Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream

When my husband mentioned that he wanted to make the Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings from Pok Pok this past weekend, my first thought was "YES, PLEASE!" and my second thought was, what should I make for dessert?  These wings are incredible (check out pic at the bottom of this post); and they deserve a dessert that is equally great. Whenever I visit a Vietnamese restaurant I always have to order an iced coffee, which is basically just strong black coffee served with sweetened condensed milk. This ice cream is about as simple as that, with a few little extras. This is one of my favorite recipe's from David Lebovitz's cookbook, The Perfect Scoop; I decided to experiment with it a bit this time around by adding some Kahlua. A few tablespoons of any 40 proof alcohol added to homemade ice cream keeps it from freezing too hard, though since this is already a pretty soft freezing ice cream, I only added a little to enhance the coffee flavor.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream (adapted from David Lebovitz)
Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups brewed espresso or very strong coffee
1/2 cup half-and-half
Big pinch of finely ground dark-roast coffee
1 tablespoon of Kahlua (optional)

Directions:
Whisk together the condensed milk, espresso, half-and-half, Kahlua and ground coffee. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions (about 35 minutes in my machine). Transfer to a covered container and freeze until firm enough to scoop.

You need these wings in your life. Find the recipe here.