Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

I absolutely love coffee, but this is actually the first time in a couple of months that I have enjoyed any type of coffee. A couple of months ago, I realized that my body was way too dependent on caffeine, and I just couldn’t stand having caffeine headaches that resulted if I didn’t drink a cup of coffee before a certain time in the morning. So, yeah…I gave up caffeine. I even sold our coffee machine at a garage sale. I’m crazy like that. I will admit, it took my body a whopping 3 weeks for the headaches to stop, and during those three weeks, it was SO hard not to just grab a small cup of coffee to avoid those headaches. Looking back, it’s worth it. SO worth it. I’ve been slowly phasing caffeine back in every so often, because I can’t not have caffeine for the rest of my life (hi chocolate!), and I’m pleased to say that I haven’t experience a caffeine headache in almost a month!

Since I’m a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher, there are times where publishers are offered free products through their Tastemaker program to try if you post an honest review on the product. I sort of forgot that I signed up for this product before I kicked the caffeine habit: Godiva coffee.

I actually received the package the second week that I gave up caffeine. It was so hard to see those coffee bags in the house, so I placed them in the pantry and told myself I’d make a recipe with this stuff once the headaches were gone.

I decided to make this recipe, because I’ve always been curious about Vietnamese coffee. I love condensed milk. LOVE the stuff. Around here, during snowball season, you can ask for them to top your snowball with condensed milk, and it just takes that dessert to a whole different level. So, I had a feeling the condensed milk would work some miracles on this coffee. 🙂

As always, when it comes to an ice cream recipe, I turn to The Perfect Scoop, and once again, this recipe totally delivered. The recipe called for some ground coffee, which weirded me out, but it totally worked in this recipe! I also thought the flavor was perfect and the texture of the ice cream was surprisingly pretty soft to scoop, for a homemade ice cream. To brew the strong coffee, I used the same technique as highlighted in One Particular Kitchen’s blog (no coffee machine required!).

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream
Source: slightly adapted from The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of strongly brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 cups of condensed milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• big pinch of ground coffee

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl until well incorporated. Chill the mixture thoroughly in your refrigerator.
2. Using the directions that your ice cream maker has, churn the ice cream. Enjoy immediately for a more soft serve texture or freeze for a few hours to enjoy as a scoopable ice cream.

FTC Disclosure: I was provided two bags of Godiva Coffee by the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program in exchange for a review and recipe idea using the coffee. My opinions are my own, as always.