By the end of the week I am always so ready for the weekend. Not to sleep in late or watch more t.v. or relax like a normal person. Nope. I am ready to experiment in the kitchen! I tend to conveniently crave yummy sweet treats on the weekend and so I get all that energy out during this time. And since it only comes around once a week (what’s with that btw?), I have to be intentional about what I choose to make. After contemplating for about 7 seconds, the best idea came to mind – rocky road nice cream!!
Living in Vietnam makes anything cold and delicious the perfect treat. Who am I kidding? Anything delicious makes the perfect treat. But this one really was great. The dates make a fine substitute for the marshmallows due to their inherent ability to be chewy, sweet and better than marshmallows. I made a chocolate sauce that also added to the chewy delightfulness once frozen. Eeeeeek and the contrast with the crunchy nuts and peanut butter, too divine!! Are you salivating yet? You should be.
The base of the nice cream is made up of bananas and coconut milk, with a dash of coconut oil and vanilla essence. Stop here if you want, just know that life could be far more exciting. You feel like living on the edge you say? Continue reading…
Once this is all blended, let it set slightly in the freezer before adding the rest of your dream team. That way the peanut butter and chocolate sauce wont fully mix in and you’ll be left with peanut buttery and chocolatey surprises once fully set. Feel free to go crazy with your additions…how about coconut flakes? Or cranberries? Popcorn? This is getting too wild.
Now the trick is to let it set in the freezer but regularly mix it so that it doesn’t freeze solid. The mixture will start freezing from the edge of the container so every 20 minutes or so just give it a quick little scraping and mix. Do this until it turns into ice cream consistency. Mine took about 2.5 hours.
I then served it in wine glasses and topped it with more nuts, chopped dates, peanut butter and some spare dark chocolate – because when you make Rocky Road, the road can never be too rocky. Too cheesy? Noted. Enjoy it my friends.
- For the chocolate sauce
- 2 Tbs cacao powder
- 1 Tbs raw honey
- 1 tsp warm water
- For the additions
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts
- 6-8 chopped medjool dates
- 3 tsp peanut butter/nut butter
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- Put the bananas, coconut milk, vanilla essence and coconut oil in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour into a glass bowl and place in the freezer.
- Every 20 minutes scrape the frozen bits from the side and mix.
- After about an hour, once the mixture has thickened slightly, add in the additions and roughly mix.
- Put back in the freezer and continue to stir every 20 minutes, scraping down the frozen sides.
- When the mixture has reached ice cream consistency, serve.
- Top with more of the additions if you desire and sprinkle with coarse salt.
