Sugar Free Custard / Ice Cream

I'm often looking for ways to make things without sugar, as my husband is a diabetic.  Custard has always been a bit tricky, but with some experimenting, I've come up with something that works.  I wouldn't call it healthy, but it's certainly less sugary than normal custard, which was the objective!

Ingredients

400g can Coconut Milk
300ml Double Cream
5 eggs
10g Sweetener - this is optional, and the more sweetener you use, the more grainy the texture of your  custard/ice cream will be
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method

1.  Place the coconut milk and cream into a saucepan and heat gently.  Keep stirring until you see bubbles just starting to form at the edge of the pan.  Remove from the heat.

2.  Separate the eggs, keeping the yolks.

3.  Whisk the egg yolks until they go slightly pale.

4.  Add the egg yolks a spoonful at a time to the saucepan, making sure to stir in each spoonful until fully combined before adding the next.  (If you do this too quickly, you'll end up with sweet scrambled eggs!) . Keep going until all the egg yolks are combined - it takes a few minutes to do this.

5.  Put the pan back on the heat and heat gently, stirring all the time.  It seems to take forever, but eventually the custard will thicken.  If you're just after custard, pour it over your favourite dessert straight away... I love this just poured over sliced bananas!

6.  If you're making ice cream (or just like cold custard), pour the custard into a bowl and chill in the fridge until cold.  (To stop the custard getting a skin, put some cling film over the surface).

7.  Use an ice cream machine to turn the custard into ice cream.  Alternatively, pour the custard into a suitable dish and put in the freezer.  If you're doing it this way, take the mixture out every half hour or so and give it a good stir - this breaks up any ice crystals that form while freezing.