Vegan Experiment: White Chocolate Almond Ice Cream (Coconut Milk Base)

My frustrations with soy milk bases drove me to choose another dairy-free option: coconut milk. I had never worked with it before, so while shopping I wasn't sure if I should use pure canned coconut milk or the drinkable coconut milk beverage. I could see the advantages to both:
Canned Coconut Milk: Essentially as pure as I'd be able to get it, naturally thick, cheapcheapcheap
Coconut Milk Drinking Beverage: Closer consistency to real milk, less coconut flavor
So I got both. This is an experiment after-all! After much conversation with folks, I decided on white chocolate-almond as the flavor.

I melted the white chocolate and folded in the canned coconut milk. It still tasted a LOT like coconut so I added another bag of white chocolate. It. Was. GOOP. Slimy, sticky, tasty goop. Goop that refused to freeze. It wasn't til I looked over my equation that I realized what had happened....my white chocolate content was DOUBLE that of my coconut milk! Oh, the embarrassment! AND the frustration! I had finally gotten it to the point where I could actually TASTE the white chocolate! For that reason, I decided to thin it out using the coconut milk beverage. That way I could get it to the proper consistency without compromising the white chocolate-y flavor I was aiming for. The third churn was finally a success resulting in a relatively creamy (yet still mildly ice-y...I blame the drinking beverage) final product.

In the future, I think I will stick with just the canned coconut milk and create a flavor combination that will either a) better mask the coconut flavor or b) compliment the coconuttiness. I have a feeling that if I had used dark chocolate I would not have run into this problem.

Here is the post-goop recipe (with some edits upon taste-test):

White Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

2- 12 oz bags White Chocolate Chunks
2 cans Coconut Milk
1 quart Coconut Milk Drinking Beverage
1/3 cup Agave Nectar
2 c. Toasted Sliced Almonds

In a double boiler, melt white chocolate with agave. Mix in coconut milk and coconut drinking beverage. Cool. Churn. During the last 3 minutes, add the cooled toasted almonds. Freeze until firm and enjoy!

Citrus Trio

Concept from Ice Cream Galore by Caroline Barty

Citrus Trio
Lemon curd ice cream, grapefruit sorbet, and clementine granita

same ice creams, different plating

Out of the three, the lemon curd was my least favorite. I had to make homemade curd, which was essentially a cold hollandaise sauce, therefore the ice cream tasted like a frozen one. The grapefruit sorbet was super smooth and had the tartness of a fresh grapefruit. However, combined with the super sweetness of the clementine granita, the create a wonderful harmony.

The photos didn't turn out especially well...both were taken at night with poor lighting, and the first picture was spur of the moment without any sort of garnish. I would like to make this a successful dish, but the lemon curd ice cream has got to go. I could potentially replace it with a lemon gelato or perhaps a lime semifreddo.