I have Kelly at Life Made Sweeter to thank for today's tasty kitchen experiment. A week or so ago, she posted some delectable-looking toasted coconut banana bread ice cream sandwiches and I spied a recipe for coconut ice cream within it that I just had to try.
The ice cream takes 3 ingredients to make: coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla extract. Who can resist something that simple! Clearly not me because I was pulling out my little ice cream machine in no time.
This may be an odd time to say that I'm actually not a huge fan of coconut...but I just love coconut milk. The aroma and taste of it is nothing short of intoxicating.
While I have been getting into the habit of cooking with light coconut milk and it works really well in many cases, this is definitely not the time for it. You need to use full-fat coconut milk since you're making ice cream and want as much creamiest as possible. I went digging in my pantry and actually found a can sitting there waiting for me so it was surely meant to be.
True to expectation, the finished product tasted like delicious coconut milk in ice cream form! If you love coconut milk, there's nothing not to love about the taste of this. And you'll love that it takes little more effort beyond dissolving some sugar in the coconut milk and letting it chill before churning.
I do want to point out that, in my experience, the ice cream freezes very hard (it comes out like soft-serve fresh out of the ice cream machine if you'd like to dig in then) so you need to let it sit out for a bit to soften before scooping. I did make a small batch using only one can of coconut milk so maybe that didn't help my case. I needed to give it a few really good scrapes to pull my ice cream together. Assuming that's not a deal-breaker for you, the flavor is sensational. (I do wonder if a little alcohol like vodka would soften the texture but that's an experiment for another day...)
And in the spirit of simple and easy, I decided to whip up some sweet sesame seed wonton crisps to go with the ice cream. They are really easy to make! Take a few wonton skins, lay them on a baking sheet and brush them with a little egg wash before sprinkling with sesame seeds and a bit of sugar. Then bake until browned and crispy.
The sesame flavor really pops in these wonton crisps and went really well with the coconut milk ice cream. The two pack a lot of flavor individually but worked well together to bring each forward. You could serve one alongside or even lay some ice cream right on top of one like I did. It's fun either way because it ends up being finger food. And when you're done, you can take your extra wonton wrappers and make a batch of savory wontons like I did!
