Homemade Banana & Coconut Icecream with Crisp Toffee Coated Strawberries

A crackle, a crunch, as crystal of sweet toffee surrender to your mouth, before the sweet, slightly tart stickiness of strawberry envelopes the senses. Another bite, rich and creamy and undeniably tropical, recalling beachside cocktails serve in hollowed out coconuts: sound good? Read on. 

So my first experience with my latest impulse purchase, an icecream machine, was a bit of a disaster. I decided to jump right in and make a hazelnut gelato, and, being my first time making icecream i curdled the custard by overheating it. I was devastated! All that work squeezing milk from crushed hazelnuts, all that money spent on eggs and cream, all gone!!

Well i had to persevere, and since my visit to Thailand my mind has been all about tropical desserts. The icecream in the recipe is loosely adapted from yet another Luke Nguyen recipe however i'd tried to make it a bit richer and a bit more decadent.

Ingredients

Banana & Coconut Icecream

• 6 egg yolk
• 1 400mL can coconut cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3 ripe lady finger bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• Few drops yellow food coloring

Crisp Toffee Coated Strawberries

• 1 punnet strawberries
• 150gm sugar
• 1 tsp white vinegar

Method

Banana & Coconut Icecream

Place bananas, milk and coconut cream in a blender

Blend to a fine puree with food coloring
Transfer to a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat.

Whilst heating, whisk the egg yolks and sugar into a large bowl until pale and creamy

Once the banana puree has come to the boil pour slowly into the whisked eggs, continually whisking as you pour

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan
Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes or until mixture coats the back of the spoon
Be careful not to overcook as the custard will curdle; if you're worried, cook it over a double boiler
Pour into a bowl sitting in a sink of ice water

Stir until cool then transfer to refrigerator to chill until very cold
Churn as per icecream maker's instructions or in the freezer, stirring once every half hour until frozen

Crisp Toffee Coated Strawberries

Pat the strawberries with paper towel to remove any moisture and then place a toothpick in the top of each

Combine the sugar, water and vinegar in a small saucepan
Heat the mixture over low heat until the sugar has dissolved

Raise the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil
Continue to boil for about 20 minutes, or until the mixture is just becoming to turn golden

Remove from the heat
Dip each strawberry in the toffee, twirling for a moment and letting any excess toffee drip off the strawberry

Transfer the strawberry to a tray lined with baking paper

Repeat for remaining strawberries, slowly reheating toffee if it becomes too firm

Consume within 2 hours of making

Plating

Place 2 lattice biscuits on each serving plate.

Top with a scoop of the icecream and 3 of the strawberries