Could I substitute milk and heavy cream for coconut milk?

Arijeta Potter
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Coconut Ginger Ice Cream
Recipe question for: Coconut Ginger Ice Cream

6 Comments

Coco E. July 29, 2016
You can, but there are trade-offs. If you're okay with losing all the coconut flavour, just sub in the right ratio of milk and cream to achieve an equal volume with equal amount of fat, easy. But if you still want coconut flavour you have two options: 1. add coconut extract, which depending on the brand, can be a hit-or-miss (likely the latter), or 2. Steep unsweetened shredded dried coconut in the ice cream base as you age/chill it in the fridge (do strain it after though). I would definitely go with 2, and toast the coconut before steeping.
 
Smaug July 29, 2016
You could do that, but you would basically be making high fat coconut milk. I doubt the extract is worth considering.
 
Sean R. July 30, 2016
Coco, you got me thinking that toasted coconut would be a great mix-in for the recipe. Lots of ice creams try to add in a textural element. (Plain cinnamon ice cream could be weird, but churn in honey-roasted nuts and BOOM - it sounds great!)

If you're avoiding the coconut milk because it's hard to acquire, then consider mixing in (chilled) toasted coconut and upping the amount of ginger in the steeping process.

If you're avoiding the coconut because you dislike it, then you'll have mild ginger custard with a hint of rum. I'd be tempted to make a rum caramel sauce for drizzling in that case. :P
 
Smaug July 30, 2016
I think if you try to mix coconut in when churning, it will build up on the dasher and end up in clumps-you might be able to mix in by hand when the ice cream is done.
 

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Smaug July 29, 2016
You really can't- it's quite essential to the recipe-not surprising, since it came from a coconut milk can. If you want to make ginger ice cream you should probably just start from a neutral base or find a specific recipe- I don't think this has enough ginger to stand on it's own.
 
PHIL July 29, 2016
She already has milk and Heavy cream in the recipe so you would probably be okay but then you won't have the coconut taste. She may respond to you since you mentioned the recipe in the question but I would message her directly or ask in the comments section of the recipe to get her to respond. Good luck.
 
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