Rum baked Peaches with Chocolate Coconut Ice cream for We Should Cocoa

Sometimes I have too much time on my hands. Okay this is rare admittedly but the old brain goes wandering, normally in the middle of doing something else and it resulted in some random googling on my phone in the kitchen (our signal booster box is worth its hassle getting it!), whilst making dinner and the outcome was a tub of chocolate coconut ice cream! I am not entirely sure what provoked me that evening other than this unrelenting heatwave that's slowly cooking me through but it was a good provocation!

Back tracking a little, with regards to one of the recipe components a few months back I posted up an article for Good Housekeeping on creating an alternative dairy and gluten free pudding, in the form of my lush Sticky ginger and Almond rice pudding. As part of its development I had received a box full of free from items, and one of those items was a hot chocolate syrup called Choc Shot…which became the chocolate part of this recipe as it was, well, er easier! *blushing with shame* It also has only 14 calories per teaspoon, 100% natural and low GI and diabetic friendly so you can really tell yourself its a healthy ice cream treat!  

Anyway, despite the heatwave it resulted in me playing around in the kitchen the other night and I decided to make a batch of coconut milk ice cream, using the syrup as a chocolate flavouring, along with some forgotten about meringue nests, after coming up with the idea of some kind of semi-freddo dessert… I managed three lots of hand churning but eventually fell asleep despite the best intentions of some inconsiderate neighbour's doing their best to keep the block awake with their incessant shouting, shrill laughter and loud music, so the next day I had to let it thaw a little for some more half hourly beatings... I think it still needs a teeny bit of work texture wise as its frankly a bugger to scoop out but it worked so well with the baked peaches and so I have forgiven it!

Next on to the baked peach part - Ohmigod where has u been all my life! I took inspiration for this quick pudding from the recent Waitrose magazine, though I pretty much exchanged all the ingredients apart from the peaches as to what we had in the cupboards! Fortunately it still was fabulous and even called for my wicked auntie to comment that I really should be the size of a barrel after sharing pictures on my facebook page! It is fruit mostly...! The sweet soft peach flesh, combined with crunchy sweet biscuit and hint of spiced vanilla rum is a heady concoction and one i feel might just become a regular dish in my kitchen!

Coconut and Chocolate Icecream

1 tin full fat coconut milk, good quality.

8 tsp chocolate syrup

3 meringue nests - not essential - mine dissolved mostly!

Place the coconut milk in a blender and blitz until smooth. Combine the syrup and crumble over the meringue nests, turn into a suitable container for freezing.

Every 30 minutes, take a whisk or fork to the mixture breaking up any ice crystals for about 4-5 times. Ta da!

Rum baked Peaches

These are so quick and easy, and entirely worth making!

2 peaches, halved

2 digestive biscuits, crushed

1 tbsp golden granulated sugar

1 heaped tsp butter

2 tbsp spiced rum

Crush the biscuits in a small bowl or pestle & mortar. 

Then add the sugar and rub through the butter – best to cut into little pieces, until you have a crumble mix of sorts. 

Spoon into the peaches and place on a lined baking tin. Drizzle over the rum and bake for 15 mins @ 180o and serve warm, with the ice cream.

I am sending my lovely pretend its healthy treat to this months We Should Cocoa, held by the lovely Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary