Recipe #4: Coconut Ice Cream

For those of you living in the land of grocery stores... this is a bit unnecessary. There are some beautiful coconut ice cream options made in Oregon by Coconut Bliss or So Delicious/Purely Decadent. If you can't afford them, can't find them, need to go sugar-free like us or are just one of those DIY foodies...

Our family tradition (at least overseas) is to make some form of 'ice cream' (stainless steel bowl full of something) in the freezer on Sat. and have it with snack foods for dinner and a movie Sunday nights. When starting this dairy-free, everything-free diet, my first two concerns were how will we do pizza night and what about 'ice cream'?!

I tried mashed white bean - honey ice cream. Blech. Then mashed fruit sorbet. Ok. But I LOVE coconut milk, so I was thrilled to find:

Recipe #4: Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Inspired by this tasty goodness over at Elana's Pantry, but for some reason James couldn't get into Coconut milk on its own without some fruit, and we usually forgo the raw eggs.

Ingredients: (I double this for our family)

1 can coconut milk
1 large (or 2 small) ripe bananas
1/4 cup raw honey
1 Tbs. vanilla essence
dash sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon, optional
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (we use Enjoy Life dairy-free mini chips)

Blend bananas, honey, vanilla, and salt in the blender and then add the coconut milk later until no banana chunks remain. I add half the chocolate chips in the blender for a pulse or two just to chop some of them. Then I dump the whole thing in my metal freezer bowl. Two - four hours later I try to remember to come back and add the second half of the chips when things are mostly frozen. We don't have an ice cream maker, so it can freeze very solid. Good to leave on the counter for 10 minutes or more before breaking your ice cream scoop... So yummy!!

I have added mango sauce before and it was very good. Haven't yet tried warm jams or dried fruits... I hope soon to try adding cocoa powder and or peppermint extract... YUM!

It's never too late in the year for ice cream. I know I can't talk because I live in the tropics. But you can pair this with a warm ginger molasses cookie... a pumpkin spice latte... a piece of mocha coffee cake... I better stop before drooling on my keyboard.