 15 oz is fine) of cream of coconut*, 1 cup of whole milk, and 1 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Process until silky smooth. I added a little less than 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to mellow the coconut flavor, and following a comment that was posted, I added grey sea salt to taste. I already had the stuff at home, and I always add a pinch of salt to desserts to turn up their flavor, so it seemed like a win-win. I poured the mixture into my favorite ice cream container at let it age in the fridge from about 1 in the afternoon, to about 3 in the morning.
Why 3 in the morning? Because that's when I got home from my monthly potluck. I was wee bit (a lot) under the influence and I knew if I just went to bed, the ice cream would never freeze solid in time. So, I drank a big glass of water, got on the phone with a friend, and soldiered on. I'm all about accomplishing goals! Churn the ice cream according to your manufacturers instructions, for me, that was 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of churning, I threw in the cookies, which I had broken up by hand. Next time I will remember to keep the cookies in the fridge, so they can be nice and cold when I throw them in the mix. I let the mixture churn for about 5 more minutes to be on the safe side, and then I transferred it back to the tupperware. Plastic wrap and a lid, and it was off to the freezer to harden.
Yes, I licked the dasher clean. DON'T JUDGE. It was FANTASTIC. The richness of the cream of coconut gave the ice cream an unworldly body and mouth feel, and the minerals in the sea magnified the toasty flavor of the cookies. It was a huge hit at the class, so I hope you guys will give it a go!
*Cream of coconut is NOT the same as coconut milk.Cream of coconut is sweetened and is used in making Pina Coladas. Coconut milk is just that, and it's unsweetened. Read the can before you buy!
This sounds amazing! Thank you for posting the recipe! I wish I'd gotten my act together and made it to the ice cream club. There's always next month I guess!
ReplyDeleteyou're very welcome! hopefully i can come up with something even more awesome for next month.
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