This chocolate coconut milk ice cream with brownie chunks is the perfect summer indulgence. Made with real-food ingredients, it’s a guilt free treat you can enjoy!
Rich, creamy, dark chocolate ice cream with chunks of brownies.
Summer is here and with it is the celebration of all things sweet and cold, particularly ice cream. Ice cream is what “takes the cake” so to speak. Other cool treats are perfectly delicious but there is something extra special about ice cream.
People that need to be dairy-free may tend to grieve the season a bit as they look longingly at self after self of overly dairy rich cartons of ice cream in their local grocery store. If you are blessed to have a few dairy free options, they tend to be extremely expensive, and full of ingredients like guar gum and agave that you might be trying to avoid.
What if someone told you that you could make creamy, dairy-free ice cream for less at home, with no additives?
Guess what you can! Coconut milk makes silky smooth dairy-free ice cream. It’s rich, creamy, and everything ice cream should be. Before my raw milk days, it was all I would make. Even now, I often prefer it to cream and milk based ice creams.
Chocolate ice cream on its own is always delightful but when you add grain-free brownies, well, it is all over folks. You might as well call it death my chocolate ice cream instead of chocolate coconut milk ice cream with brownie chunks, because well, you’ll be in chocolate heaven. A dairy-free and grain-free chocolate heaven that is.
Often ice cream requires making an egg based custard. Not this one. Honestly, I don’t have time for it. Does a custard make for a creamier base? Maybe? Yet in the grander scheme of things it doesn’t make that much of a difference, so unless I am making ice cream for a birthday or something special, I tend to go for simple.
Instead, this chocolate ice cream has the benefit of raw egg yolks, while it may make some people squirm, they are actually quite healthy. Egg yolks are nutritional powerhouses, full of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Consuming yolks raw preserves the Vitamin B6 content, which is diminished when cooked.
To clarify, it’s not a good idea to consume raw yolks from conventionally raised chickens or “cage-free” hens, since we now that is just a marketing term. You want to use yolks from eggs that are raised as close to how God intended. Pastured eggs, or at least eggs that are from chickens that are given space to roam, grass to eat, fresh air, bugs to forage, and sunlight. If you are still uncertain about consuming raw egg yolks, Dr. Mercola, does an excellent job shedding light on why you might want to.
Coconut is one of the world’s healthiest foods. Coconut contains lauric acid, which is a medium-chain fatty acid. It is readily absorbed and used by the body for energy. Lauric acid even has antibacterial and antiviral properties. Coconut is full of essential minerals like magnesium, iron, and potassium.
Raw honey is used to sweeten this ice cream, instead of typical dry sweeteners. It is one of the reasons that this no-cook version is smooth. Typically dry sweeteners have a harder time dissolving completely when they are not added to a warm liquid, like a custard base. Aside from health benefits, a smooth texture is another reason for using a liquid sweetener. If you prefer you could use maple syrup or palm sugar paste.
Like egg yolks and coconut milk, raw honey is beneficial to your health. Since it’s a type of sugar, it is good to treat is as such but isn’t it great to know that the sugar you are using is actually doing your body some good as well? Similarly to coconut milk, raw honey has antiviral and antibacterial properties. If you use local raw honey, it can even help with decreasing your body’s reaction to seasonal allergies. Plus it is full of antioxidants.
Vanilla extract is another key to this recipe, I prefer to use homemade extract because the flavor is delicious and it’s easy to make. Typically extracts are made with alcohol which, when added to an ice cream recipe helps the ice cream not become too firm. Coconut milk ice cream tends to be on the firmer side when left in the freezer for a few days, so the vanilla extract helps it not be quite as hard. Plus vanilla is always a nice addition to any chocolatey treat.
This ice cream is practically a health food, well at least it is if you leave out the brownie chunks… It’s your choice, if it was me, I would leave them in. I currently have a batch of my favourite grain-free cassava flour brownies in the freezer to pull out for a quick dessert, or to chop up to add to tasty ice creams like this one.
- 2 cans full-fat coconut milk
- ½ recipe grain-free brownies, cubed
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup raw honey
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 TBS vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp unrefined salt
- Add the coconut milk, cocoa powder, raw honey, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and salt to a blender. Blend on high until smooth.
- Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. This usually takes about 20 minutes.
- Once the ice cream is done, spoon into a freezer-safe container. Gently fold in the brownie cubes.
- Cover and place in the freezer, allowing to ripen (firm up) for at least two hours before serving. Coconut milk ice cream is firmer than dairy-based ice cream when you are ready to serve set the ice cream on the counter for about 10 minutes before scooping.
Katie Mae Stanley
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