Coconut Ice Cream

We lost another baker at work, so my schedule is all over the place.  For his last day, he wanted me to make him something.  I had already bought the ingredients for a coconut cake, so I made cupcakes for everyone, which was still only a half batch.  I had about half a cup of coconut milk left over, and only a mini-fridge to work with.  I just wanted to use it up and not deal with storing it.

So here you go: dairy free, gluten free, and vegan if you use an appropriate sweetener.  This isn't a health food; there's more fat in this ice cream than one made with dairy.  It's KLP if your extract was made with a KLP alcohol, or you can just omit extracts and use a natural flavoring like nutmeg.

As a variation, you could add cocoa powder to this, or coffee, or fruit.  To make an added-sugar free ice cream, toss a very ripe banana and the coconut milk in the blender and run until smooth.  Pour directly into the ice cream maker.

*1 (13-ish oz) can full-fat coconut milk, not the light kind
1/4 C sugar
unsweetened coconut for mix-in or garnish
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used lavender extract for mine, and it was awesome)

1.  In a saucepan, heat coconut milk and sugar until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth.  All those lumps are coconut fat.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Cool in refrigerator until chilled, at least 2 hours.

2.  Process cream in ice cream maker until thick.  Add coconut shavings and allow the machine to distribute them.  Either serve immediately or place in a container to firm up another hour or so.

Difficulty rating  π