Recipe | Raspberry & Vanilla Coconut Ice

 Is it Christmas yet? It’s so close I can practically taste it! My tree is already up and so are most of my decorations, so there really is no reason not to start sharing some more festive projects and recipes. Let’s ease into it, with a red and white treat that is sure to impress the coconut lovers in your life. Anyone with a sweet tooth should like these babies, because HOO-boy! There is a lot of sugar in this recipe!

A few things to note about this recipe: There are two layers you need to make - the vanilla layer (which could be a little dry and hard) and the raspberry layer which may be too moist as the raspberries will retain a lot of liquid. Keep this in mind and add in extra condensed milk if you mixture is too dry and minimize the amount of condensed milk in the raspberry layer if it seems too moist.
What You Need:
1.28kg of icing sugar
6 cups (480g) of desiccated coconut
1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups of sweetened condensed milk (460g)
1 cup of frozen raspberries (thawed)
Red food colouring (optional)

What You Do:
1. Grease and line a slice or square cake tin with baking paper and set aside. (At least 20cm x 30cm x 3.5cm or multiple smaller tins)

2. Place half the sugar, half the coconut and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract in a large bowl. Add 1 &1/4 cups (380g) of sweetened condensed milk  and mix well to combine - it should start to form into a ‘dough’.

3. turn out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth. Press firmly into the base of the prepared tin and smooth down the top until even and flat.

4. Place the remaining sugar and coconut in a large bowl and add in the thawed raspberries (and a couple of drops of food colouring if you want a deeper colour- but remember - that stuff stains like you wouldn’t believe!) Using your fingers, rub the mixture until the raspberries are well combined. Add the remaining condensed milk and mix to combine.

5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth. Press firmly onto the previous layer in the prepared tin and smooth down the top until even and flat.

6. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to set (at least 3 - 4 hours) Once set, slice into squares to serve.