Chocolate Coconut Honey Ice "Cream"--Dairy Free!

Chocolate Coconut Ice "Cream"

This is another great recipe from our favorite vegan, Emily.  (Thanks, Emily!)  It's delicious, creamy and couldn't be simpler, made as it is with just coconut milk, cocoa and honey.

Instead of honey, Emily uses agave syrup--a nice alternative for those vegans who eschew honey.  There is, in fact, a great debate about whether honey can be included in a vegan diet. For more on that debate, check out this Slate article as well as this page on the Vegetus website. For the record, the Vegetus site argues that beekeepers exploit honeybees, a point we obviously dispute.  We can appreciate someone making a decision not to consume any animal or animal-created foods (like honey or milk) on principle, and Vegetus author offers a thoughtful and thorough discussion. Yet most of the foods that vegans enjoy are available because of the industrious (and indeed at times exploited) honeybee. As backyard beekeepers, we prefer to think that instead of exploiting them, we're helping them to thrive.

Whew! After that lengthy detour, it's time to enjoy some delicious ice "cream," don't you think?

Chocolate Coconut Honey Ice "Cream"
As Emily notes, the recipe comes from the Detoxinista website, with helpful directions for how to make it if you don't have an ice cream maker.  I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to give the flavor a little bump.

Just poured into the ice cream maker

1 14-oz can coconut milk
1/4 plus 2 tablespoons cocoa (I used Hershey's dark cocoa)
1/4 cup honey (or agave or maple syrup if you insist!)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whirl all of the ingredients in a blender and pour into an ice cream maker.  If you've made other more traditional ice creams before, this will look a bit more runny than most ice cream bases.  Have faith! Process in the ice cream maker for about 20 minutes until it is the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.  You can spoon it out into bowls right then and enjoy. Or, if you want the ice cream to be a bit firmer, place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours. This is best eaten within a day or two (I could barely stop myself from eating the whole thing in one sitting!.)

What it looks like when it's done

Ready to eat!