Apron Strings

From the ice cream lab: chocolate, coconut and rosemary!

Chocolate, coconut and rosemary ice cream

I was flipping through my vegan ice cream book for inspiration for my next batch – I knew I wanted to do chocolate, but I wanted it to be a bit quirky too. The herb garden is overflowing these days, so I’ve been trying to incorporate herbs into as many dishes as possible (like tabbouleh, I made a lot of tabbouleh this weekend).  Adding mint seemed too common and I was on the fence about adding basil. What about the rosemary?

Rosemary and chocolate. Hmm.

I Googled around to see if anyone else had done this combo before. There were loads of honey and rosemary version … and I stumbled on one person who made a non-vegan chocolate rosemary version. Perfect!

Another search today turned up this blog from jolly old England who confirms that a grocery chain on the other side of the pond sells a chocolate-rosemary ice cream.  I guess, it’s not quite as unique as I thought!   It’s a flavour created for Waitrose in partnership with Heston Blumenthal, so I guess I feel a bit chuffed that we both thought of the same flavour. (Hi Heston!  Call me, we’ll make ice cream!)

I used the chocolate recipe from the Vegan Scoop as my base, but again sustituted the soy milk for my homemade coconut milk.  I added a large sprig of rosemary into the mixture while it heated on the stove to infuse the rosemary-ness into the ice cream base.

Chocolate, coconut and rosemary ice cream

We had to sample it right away when it finished churning in the ice cream mixer.  Mmm.  Just a hint of rosemary is detectable in the final version.  It adds a nice woodiness to the chocolate, dare I say umami?  No… I won’t.   It’s definitely a complex chocolate taste.

Chocolate, coconut and rosemary ice cream

Best of all… it pleases the wee one as well as the adults.

Here are some other good spoon-licking rosemary ice creams (albeit non-vegan variations):

7 comments

1 Charissa { 08.09.11 at 12:50 pm }

Haha, I love his face! So sweet! Kids and ice-cream. What could be nicer?

2 Lana { 08.10.11 at 9:31 am }

It’s true… it makes me so happy to make him an ice cream that he can eat that tastes as good as anything from a store.

3 marla { 08.14.11 at 4:07 pm }

Love the idea of rosemary & chocolate in an glorious ice cream. Cute photo of your little one :)

4 Carolyn { 08.21.11 at 7:59 pm }

Hello,

I am doing an end of summer ice cream round up on my own blog, All Day I Dream About Food, and would love to include this recipe. I would use one of your images, and link back to you, but I wouldn't be posting the recipe directly. If you would like to be a part of it, please email me at carketch29 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Thanks,
Carolyn

5 Mrs. Jen B { 09.01.11 at 11:50 am }

Love the creativity! I would never have thought to use rosemary! Don't you hate it when you have a brilliant idea, only to find that you're not the first person to have it? ;)

6 Lana { 09.01.11 at 12:11 pm }

Totally! I may not have been the first to think of rosemary, but I'm pretty sure that no one else in Ottawa is making it!

7 Gary { 09.06.11 at 4:19 am }

Thanks for the link! I think the combination is really great, a not-too-distant-but-grown-up relative of choc mint ice cream.

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