Toasted Coconut Ice Cream with Chocolate Tahini Swirl

This winter, K discovered the magic of chocolate tahini after picking some up on a whim at the grocery store. When I last visited we were drizzling it over bowls of vanilla ice cream even though it was deep New England winter. It was only fitting, then, that to celebrate her return to the desert, and thereby our living in the same city (for the third time in our adult lives!), that I came up with an ice cream combination involving the magic ingredient. 

The base coconut ice cream came from this recipe, although I did some tweaking -- dialing up the coconut and dialing down the heaviness by subbing half and half for cream.  I keep those adjustments here, because this is a rich ice cream. I loved that this recipe eliminated the need to cook & cool a custard, because it dramatically shortens the prep time. The dark edge of the tahini is a nice contrast to the creamy coconut, and it's pretty to boot!

Ingredients
2 cups coconut flakes
1 13 oz. can unsweetened coconut Milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate tahini (such as Tahini King or Pella brand) 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sprinkle the coconut flakes on a baking sheet; then place in the oven for 3-5 minutes until it turns light brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Alternately, toast coconut flakes until golden brown over medium low heat in a saucepan.  Watch closely in either case, as it it will turn quickly.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar and coconut milk in a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer or KitchenAid until the sugar is dissolved.

Next, add the heavy cream, half and half, vanilla extract and the toasted coconut. Mix with a spoon until well blended; then pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes. Once ice cream has firmed, similar to a soft serve consistency, prepare to swirl tahini into ice  cream container.  Drizzle tahini on the bottom and sides of the ice cream container.  Add a little ice cream, drizzle more tahini, and repeat until container is full.  Be careful not to stir tahini into ice cream too much, as it could melt in and lose the swirl effect. 

Place the ice cream into a container, cover tightly and freeze for 4 hours.