We had quite the adventure today. Pia just shot her first major commercial, which we can’t talk about until it airs- but it was quite exciting. I stage-mom geeked out and I have to say- stage moms have to do a lot. I thought I would be able to sit there with my laptop and work, or even be on my phone or read or something and not really. You have to be doing stuff- mostly consisting of following them around and getting them stuff (so it’s just like you are at home, only you can’t yell at them “are your legs broken?!”)
We also had to be there very, very early in the morning and it filmed outside the city- so I had a 4:45 AM wakeup call. I was tired. Super tired. And when I got home and was enjoying the warm afternoon sun, all I could think about was having some ice cream. Then I remembered that I still had this gorgeous Vegan Dark Chocolate Coconut Fig Ice Cream sitting in my freezer untouched. I made it over the weekend, but things got so busy that by the time it was frozen I forgot! And how could anyone forget about something like this!?
I am a fig-a-holic and we are blessed with insane amounts here in the Northwest. Pete and the kids harvested our own tree on Sunday night and wait until I post the results of that haul!! By the way- if you have any fig based requests PLEASE let me know- I have more than I will ever know what to do with!
Ok- back to this ice cream. Dark chocolaty, figgy, coconut ice cream that is soft and luxurious in your mouth and so sweet and delicious. This is decadent and really special. So good that your kids will beg you for bowls and you will think that you could serve it for guests at a dinner party- that special ☺
NOTE: I served mine with fresh sliced figs in a hacked open coconut shell which was a fun way to do it. By the way I said fun, not easy. I don’t know the tricks to cutting open coconuts, but I am lucky I still have all my fingers. Anyone have any tips for my future coconut cutting adventures???
The great part was though, that after the ice cream was gone, scraping out the coconut meat covered in melted ice cream with a spoon was pretty much just as good! DOUBLE DESSERT!
- 2 fifteen-ounce cans unsweetened coconut cream
- 1 cup sugar (I used organic beet sugar)
- ½ cup dark cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 large figs, quartered
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut milk
- In a medium sauce pan combine the unsweetened coconut cream, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, salt and figs and bring to a simmer. Whisk the ingredients together and let them simmer until the sugar has all dissolved and the combination is lightly bubbling around the edges, about 5 minutes.
- In a small Tupperware or mason jar combine the three tablespoons of cornstarch and the coconut milk. Shake it or whisk briskly until the cornstarch is totally dissolved in the milk. Now whisk the milk into the hot simmering pot and continue to cook another 2-3 minutes as the ice cream base will now thicken a little from the cornstarch slurry.
- Transfer to a blender and puree on high until smooth.
- Pour the ice cream base into a metal cake or loaf pan and pop it in the freezer. Let the base freeze at least 4-6 hours.
- Scoop and serve!
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I found your site through PW’s and wow, it’s so beautiful!! Can’t wait to try some of your recipes. Thanks!
Ahh can’t wait to see the commercial!! dark chocolate, coconut, AND figs?! girl, you are after my heart!!
Love how rich and dark the ice cream turned out!
Ah, this looks SO good! Let fig season begin!!
That looks fabulous and I just happen to three different types of fig trees to play around with. Can honey be substituted for the beet sugar? And can everything be put directly into an ice cream maker when it cools to room temperature ? Then it is just treated like real ice cream? Have a great ice cream maker to safe time!
This is beautiful and just happen to have three different types of fig trees to experiment with. Questions , can I substitute honey for the beet sugar and then use an ice cream maker once everything has is finished cooking and comes to room temperature ?
What an amazing flavour combo for ice cream!!
Today I made something cold & frozen for the first time this summer (tropical popsicles, which were pretty yummy!) but nothing is better than CHOCOLATE! Your recipe looks rich and super-chocolatey! Any recommendations for where to get figs if you aren’t blessed enough to have them growing in your backyard? 😛
I would check your farmers markets or even ask your produce manager at your local store if they will gets one in this summer 🙂 try trader joes and Costco too! both of those have them in the PNW
I will ask around. Thanks! 🙂
Congrats to your little one and her first major commercial! So fun! I am obsessing over this ice cream! I am a fig-oholic too, so serious drooling is going on over here! As much as I love figs, I’ve never had them in ice cream – crazy right?! Clearly I need to change that immediately, because this ice cream looks ridiculously delicious! I won’t be serving this to any guests though… I NEED ALL of this to myself! Pinned! Cheers to a wonderful weekend!
P.S. I have no clue how to elegantly crack a coconut! Those suckers are a pain!
If you have food sensitivities to corn, what can you substitute for the cornstarch? Thanks!
Hi Stacey! I would use arrowroot powder- start with 1 tablespoon and see if you need to take it to two tablespoons to thicken up!
I will make my next ice cream with arrowroot for you so I can see exactly how much 🙂
This looks like my dream ice cream. It’s so dark!! I bet it tastes divine with all the figs as well!
Taste and texture was amazing. Surprised that it had more of a mouth feel of thick mousse. Not the chill of icecream. Very interesting!
Try a coco-Jack.
THIS IS SO TASTY
It’s so rich and silky, I was scooping it out of the blender and shamelessly getting chocolate all over my face. It’s more like gelato than ice cream.
I’ve never made ice cream before (other than frozen bananas), but this recipe interested me in experimenting more.
Some variations I used:
– Sweet Cream of Coconut instead of unsweetened coconut cream (makes is richer)
– ⅔ cup of sugar instead of 1 cup (reduced because of the sweet cream of coconut)
– rum instead of vanilla
– sea salt instead of Kosher salt
-almond milk instead of coconut milk
DEFINITELY worth making again!
Thank you Corinne! SO excited that you liked it and that you played around with successful results!
I couldn’t get fresh figs so I used dried figs. I rehydrated them in spiced rum. I brought the rum to a boil poured the rum over 12 dried figs and let step for a couple hours. I then put figs in food processor and pulsed quick to course consistency. This worked out great for me and will be making this again.
Lisa- amazing!!!! That sounds so delicious!
Coconuts can be easy. Don’t use a knife, it wouldn’t be safe. I use a screw driver to poke and drain, then the BACK of a chef’s knife to crack it into halves but a MEAT MALLET would work even better. You hit it the center of the coconut, 1-2-3 and it magically gets cracked-opened. Then you can tap with the meat mallet on the pieces of the shell to loosen the flesh from the shell and scooping will become much easier. You can put a towel on the shell so that pieces don’t fly around while tapping. Again, DON’T use a knife especially when scooping. Use something flat that won’t cut anything like a metal spatula. And you can use a (zucchini-cucumber) peeler to take off the brown skin. Best wishes