When coconut is toasted until it's brown and slightly crunchy, it takes on a whole new flavor - nutty and caramel-like, but still strongly coconut too. Toasted coconut is delicious in this ice cream, which also has cream of coconut. Serve this ice cream drizzled with warm dulce de leche or hot fudge sauce, and sprinkled with more toasted coconut.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: About 1 quart of ice cream.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups dried, shredded coconut (sweetened)
- 15 ounce can of cream of coconut
- 1 cup milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon rum (optional)
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the coconut in a shallow pan and bake until golden brown, checking and stirring frequently so that it toasts evenly. Let cool, and set aside 1/4 cup for sprinkling over ice cream when served, if desired.
- Whisk egg yolks in a heat proof bowl until light yellow. Place cream of coconut, milk and sugar in a saucepan and bring to almost a simmer.
- When the milk and sugar mixture is hot, remove it from the heat and pour it gradually into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour everything back into the saucepan and return to the heat.
- Cook mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens slightly, enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon with a film. Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Stir in the toasted coconut, the whipping cream, the vanilla, coconut and almond extracts, rum (if using), and salt to taste.
- Chill mixture and freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.
