Black Sesame Coconut Ice Cream with Spicy, Basil Infused Mango Cones

Grey is my favorite color; mostly because it perfectly matches every other color. So when I saw this post for grey ice cream on Pintrest (psst… wanna follow me on Pintrest?), I had to try duplicating it. Turns out black sesame seed paste gives it its color.

Having never heard of black sesame seed paste, I did some googling and found out, unsurprisingly, that it’s mostly used in asian cooking. With this in mind I decided to bring some Thai flavors into the recipe. I used coconut milk as the base of the ice cream and paired it with G-Living’s red pepper and basil mango cones. The flavor combo turned out to be crazy good! The sesame seeds gave the ice cream an earthy, toasted flavor and the coconut makes it rich and creamy. The mango is tart, the basil fresh, and the red peper gives it a kick.

Black sesame seed paste, I came to find out, is not easy to track down. I had to go to several stores in Chinatown to find it. Because of that, I ended up making this recipe twice: once with store bought sesame paste and once with homemade sesame paste. I preferred the store bought version but they both worked. So, check your local asian market and, if they have it, great! If not, follow the recipe below.

Black Sesame Seed Paste Ingredients

• 1/4 cup black sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons Earth Balance

Black Sesame Seed Directions

1. Lightly toast the black sesame seeds over medium heat. Be sure not to burn them! Remove from the heat once you smell the aroma of the black sesame seeds.
2. Use a coffee grinder to grind the sesame seeds into a flour.
3. In a pan over medium heat, stir together the Earth Balance, sesame seeds, and sugar until the Earth Balance has melted and the sugar has dissolved

Black Sesame Seed Ice Cream Ingredients:

• 3  1/4 cups or 2 cans full-fat coconut milk
• 2 tbsp arrowroot starch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• small pinch of salt
• 4 Tbs black sesame seed paste

Black Sesame Seed Ice Cream Directions:

1. Stick the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the arrowroot starch and 1/4 cup of the coconut milk.
3. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the coconut milk with the sugar. Stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Once the mixture has come to a boil, stir in arrowroot starch and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, until thickened.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt and black sesame seed paste.
5. Transfer the mixture to a covered bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator until it has completely cooled.
6. Pour the mix into your ice cream maker. Turn it on and let it work its magic.
7. Store the ice cream in a freezer safe, airtight container

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. The end of February was super busy! I fully intend to start posting more regularly now that things have calmed down a bit.

Oh! One more thing. It seems that several people have nominated me for SAVEUR’S Best Food Photography Blog Award. Thank you so much to everyone that has submitted my name! Nominations are open till April 26th. =)