A rare original recipe by yours truly, this might be the quickest and easiest ice cream ever. In an experimental yet lazy mood, I combined elements from a Sherry Yard coconut gelato and a David Lebovitz coconut ice cream (custard) recipe, and made my own---I suppose it can be called gelato, though I'm still fuzzy on the details of the difference between that and ice cream. At least it isn't custard, and so requires none of the fussy yolk-tempering and ice-bathing and all that. It also uses no cream (in a sense), only half-and-half. I like to have a way to use up those cheap (relative to cream) half-and-half quarts which none but the largest, most caffeinated household could possibly use up before spoilage if it's only being used for coffee--and as far as I know, half-and-half has no real culinary identity apart from its relationship to coffee. Poor half-and-half. Anyway, this stuff looks like and has the texture of fluffy white snow, only it tastes about a thousand times better.
Coconut gelato
3/4 c. unsweetened coconut flakes (if all you can find are sweetened, that's fine)
2 cups half-and-half
3/4 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 Tbsp. dark rum
Toast the coconut flakes in a small skillet over med-low heat til just brown around the edges, then combine in a saucepan with the half-and-half, sugar, and salt. Warm the mixture and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep about 45 minutes.
Pour the mixture through a strainer into a quart-sized measuring cup. Press on the coconut flakes to extract all possible liquid, then reserve and refrigerate or freeze for some other use (like garnishing this gelato) if desired. Stir the coconut milk and rum into the measuring cup. Chill several hours until very cold, then freeze in your ice cream maker.
Even with my Cuisinart canister thoroughly chilled, this was very soft right out of the machine, so I would count on the finished product needing a couple of hours in the freezer to solidify a bit before serving. (After three days it has remained scoopable directly from the freezer, unlike many other ice creams I make, which have to sit out for a few minutes.)
