One of my all time favourite treats as a kid was a big bowl of ice cream covered in the hard shell that was Ice Magic (preferably the peppermint kind please!). My Nan always had a bottle on hand and so it became a bit of a tradition to have ice cream at her house for dessert. But being gluten free and somewhat dairy intolerant these days means I often miss out on all these simple little guilty pleasures as do our intolerant kids. So I set about making myself something I could eat, guilt free. Something that takes my right back to my childhood. Enter my 2 Ingredient Homemade Ice Magic which just so happens to be both gluten and dairy free. Voila! No more missing out.

Pass the Ice Magic Please

Now I may consider myself very much an adult in most ways, but I tell you what, nothing beats cracking that hard chocolatey shell on a big bowl of ice cream. I don’t care how old you are! It ignites a certain level of joy. I liken it to eating my Nan’s custard or layered jelly with tinned fruit. Haha OK so maybe only Aussie kids of a certain age will get that one. But I digress.

It’s these simple pleasures in life that really make life worth living, in my opinion anyway. I mean I’ve said it before, missing out because you’re the weirdo kid who can’t eat gluten or dairy kind of sucks. So anything I can do to make being a kid (or a big kid for that matter) with food intolerances that little be easier is okay in my book…. doesn’t hurt that its seriously delicious and easy either.

2 Ingredients Only!

Yup, two ingredients and you can have these on hand so that you can enjoy a simple bowl of pleasure anytime! My Homemade Ice Magic recipe, if you can even call it a “recipe” is simply chocolate and coconut oil. That’s it! Hell if you don’t have coconut oil on hand you could use any vegetable oil you have, but I must say I do really like the flavour coconut oil gives to it.

You can even get totally wild here and add in a drop or two of extract to give it flavour! You know, if you’re not a fan of just delicious chocolate! Personally I love a drop of peppermint extract, but really you could add just about any flavour you like.

I mean really you could get even crazier and use white chocolate and say a hint of lemon essence, to totally shake up this classic Aussie tradition. Good lord Homemade Ice Magic completely re-imaged!

A Word on Dairy Free Chocolate

Dairy free chocolate, three little words that often don’t make a lot of sense together in the same sentence. Especially if you’ve eaten any of the “dairy and gluten free” chocolate on the market before. But here’s the thing, most really good quality chocolate is already dairy free! It’s this crazy sweet invention called milk chocolate that introduced dairy into the equation.

Ultimately what chocolate you use comes down to of intolerance or reason for avoiding dairy. Most dairy free folk, myself included can consume “may contain milk” products. In which case this opens up a huge selection of not only dairy but gluten free chocolates on the market.

My personal favourite is Green and Blacks. A beautiful rich chocolate that’s not over the top bitter. I also love Lindt 70% dark chocolate or 90% for when I’m wanting something really indulgent. But I do personally love my dark chocolate. Whatever way you choose to go, remember to always check the labels. (both of these are also gluten free by the way).

Now if you’re not dairy free as well you can simply go with any good gluten free chocolate. If you’ve been following me for a while you know I love my Nestle chocolate. The whole range of drops, bits and chunks are gluten free! Dark, milk and white so feel free to play around here. You’ll find them in the baking aisle.

When It’s Not Actually Chocolate

I just want to touch on this quickly as so many bakers I chat to don’t realise. There are some gluten and dairy free “chocolates” on the market. The ones you find in the health food aisles with their labels showcasing their free from status all over the front. You know, like Sweet Williams.

Now I have nothing against this brand except please understand this isn’t really chocolate. If you look at what’s actually in it it’s made of vegetable oil and soy flour. It has less than 8% of cocoa. It’s basically not chocolate. So it does have a weird after taste and doesn’t always melt nicely.

I don’t mind using the Sweet Williams Dark Choc Baking Buttons (green bag) as they have a higher cocoa percentage (27%) but this is still only akin to milk chocolate in terms of “chocolatey-ness”. It’s still more oil than chocolate. If you must use it for allergen reasons or like it, please go ahead and do so. But if you can choose a really good quality chocolate instead. Trust me when I say it makes a difference!

Now enough chatting! Let’s make some Homemade Ice Magic!

[[ recipeID=recipe-9l450mr7w, title=Homemade Ice Magic ]]

Did you recognise my chocolate shell trick? It’s how I also make the snappy topping on my Gluten Free Caramel Slice recipe!!