Dairy-free Candy Cane Crackle Ice Cream
I love ice cream. When I was younger, I used to insist on an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for my birthday every year (because seriously, what’s better than a cake made out of ice cream?)
My favorite ice cream in the entire world was is PC’s Candy Cane Crackle Ice Cream, which is a limited edition Christmas ice cream. Delicious, creamy vanilla ice cream with rich, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate candy crackle bits and minty candy cane goo.
I wish you could get it year round.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who loves it, though: this stuff is impossible to find. Every year I start looking REALLY early (because it sells out fast), and every year I have trouble finding it. In fact, I didn’t find it last year (though my mom did, so I had some at Christmas dinner); and I still haven’t found any this year. So far, I’ve tried six different stores.
Oh, and there’s one other problem: I’m lactose intolerant. You see, when I was a baby, I was lactose intolerant. As I got older, it seemingly went away. However, in recent years my intolerance has come back: and as I began to drink less milk (I used to drink, no joke, and entire bag a day), it started to get worse. Right now, I have to drink lactose free milk or almond milk (delicious, btw, so I’m not complaining!) – any more than one small glass of milk and I feel sick – and I also can’t eat more than one scoop of delicious, delicious ice cream or I feel sick.
The solution? An ice cream maker. The Boy was actually the one who thought of this: since I’m both lactose intolerant and gluten intolerant, I can’t have many of my favorite ice creams anymore (or can only have a tiny amount). So, for my birthday this year he bought me an ice cream maker, so I can make lactose/dairy free, gluten free ice cream.
So this week? I made Dairy-free Candy Cane Crackle Ice Cream.
Yum.
Dairy Free Candy Cane Crackle Ice Cream
- 2 cans (398 ml each) of full fat coconut milk
- 1/3 + 1/4 tbsp of honey
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 8 candy canes, crushed
- 2 blocks of 80% dark chocolate bakers bricks, grated
Take the candy canes, and crush them. I do this by putting broken chunks into a ziplock back and smashing them with a hammer (seriously – and it’s REALLY fun to do, but also REALLY noisy!).
Adding the candy cane bits
Next, grate the chocolate (or chop it into tiny pieces if you prefer chunks). Set these aside for now.
In a bowl, mix the two cans of coconut milk, honey, and vanilla extract until blended. Pour into your ice cream maker, following the instructions from the manufacturer. For me, in my Cuisinart maker, this meant letting it churn for 20-25 minutes.
Part way though the freezing (I did this about 15 minutes into the process), you want to add the toppings. Let the ice cream continue to churn until frozen – as a sidenote, it’s more like soft serve consistancy right out of the ice cream maker, and melts fairly quickly If you want the consistency to be more like hard ice cream, you’ll need to pop it into the freezer (put it in tupperware first!) for about 12 hours.
