Allison’s Idea Ice Cream

Mom asked for lemon cake with raspberry filling for her birthday. Instead, she got a botched coconut layer cake and a new type of ice cream.

As the Stones said, you can’t always get what you want.

In this case, the lyrics applied not just to my mother, but to me. My birthday surprise wasn’t the mile-high fluffy cake I’d envisioned. Instead, it was so hot and humid, the custard filling melted into a puddle and made a break for freedom over the sides of the cake stand. I ended up imprisoning the renegade dessert into a shallow bowl and calling it trifle. It was a trifle wet, a trifle disappointing and a trifle embarrassing. There will be no photos. They were too unappetizing for the Internet.

The accompanying ice cream was the only good thing to come of this botched birthday treat, and even that had a rocky start. Ironically, my non-baking sister saved the day by getting all nostalgic about a discontinued flavour of supermarket ice cream.

Since so many ice cream recipes call for sweetened condensed milk, I thought it would be a good base for a coconut version, especially when paired with coconut milk. While the combination produced creamy results, it tasted too strongly of condensed milk. When my sister Allison tasted my experiment, she said the best coconut ice cream she ever had was PC’s Coconut Cream Pie with real chunks of graham crust in it. Bingo! This didn’t taste like fresh coconut, it tasted like coconut cream pie. So, we improvised.

The results? My dad, who can pass up almost any dessert, had three helpings.

The Stones were right again. You can’t always get what you want. But if you try some times you just might find, you get what you need.

Allison’s Idea Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream
Printable recipe

Ingredients

Ice cream base

• 1 can (13.5 oz / 398 ml) low-fat coconut milk
• 1 can (10 oz / 300 ml) low-fat sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup whipping cream (35%)
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes, toasted
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Graham crust

• 1 1/2 cups graham crumbs
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 6 tbsp butter, melted

Instructions

1. Lightly toast coconut in a 325F oven for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown.
2. Place all ice cream base ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. (Note: I used low-fat versions not to cut calories, but because they are thicker. I’m not sure how it will work if you use full-fat versions.)
3. Chill base for 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, make graham crust by combining the crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Press firmly into a pie plate and bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Let crust cool before breaking into chunks with a fork.
6. Make ice cream in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
7. At the last minute churn in broken graham crust.
8. Skip the cake. This is rich enough all on its own.

Coconut photo © bionicteaching, published under a Creative Commons License.