Luscious double chocolate ice cream with an (almost) traditional custard base with fresh egg yolks and coconut milk & cream takes dairy-free ice cream to the next level! You'll love this simple recipe, and the extra steps are well worth it for the decadent result.
1/3cupgranulated sweeteneri.e. monk fruit or coconut sugar
5large egg yolks
Pinchfine salt
Optional mix-ins:
sliced almonds
cacao nibs
Instructions
Mix coconut milk with coconut cream in a blender or shake in a mason jar until well blended. Set aside.
Prepare an ice bath inside a large mixing bowl or roasting pan. Set another large mixing bowl inside the ice bath and set a fine-mesh strainer over top.
In a medium saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of your coconut "half-and-half" (milk and cream) with the cocoa powder. Simmer over medium-low heat for approx. 1 minute, stirring with a whisk until all the cocoa lumps have broken up. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until melted. Stir in the vanilla extract and cinnamon.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sweetener, egg yolks, and salt until pale yellow.
In another medium saucepan, bring the remaining 1 1/2 cups of coconut "half-and-half" to a simmer over medium-low heat. Once hot, remove from the heat and slowly pour about 1 cup of the coconut "half-and-half" into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs. Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it registers 170°F on a thermometer and a finger drawn across the back of the custard-covered wooden spoon leaves a trail. This may take several minutes, have patience.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture through the fine-meshed strainer into the bowl over the ice bath. Pour in the chocolate mixture, scraping with a spatula to get every last bit from the pan. Whisk until the custard is smooth. Stir in any mix-ins like sliced almonds and cacao nibs (1/2 cup of each). Chill over the ice bath for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
IMPORTANT: Taste your ice cream base, if it's not sweet enough, or requires more cinnamon maybe... you can adjust it now. If making sweeter, I'd recommend using a liquid sweetener like maple syrup or honey instead of granulated because it will mix the best.
Once the ice cream base is cool, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface of the custard. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight. Once chilled, freeze the ice cream base in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a freezer container and freeze until desired consistency.