Rosewater Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Sometimes you just want something a little different. Sometimes you want something you can share with your vegan and lactose-intolerant friends. And sometimes you want all of those things together.

Fear not! For such a thing has arrived. The original recipe is at The Hungry Mouse, and it's a fantastic one. It's only got 3 ingredients (5 if you do my version), and it's ready for soft-serve nommification in less than half an hour. What's not to love?!

Nothin' at all, that's what.

Rosewater Coconut Milk Ice Cream

2 13-oz cans of full-fat coconut milk (don't get the kind that's already sweetened!)
1 to 1 1/4 c sugar (the original recipe calls for 1 3/4 c sugar, but I found it to be too sweet with that much)
2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste)
a scant 1/4 tsp rosewater (or no more than a full 1/4 tsp rosewater)
1/2 to 2/3 c dark chocolate chips

1. Start with the coconut milk chilled -- it does make a difference.
2. Pour the coconut milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and rosewater into a blender (or into a large chilled bowl if you're going to use an immersion blender).
3. Blend for a couple of minutes until everything's all frothy and uniform throughout. It should look like glorious, fluffy clouds in liquid form! If glorious, fluffy clouds in liquid form looked like they ought to instead of being water vapor. Ahem.
4. Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions! If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can do this The Hard Way. The Hungry Mouse has directions if you scroll down her blog entry a bit.
5. In the last 3-5 minutes of freezing, pour in the chocolate chips. When they're evenly incorporated, turn out into an airtight container and finish freezing overnight, or you can do the loaf-pan-and-plastic-wrap method that Hungry Mouse mentions. Either one works nicely.
6. Once the ice cream has frozen through, eat it! And enjoy the delicious, delicious flavors. Let the rosy vanilla hit your tongue first, then marvel as it gives way to a smooth coconut flavor and finally settles into a lightly rose-scented aftertaste that dances on your palate. If you get a chocolate chip in your bite, the richness of that will tantalize your tongue, too. Woo!