It’s finally t-shirt weather in California – we spent most of Sunday planting the rest of our summer garden and pulling out our patio furniture.  I can’t wait for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants to start flowering.

For those who are interested, we planted two varieties of tomatoes – Paul Robeson, which is a black variety and an Orange/Green Zebra, both heirloom varieties.  We planted a bunch of tomatillos (which will hopefully produce enough to can salsa by the end of the summer, along with a few varieties of hot peppers. Once things get going in the garden, I’ll follow up with a more detailed post.  For now, onto the subject at hand, coconut ice cream!

I have been wanting to try new flavours of ice cream, and the warm weather this weekend was a perfect opportunity.  You could easily make this recipe vegan by using a non-dairy creamer (such as Silk).  I also had a perfectly ripe pineapple that I had picked up earlier that week – how can you go wrong with pineapple and coconut?

Ingredients

• 400 ml coconut milk
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar to personal preference (I could only find sweetened coconut cream at the grocery store, so I didn’t add any sugar when I made this batch)
• 425 g coconut cream
• 1/2 pint whipping cream (use a non-dairy creamer if you’d like to make the recipe vegan)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

1. If you are using sugar, dissolve it into the coconut milk – otherwise, you can skip this step.
2. Pour the coconut cream into a large bowl and whisk until all of the lumps are gone.
3. Add in the remaining liquid ingredients and whisk until completely mixed.
4. Add in the shredded coconut.
5. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.
6. Follow the instructions provided with your ice cream machine to churn the ice cream – makes 6 to 8 servings.

I served the ice cream with pineapple on the side – it would have also tasted delicious with some toasted coconut or some toasted nuts. I served the ice cream right out of the ice cream maker, but you can always allow it to set for a bit longer in the freezer if you prefer a more frozen consistency.