COINTREAU COCONUT ICE

There was a nearly empty bottle of Cointreau and a somewhat forgotten-about ice cream maker giving me the eyes the other weekend, so I did a little googling and a little experimenting and it turns out you can make a pretty decent 'ice cream' with just coconut milk and some sugar. All things considered, sweet coconut isn't all that exciting, but add in a dash of liquor and it can take on a starring role.

Most of the recipes I found online called for about a cup of sugar per can of coconut milk. I'm not exactly a health nut, but that is a ridiculous amount of sugar considering it would make enough for 1 to 2 people! I toned it down a lot and I'm confident that this version is just as tasty...and a lot easier on the waistline!

Serves 2

1 tin of full-fat coconut milk

50ml Cointreau 

Juice of 2 limes

2tbsp sugar

1tbsp coconut syrup

If the coconut milk has a solid layer on the top, blend all of the ingredients in a blender for a few seconds until fully combined. If there's no layer, you can just mix the ingredients together in a jug.  Transfer to an ice cream maker and churn according to instructions. This produces a (very) soft serve which is tasty eaten straight away over a bowl of fruit. For a firmer ice cream texture, freeze in a shallow dish for 30 minutes to an hour. This is best eaten on the day you make it as if it's frozen for too long it gets very hard. If you would like to eat it another day, it needs to thaw for about half an hour before serving.

The texture is somewhere between a sno cone and frozen yoghurt, and the result is tangy and fresh with a nice kick from the booze. It does melt fairly quickly, so I popped my bowls in the freezer for half an hour to keep it frozen just that little bit longer.