Sunday 19 February 2012

My pictures


Wednesday 15 February 2012

Paleo Coconut and Vanilla Healthy Ice Cream

I recently made some coconut and vanilla healthy ice cream, and followed this recipe but changed some bits of it. 

Ingredients
  • 1 can coconut milk, full-fat;
  • 2 eggs or 4 egg yolks (yolks alone will give even more richness);
  • Seeds from 2 fresh vanilla beans or 4 tbsp real vanilla extract.
Possible flavouring options (add any or a combination of the fallowing flavourings)
  • 1/2 cup of your favourite berries (chopped or blended to a puree);
  • 1/2 cup coconut flakes;
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped mint;
  • 1/4 cup chopped nuts;
  • Lemon, lime or orange zest;
  • 3 tbsp raw honey;
  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips or flakes (you can take a high quality dark chocolate and chop it yourself to your liking).

It didn't turn out as I planned so hopefully the second try would be better. These are some pictures of the ice cream.

Technique

  1. Boil some water in a pot and reduce to a simmer.
  2. Place a heat proof bowl over it in a double boiler fashion and pour the coconut milk in it. Put vanilla seeds or vanilla extract with the coconut milk and heat until hot, but make sure it doesn’t come to a boil. If using flavourings such as mint or dark chocolate, you can add them now. You can also add chocolate at the end of the process to keep the pieces whole.
  3. Whisk the eggs of yolks in a separate bowl. Add one dollop of the now hot coconut milk to the eggs while whisking quite vigorously. What you’re doing is tempering the eggs and slowly bringing the temperature up without cooking the eggs and risking that they scramble. Add two or three other dollops  of the coconut milk mixture and incorporate them to the eggs while whisking continuously.
  4. Take the tempered eggs and whisk in the bowl where the rest of the coconut milk is on the double boiler.
  5. Whisk for a couple of minutes non-stop to form a thick custard. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot and the simmering water doesn’t touch the bowl.
  6. Once the custard is ready, remove from the heat source and let it cool on the counter or the refrigerator.
  7. You can add any other flavouring you want to use once the custard is cold enough to put a finger in it and feel comfortable.
  8. Let it cool even more in the refrigerator before freezing
  9. it. Put in your ice cream maker and follow its instructions or put in a baking dish in the freezer and stir vigorously every 30 minutes for about 2 to 3 hours until it’s set.
  10. Take it out of the freezer for about 10 minutes before enjoying so it softens a bit. Serve with added coconut milk, berries, mint, coconut flakes or any other flavouring you might like.