For Mother’s Day many, many years ago, I made an angel food cake with strawberries for my mom. After the cake and day of mom was over, we had a ton of egg yolks and strawberries left in the house. What to make?

I made ice cream for the very first time. It was just alright. I remember that because the next few months I took on the challenge of perfecting that strawberry ice cream recipe. The ice cream phase lasted quite awhile. I recall an 18th birthday party where I brought mint ice cream with crushed peppermint patties, a chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirl, and of course, strawberry ice cream.

The ice cream phase had a part II a few years later. Back at my parents’ house, I borrowed my sister’s ice cream maker and continued on my journey of ice cream: burnt sugar chocolate, meyer lemon, caramel and salted pretzels, oh and so much more. My parents gave me an ice cream maker before I moved to Texas.

And then… right at that time I stopped eating dairy. And so the sorbet phase began. Pear, berry, moscato, chocolate… Mr. G once told me “sorbet is only for people who can’t eat ice cream”. I don’t know if I ever changed his mind on that, but dang it didn’t dissuade me from my love of sorbet. Even when I could eat ice cream, I often chose sorbet. Best part? I walk away without doubling over in pain (okay, that’s bonus for me anyway).

Just like in all my cooking and baking, I prefer the naturally gluten free way and dairy free way. Just about all ice creams are naturally gluten free of course. Dairy? That can be a little harder to perfect if you’re not going for straight-up sorbet. Enter coconut cream. Oh yes.

I have found my love: Coconut Ginger Ice Cream. This creation reminds me a lot of a dessert at a Vietnamese restaurant my mom and I ate at while I was in college. Man, I remember the taste of the ginger ice cream over sticky gingerbread that Mai Pham brought out for us to sample. Oh mom, this is for you.

Coconut Ginger Ice Cream
3 ounces ginger
1 can coconut cream
1/3 cup almond milk
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup honey
pinch of salt

Peel the ginger. Grate as much as you can, making sure to catch the juice in a medium saucepan, wiping out the grater as you go as the ginger will stick. Any extra pieces you can’t grate, just throw into the pot. Add about a half inch of water to the pot and bring to a rapid boil.

Add the can of coconut cream and the almond milk to the pot. Stir so that it doesn’t scorch. Simmer for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk the 4 yolks with the honey. Pour 1/3 of the hot coconut milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking the WHOLE time. This is tempering the yolks so that they don’t scramble when you mix the hot mixture with the eggs. Add another third of a cup and another, whisking all the while.

When you’ve added a cup of the milk to the eggs, pour the egg mixture slowly into the saucepan and keep whisking. Simmer over medium-low for 5 minutes and stir occasionally.

Remove from heat and chill for a minimum of 2 hours. When chilled, strain the ice cream mixture directly into the ice cream maker. Much of the grated mixture will make it through, the more the better I say! Just keep out any fibrous pieces or the larger chunks of ginger. Feel free to even scoop some of the grated goodness that stays in the strainer back into the ice cream maker.

Freeze according to ice cream maker’s instructions and you’re good to go.