Category Archives: coconut

Homecoming: Coconut Gelato for Toni

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Toni went to Italy and Croatia to visit his family for two long weeks. Over the course of these last six months, I’ve never known him to be so happy as he was while there, surrounded by his family and friends, in the place he considers home. I wanted to do something for him so that coming back to New York would be less bitter and more sweet. When I asked him what that might be, he said quite simply that he wanted gelato al cocco, coconut gelato. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that.

Coconut Gelato for Toni

  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 2 cups milk (I used 1 1/2 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup skim milk, and a splash of heavy cream)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean

In a bowl, combine sugar and yolks, stirring until incorporated. Heat milk and vanilla bean over medium heat, then add a ladle of the heated milk to the sugar and egg mixture to temper it. Add the sugar and egg mixture to the pot, stirring constantly. Add the coconut.

When mixture is thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove from heat and cool. Keep, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight. Don’t forget to put the body of your ice cream maker in the freezer to chill.

When you are ready to freeze the gelato, remove the vanilla bean and discard. Pour into the ice cream maker and let it churn for about 20 minutes, scraping down the sides every now and then. Put into a container and freeze until ready to eat.

Recipe adapted from Nicole Lang.

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

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What’s an amazing way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon? A walk over the Williamsburg Bridge to grab some ice cream at Lulu & Mooky’s. I’d read about this hidden gem last year, but never made it that far south to try it. Now that Bowery has become my new transportation hub since moving across the river, I had no excuse.

Lulu & Mooky’s brightly colored store front…
“over 10,000 flavors”

Within the industrial space, customers are greeted by a large list of various fruit purees and flavor essences, rather than the traditional vats of ice cream or gelato that one expects to see when walking into an ice cream store. Two pink standing mixers sit on the short, steel countertop, fitted with bowls of water. And here’s why it gets so entertaining – once you choose your flavor combination, the ice cream man becomes a scientist. He adds an eyedrop of your chosen essence (lemon) and a precisely-measured squirt of puree (coconut) that he pulls out of his refigeration unit. Once combined, he adds a cup of liquid (I assume the actual cream mixture) to the bowl.

Yes, it does say liquid nitrogen ice cream

And then (the suspense is building), he sets the bowl over the water bowl in the mixer and turns it on. Once everything appears scientifically combined – or perhaps just when the ingredients are well-integrated – he whips out a giant measuring cup, which he proceeds to fill with a certain amount of liquid nitrogen… I could not see how much because liquid nitrogen is obviously so cold that it creates a fog around it.

If you can’t tell already, I am extremely excited at this point. The liquid nitrogen was added to the mixer, and suddenly everthing was surrounded by steam. As it subsided, I saw that the liquid in the bowl had solidfied. The scientist returned to his role of ice cream man, scooping out the freshly-made deliciousness, filling my cup with two giant scoops of lemon-coconut ice cream. Now, I need to go back for the chocolate…

It’s the same consistency as Dippin’ Dots – dream come true!