I SCREAM...

...for ICE CREAM!  I love ice cream, especially homemade ice cream.  One of the best kitchen tools I've acquired (besides my actual Kitchen Aid, itself) is the ice cream bowl attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer.  Ice cream is expensive, and good ice cream is even more expensive.  That's why I like to make my own.  Also, homemade ice cream is hands down the absolute best tasting!

Philadelphia style vs. French style?  One has a custard base using eggs (French), and the other one does not use eggs (Philly).  It comes down to preference; and really, there's a time and place for both.  Personally, I like Philadelphia style best most of the time, especially for classic vanilla ice cream.  It has the cleanest, most crisp, pure flavor.  Yum, yum, yum, I already can't wait for dessert at lunch as I type this!

Yesterday, I decided to play with a classic Philly style vanilla ice cream recipe and a French style toasted coconut ice cream recipe in hopes of producing a philly style toasted coconut ice cream.  Well, success was achieved!  Holy crap, this ice cream is IN-SANE good...seriously...not lying, here....nom, nom, nom.

Toasted Coconut Philadelphia Style Ice Cream

Note: this is not my photo due to to the fact I'm too lazy to get a pretty picture of my ice cream; this photo is linked to its original poster.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (<--per original recipe, but I used sweetened flake coconut you buy at the grocery, and the results were great)
• 2 cups half-and-half
• little pinch of kosher salt
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon sugar (<-- there were some ciriticsms on Alton's recipe about this ice cream being too sweet, and it is very sweet, so if you want to reduce the amount, I'm sure you can)
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped  -OR-  2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and bake for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring it frequently so it toasts evenly. Be careful; it will burn easily and fast! Remove it from the oven when it's nice and fragrant and golden brown.

Combine ALL ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat (if using vanilla extract, do not combine with heated milk mixture until it is in the cooling stage). Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (see note below) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract if necessary, cover with lid or foil, and allow to steep with the coconut and come to room temperature. This will take an hour, so.  Remove the hull of the vanilla bean, pour mixture into lidded container and refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.

Pour chilled mixture through a mesh strainer to remove coconut, and freeze mixture in ice cream freezer according to unit's instructions. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Once the volume has increased by 1/2 to 3/4 times, and reached a soft serve consistency, spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: If you do not have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, remove it from the heat. Do not let it boil.