Coconut and tapioca ice-lollies

Many recipes are brought to life due to nostalgia. Who here has never felt the urge to cook something that took you back in time? Whether it was a food from your childhood or even a dish that you tried in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago I am sure many of us have tried to see if the result will match up to the memory.

When summer arrives my husband and I can’t get enough ice cream and recently I have found quite a few ice cream shops that have dairy free flavours, but two years ago that was not an easy thing to find. It was either lemon or strawberry and that was that. I almost stopped going to ice cream shops it was getting so boring. And then we got an ice cream machine as a wedding present and our lives were revolutionised. Ok maybe I am being a bit dramatic. I started to make our own dairy free ice creams, experimenting with new flavours and it turned into a serious addiction. Problem is the machine has to live in the fridge for 12 hours before being used and our freezer is teeny tiny, so this year I decided to buy a few ice-lolly moulds.

I find ice-lollies very practical and I love that you get the individual portions all sorted out. I say this because around here we are over-scoopers consequently a tub would only last a couple days around here (I told you we go ice cream mad over here).

As soon as my moulds arrived via post I knew the one flavour I was going to try first: coconut and tapioca. That is my nostalgia food, my favourite childhood ice cream flavour. Mariana who was born and raised in the same city as me knows what I am talking about. It is simply wonderful.

The tapioca pearls are not hard to find around here especially after the Bubble tea craze, so I always go to my trusted Asian shop and I am all set. This version is not as creamy as the original one found in a famous ice cream shop in my hometown in Brazil but that is because I omitted the condensed milk, which actually works out really well because it mean less calories!

Coconut and tapioca ice-lollies

400ml coconut milk

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

100g sugar

2/3 cup tapioca pearls

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a pan and bring the mixture to boil making sure the sugar has dissolved completely

2. Let it cool and chill in the fridge. Once cool pour the mixture into the moulds and freeze it overnight.

To decorate I dipped the lollies in melted chocolate and sprinkled it with more coconut, but that step is up to you.