COCONUT AND PINEAPPLE FROZEN COCKTAIL

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely looove Vodka; Its definitely my booze of choice. One of my favourite vodka brands is Ciroc (others are Russian Standard and Ketel one) and I absolutely adore the coconut, pineapple and peach flavours; I love them all but these three in particular are amazing; sooooo good! Today’s recipe uses a whole cup (250ml) of the pineapple flavour; yup one whole cup.  I like my cocktails really strong but don’t be scared you can always reduce the amount of vodka in it if you don’t like your drinks yummy strong. 

I recommend putting half a cup of vodka and then tasting it as you blend it and adjust it to your personal taste it. I almost don't want to call this a recipe because it’s so easy. Really the hardest thing you will do here is make the coconut syrup and that's pretty easy! The recipe for this coconut syrup is taken from the The Food Charlatan. I adore her blog and regularly spend hours just drooling over the recipes there. 

Her recipe calls for corn syrup but corn syrup isn’t readily where I live so I substituted with sugar syrup. All you do is add 1 tbsp of sugar and half a tbsp of water and heat in the microwave for 10 – 30 second increments till the sugar is completely melted; took about 50 seconds in my microwave.

Just a tip about freezing the pineapple chunks, the best way is to place them on a plate or tray that can fit in your freezer making sure the pieces are not touching each other. When they are frozen if you are not ready to use them just throw them in a freezer bag till you are ready to use it. If you just throw them into a bag straight from the tin they will all stick together and you will end up spending a bit of time bashing a bag of pineapples of your worktop to loosen then. Trust me on this one, I learnt this the hard way. Lets get to it shall we?

Coconut and Pineapple Frozen Cocktail (makes 3 servings)

Ingredients

One 400g tin of pineapple chunks in juice

3/4 cup of coconut syrup (recipe below)

1 cup of ice

1 cup of Pineapple Vodka (I used Ciroc)

For the Coconut Syrup

1 400g tin of coconut syrup,

1tbsp cornflour

½ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

1tbsp sugar syrup

1tbsp vanilla extract

Method

To make the coconut syrup pour the coconut milk into a small pot, add the cornflour and whisk thoroughly till there are no more lumps. Place the saucepan over a medium heat and add the sugar, salt and the sugar syrup and heat stirring frequently until the mixture starts to thicken. Make sure not to let the mixture boil, if it starts to boil take it off the heat. Once the mixture starts to thicken, stir in the vanilla and set aside to cool.

Drain the pineapple chunks from the juice making sure to reserve the juice. Place the pineapple chunks in the freezer until frozen. Pour half of the reserved pineapple juice, the frozen pineapple chunks and all of the other ingredients to the blender and process. 

If the mixture is too thick to blend stream in the reserved pineapple juice from the little hole in the top of your blender making sure to add just enough to get a slushie like consistency. and thats it! 

If you have any leftovers (why would you?) pour into a freezer bag and store in the freezer. Just allow it defrost at room temperature for about 20 - 30 minutes before drinking.