Coconut Cream Pumpkin Ice Cream (GF/DF)

I love pumpkin. I usually stock up on it in the fall. Both pumpkins to process and freeze and canned pumpkin. I have an abundance of canned pumpkin right now that I needed to use up so I don't have to store it in my tiny kitchen. I also have quite a bit of coconut milk since it was on sale. So, I thought, what should I make?

Pumpkin bread pudding? Pumpkin pancakes? Pumpkin shakes? Pumpkin custard- but I still can't figure out my mom's way of making her coconut pumpkin custard. Then I thought, it's hot out, so something cold... mmm ice cream! I have a Pumpkin Chai Spiced one posted HERE. So I thought why not? I could just make it simple, no custard, no cook, easy peasy right? 

I used ingredients in my pantry. Mixed them up. Poured them into my ice cream maker, decided there was too much and put half of it in the fridge for a second freezing. Which made it too hard anyway, and I had to let it sit out to eat the next time I wanted some. I don't have pictures of the finished results. I'm sorry! Maybe next time I'll add one.

You don't need all of these ingredients, I just took it so you could decide what you want to use yourself. As far as vanillas and sweeteners

Oven Roasted Pumpkin Puree

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Puree

Instant Pot Pumpkin Puree

Coconut Cream Pumpkin Ice Cream

2 cans Coconut milk 

1 can pumpkin puree, or homemade

3/4 cup sweetener (maple syrup, honey, brown sugar)

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (use the search function for my recipe)

3 tablespoons homemade vanilla extract- see my note and maybe get some store bought stuff

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste- optional, I love this stuff so I used it

pinch of salt

 2-3 pieces of minced crystallized ginger- optional

Mix everything up. Put it in your ice cream maker. Freeze. Enjoy! (See my note about freezing in the freezer.)

Notes-
Next time I will NOT use the homemade vanilla extract. Why? Because once it was frozen in the freezer I could taste the vodka. Whew, light headed. :P It's not the extract, it's steeped well and is perfect for cooking.

Because this freezes so solid and it tastes better- to me, right out of the machine. I won't make a ton, just enough for us to eat right away. So next time I'll halve the recipe.

I also want to try adding sweetened condensed milk, which throws the whole DF thing out the window. But it sounds good to me!