At least 24 hours before you plan to churn the ice cream, put the ice cream machine’s bowl in the freezer to freeze. It should be frozen solid before using (you should hear no liquid sloshing inside when you shake it).
Before opening, shake the cans of coconut milk. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan; add the sweetener and salt. Warm the coconut milk on the stove over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sweetener has completely dissolved into the coconut milk; 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk thoroughly and add the arrowroot until totally dissolved. Stirring occasionally, continue cooking the base until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon; 6 to 8 minutes. Do not allow the base to come to a boil. Remove the base from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Let the base to cool slightly on the counter, so it’s not hot when you put it in the fridge. Cover the container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or for up to 3 days.
Remove the base from the fridge. It should be completely chilled and slightly pudding-like in texture. Pour the base into your ice cream machine and begin churning. Churn the ice cream until it thickens considerably and is roughly the consistency of soft-serve ice cream. Scrape the ice cream into your freezer container. Transfer the container of ice cream to the freezer and freeze for at least 4 hours to harden the ice cream.
Ingredients
- 2 cans full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup agave syrup, maple syrup, honey, turbinado sugar or cane sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1 Tbsp arrowroot starch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
