Let me tell you a story about me and ice cream. At one time, I was lucky enough to live a short bike ride away from a tiny ice cream shop with cylinders of creamy, old-fashioned ice cream. A few more miles away was a gelato shop with metal tubs of Italian gelato with great flavors to try. Last summer, the nearby ice cream shop moved to the next city over and the gelato shop closed its doors.

Taking pity on me, Marc purchased the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment for me and I started making Tart Frozen Yogurt and Chocolate Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirls. At that point, I was never going back to the store-bought kind with long paragraphs of mystery ingredients. I was becoming more selective about ice cream.

Last Friday we tried an ice cream place that is pretty well known in our city, but was new to us. One perfect scoop was all I was craving. The adorable high school girl behind the counter was friendly and encouraged lots of tastes. This endeared me to her immediately. I tasted five or six  kinds, including her recommendation, raspberry chocolate, and just couldn’t find my perfect scoop. I settled on mocha chip because I started to feel bad for all of my tastes. I felt really bad that I didn’t care at all for her favorite with the artificial-tasting raspberry flavor. The ice cream I chose had a nice coffee and chocolate flavor, but the “chip” part consisted of disappointing waxy chocolate bits. Don’t worry, friends, I didn’t sulk. It didn’t ruin my night. I still was excited to share a scoop of ice cream on a Friday night with my husband. I just knew I could make something better. I could upgrade those mix-ins like nobody’s business.

I thought about all of the flavors that I love and what a super ice cream for me would be. The chocolate with peanut butter swirls will always be a favorite, but I also have a long-standing love for the combination of coconut, dark chocolate and toasted almonds.

I added this and that, hoping for a creamy coconut version of tart frozen yogurt with delicious bits.  I took a tiny taste right out of the bowl and I instantly fell for the light coconut and tart yogurt mix. Then I tried a taste with bits of chocolate and almond. Yep, it all tasted darn good together.

This may not be your fantasy combination, but I hope you will try it. If you’re a big coconut fan, feel free to add a 1/2 cup of toasted coconut in the mix. For the dark chocolate bar, I used a Chocolove Sea Salt Almond Dark Chocolate Bar, because it’s a favorite. An unadorned Ghirardelli or Valrhona bar of chocolate would be a nice choice here, too.