After many years of lusting after ice cream makers and wishing that I could upgrade from the small built-in freezer in my fridge (the sort just big enough to hold a couple of ice cube trays and a bag of frozen corn) to a freezer big enough to fit an ice cream maker, I have finally achieved it. After moving into our new house in March, one of the first purchases I made was a small chest freezer, followed by an ice cream maker! For my first ice cream, I wanted to make something that I couldn’t buy in shops here. I have found the range of flavours of vegan ice cream available in the UK a bit disappointing; there just aren’t as many flavours to choose from as in the US. That’s why I took to adding flavourings in to plain vanilla ice cream to make things more interesting!

Peanut butter and chocolate is a very American flavour combo and not something that’s very common here, so definitely not something I could get amongst the limited ice cream flavours… So I decided to go with peanut butter and chocolate chunk ice cream, using a coconut milk base because from my research it sounded like the fat in the coconut milk would help the texture. I used a real vanilla pod to add vanilla flavour, and it not only added those sought-after black specks in the ice cream, it filled my kitchen with THE most amazing smell ever. The end result was so delicious, a great first ice cream – and the non-vegan boyfriend loved it too! It was fantastic served up with strawberries and chocolate sauce (peanut butter and chocolate go so well together and strawberries make a great addition, I think!). Now that the weather’s warming up, this is the perfect recipe for spring or summer, so enjoy on a hot day soon.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 15 oz cans coconut milk (2 400ml tins of coconut milk)

1/2 cup (100 g) sugar

2 tbsp corn starch

Vanilla pod

4 tbsp peanut butter, preferably chunky

4 tbsp vegan chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar

Instructions