Homemade Chendol Ice-cream!

Creamy chendol ice-cream, originally uploaded by Camemberu.

Gorgeous pictures on Amandalwh's blog inspired me to concoct my own ice-cream. No ice cream maker required! After a successful trial batch on plain vanilla, I decided to try a flavour I really like. Chendol! Well, technically, this should be called Gula Melaka-Coconut ice cream, since it contains none of the green noodle strips called chendol (which are a bit pointless to freeze since they become hard fiddly bits). But oh, who cares what it's called when one slurp makes you forget everything else in the world.

INGREDIENTS (give or take):
6 egg yolks
120g gula melaka/palm sugar, chopped finely
250ml thick coconut milk (the "extra virgin" or first press from freshly grated coconut)
250ml low-fat milk
200ml thick or heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt

METHOD:
1. Beat egg yolks briefly until evenly mixed.
2. Combine palm sugar, salt, coconut milk and low-fat milk in saucepan over low heat, stirring until fully dissolved.
3. When mixture starts to boil, take it off the heat and strain to remove impurities.
4. Pour sugar-milk mixture into beaten egg yolks, stirring slowly.
5. Put it back on low heat until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let it boil or the custard will harden.
6. Remove from heat, transfer to a deep dish bowl and let it cool. (I cheat by placing the bowl in ice water or over ice cubes)
7. Stir in cream and put it in the freezer for an hour.
8. Check the ice cream - it should have started freezing at the edges but not at the centre. Take the bowl out of the freezer and beat the ice cream mixture until it’s creamy once again (this breaks up the ice crystals that have formed). You could blitz it using a food processor or just give your arms a good workout. Place the ice cream back into the freezer.
9. Repeat step 8 for a total of 3 times at least. The more you repeat this, the softer your ice cream will be.
10. Pour the mixture into storage container and freeze till set.

The final product has a consistency that's a bit more like kulfi than airy soft ice cream (that you get from the ice cream maker doing all the churning work for you). But it makes the dessert no less decadent.

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