Coconut Milk Vanilla Ice Cream & Quick Cherry Bliss Dessert

This is a two-stage recipe. We’ll make the custard and I’d recommend that you chill it in the fridge overnight and churn the ice cream the next day. I’ll have a batch of custard already made that I’ll churn while I’m showing you how to make the custard. I’m also going to show you another super simple dessert that I make when I want something sweet, that literally takes 2 minutes to fix.

We’ll make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice. We’ll add cold water to cover the ice. We’ll put a smaller bowl inside the ice water and place the fine mesh strainer over the smaller bowl.

Combine the coconut milk, honey, and salt in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half using a paring knife and scrape the seeds into the saucepan. Place both halves of the vanilla bean into the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the honey has dissolved.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl. Once the coconut milk mixture has come to a simmer, we’ll add a ladle of the hot milk into the yolk mixture while whisking constantly. We’re doing this to temper the eggs, so we don’t end up with scrambled egg ice cream. Continue to whisk until the egg mixture well combined.

Reduce the heat under the coconut milk mixture to medium-low. Whisk the hot egg yolks into the remaining coconut milk mixture on the stove and return the mixture to a simmer. Continue to cook until the mixture reaches 180 degrees and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. Immediately pour the custard through the prepared fine mesh strainer into the bowl set in the ice bath. Press custard through the strainer using a spatula.

Let the custard cool to room temperature in the ice bath before transferring it to a storage container. Refrigerate until the custard is chilled, at least 4 to 6 hours.

Once the custard is chilled, freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s directions. If you don’t eat all of the ice cream right out of the ice cream maker, transfer any that remains to a metal pan, cover with parchment paper and plastic wrap, and freeze until solid, 4 to 6 hours.

The other dessert that we're making just requires us to combine the ingredients. It's frozen cherries, almond butter, dark chocolate disks and toasted unsweetened coconut flakes. If I want something sweet, it's usually either this or some cherries or some berries in plain yogurt with just a touch of honey. It's not something that I'll do if I'm just starting Keto, but after I've been in Ketosis for a while, I can have a small version of this and not get knocked out of Ketosis.