Two Can Pecan Ice Cream

I remember the first time Gav made me dessert. It was a surprise and he vanished into the kitchen leaving me to wait for the masterpiece he was going to create. A bit of banging and crashing later, he emerged with two bowls of ice cream covered with grated dark chocolate and After Eight chocolates as garnish. We decided that that there was nothing left for him to do but open Gav's Parlour of Incredible Ice Cream Ideas.

Now that dairy is out for a while, we just have to be more creative, so having licked the last tub of mango ice cream clean, I asked him what our next concoction should be...

Coconut and cinnamon? Coconut and cinnamon and pecan nuts!! Yes, pecan nuts. And maple syrup? YES, maple syrup!!

Pecan & Maple Dairy Free Ice Cream

Note: this recipe only makes enough for two. I would imagine that you can easily double things up to make more.

1 tin coconut milk or cream (depending on how rich you want it)

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 cup pecan nuts

¼ cup 100% pure maple syrup

3 tblsp 100% pure maple syrup

3 tsp corn starch

¼ tsp xanthan gum*

Mix 2 teaspoons of the corn starch with a little coconut milk/cream and then pour this into a saucepan. Add the rest of the coconut milk/cream to the saucepan, along with the cinnamon and ¼ cup of maple syrup and stir over a medium heat to make a custard. Add a little more corn starch if you'd like to thicken it more. Once this is ready, leave it to cool and then pour into a freezer-safe container and freeze for an hour. While it's freezing, heat the 3 tablespoons of maple syrup in a small saucepan with the remaining teaspoon of corn starch, so it becomes a little thicker and put aside to cool. Remove the ice cream from the freezer and give it a whiz in the blender. Return to the freezer and keep doing this until it become firm and creamy in the blender. Then stir in the pecan nuts and smooth the mixture out in an ice cream container. Use a skewer to made a few holes in the ice cream and pour the maple syrup into these, then give it a bit of a swirl.

* xanthan gum is used in a lot of gluten-free recipes. It increases the viscosity of liquids and acts as a stabliser. Most shop-bought ice cream contains guar gum, however, a lot of people with digestive problems react to this.

When this freezes again it goes very hard, so leave it out for a few minutes before demolishing.

... for Ice Cream!