As hot weather approaches a cold ice cream treat sounds so good. And there is nothing like homemade ice cream. But what if you are on a dairy free diet? Enter, coconut milk ice cream. Joel and I got hooked on coconut ice cream long before I had to go dairy free. It’s that good. It is incredibly rich and creamy. Coconut milk has such a melt in your mouth texture. It’s wonderful I can’t wait to try out new flavors, but chocolate is definitely a favorite.
This recipe does use an automatic ice cream maker. This newer ice cream makers are great. No worries of ice and salt, you just freeze the container part and you are ready to go! It’s wonderful for last minute, healthy desserts. We were given one as a gift from Joel’s family and we have loved it! But if you don’t have your own mixer, it still is possible to make at home. Check out this post, over at David Lebovitz’s blog for more info on doing that.
A few notes about the ingredients. We use Thai’s organic coconut milk (NOT lite). Not all coconut milk is made equally, and we have found that this one has the best flavor. But use what you can find (as long as it isn’t lite). I used agave syrup here, but you can use whatever sweetener you like. If you can have dairy, coconut milk and cream together make a wonderful ice cream.
We like this ice cream right out of the ice cream maker, where it’s like soft serve ice cream (like in the picture above). Mmmm…..
Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
3 cups of unsweetened coconut milk (about two cans)
2/3 cup of cocoa powder
6 tablespoons agave syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk cocoa powder in a small amount of coconut milk, until smooth. Then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until well combined. Or dump all ingredients together and blend with a stick blender. Make according to your machines instructions.
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Is it possible to make this without an ice cream maker? Do you think it would work with putting it in a blender then freezing in a pan? Thanks!
i made it in a cuisanart ice cream maker, i even added toasted almonds
in it.
I promote coconuts and am glad to see what a great job you are doing. If there is anything I can do to help let me know. You will understand if you visit my web site.
By the way I am planning coconut soft cheese.
hi
i am interested in your coconut cheese.
Would you like to give me an idea what you are doing
Cheers
Henry
Do you know how to make coconut yogurt ? It has to be dairy free and soy free. Thanks.
can this be made with erythritol and/or stevia instead of agave?
My daughter and I made this ice cream this weekend and it was wonderful! We added almonds, dark chocolate, and coconut and called it “Almond Joy” Ice Cream.
how did you add the dark chocolate? Did you melt with the cocoa powder into the coconut milk? and were you satisfied with the amount of sweetner added the 2 cans of milk?
susan, erythritol will work much better, as it will depress the freezing point and make it more scoopable after “hard” freezing. Also consider adding gelatin or xanthan gum as a stabalizer.
Gelatin is made from collagen in animal skin and bones, so vegans/vegetarians who are reading this recipe should take a note.
If you want a good stabilizer try Konjac root powder. You will get good consistancy and it has not taste (also no calories and no glycemic load).
I made this for the first time this weekend. Oh my word, soooo good! This will be one we make again and again. Thank you!
oh my mercy, kimi! soooo good. soooo creamy! i did half coconut milk and half heavy whipping cream. a.may.zing! thanks for the recipe.
Just made it in a cuisinart ice cream maker. Never got really firm, but now it’s in the freezer. Tastes good, but waiting to see if it’s too hard after freezing. Thanks for the recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does this make enough for a 1 1/2 quart or 2 quart ice cream maker?
MMMMMmmm! So yummy, and the perfect recipe to try out my new kitchen-aid ice cream maker bowl! My son was delighted, as he has never had chocolate ice cream before, there is no soy free, dairy free, gluten free substitute available in Canada. Not too sweet either, which was to my taste. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I will certainly use it again!
Dee..I am also in Canada and Soy, dairy and gluten free. There is a brand called SoDelicious that you can find in the organic freezers at Loblaws..it’s made with Coconut milk too
Love this recipe…I have made it several times now and my kids beg for more
I am also from Canada and got very excited as I read the ingredient list on the SoDelicious. Right down at the bottom is the statement that it may contain traces of….
The traces include dairy and soy which means that somebody with an allergy is probably not willing to take the chance with them.
That’s fine because we are now experimenting with making our own
Be aware that most of the coconut milk ice creams out there also contain carageenan, which may be a natural seaweed derived ingrediant but has been shown to be neurotoxic in mice. Yikes! I’m not taking any chances. This recipe is delicious and I added 1T of instant coffe to make it mocha. So yummers, thank-you!
This is amazing. I used lite cocunut milk (sorry, but it’s just what I had on hand) and honey, and it still turned out fabulously. Will definitely make again.
Just bought my ice cream maker today. Tomorrow I am going to do this recipe with honey, a banana, and some toasted almonds. Will let you know how it turns out. Super excited, and if you’ve never had chocolate and banana together, you’re missing out.
Using the Cuisinart 50BC Ice Cream Maker we first gently melt 4 oz milk chocolate in 1 cup of milk at low heat. After cooling the melted chocolate mixture, we add 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp coconut extract. Chilled again for 1 hour to ensure a creamy and scoopable batch when put in the freezer after 3 hours. When the ice cream is thickening in the machine we add 3 oz of mini chocolate chips for the last 5 minutes Adding too soon, the added ingredients sink to the bottom and disturb the mixing process. Sometimes we add almond slivers,chopped pineapple and top the ice cream with coconut flakes. Just a footnote…..the small amount of cocnut extract flavor does not effect the optimum freezing process, and can be used to satisfy your personal intensity of coconut flavor. Making your own ice cream is only limited by your imagination.
This Forum was really about coconut milk Ice Cream!
Not Dairy Ice cream, or the “I just Brought an Ice Cream maker, lets make conventional Ice Cream”. It was about alternatives!!!
Can I make this without chocolate?
Can you substitute carob powder for cocoa powder?
Coconut Bliss is soy free, dairy free, gluten free and is now available in Canada (at least in Ontario and Quebec) We can’t do any of those (including soy lecithin) nor can we do carob bean gum which is in most dairy free frozen desserts.
I halved this recipe, used honey instead of agave, and poured it into popsicle molds. They were seriously amazing!! It tasted like the jell-o pudding pops I ate as a kid! My kids devoured them!
This ice cream sounds absolutely perfect. I would like to try making it with stevia, so would love to hear if anyone tried it that way yet. Have not bought an ice cream maker yet, and would love to get some opinions on which ones you are recommending. Thank you all in advance!
I made this ice cream with liquid Stevia instead of Agave and it turned out perfect. Just sweeten to taste before putting in freezer. I do not own an ice cream maker. I put everything in a stainless steel bowl and stick in the freezer…pretty primitive! I also only made half the recipe.
I used regular coconut milk dark cocoa powder, 1/4 c xylitol, 2 tbl agave for sweetener. My husband is dairy free, soy free, gluten free. This ice cream is so easy and perfect consistency. I just purchased the Cuisinart for about $40 and am very happy with it! Can’t wait to try some other flavors!
I look forward to trying this recipe. Looks delicious, & i have all the ingredients!
There is a brand of coconut based vegan soy free ice cream called ‘Coconut Bliss’ It’s Rich & creamy & very very good for store bought ice cream. They have a huge flavor selection, & I’ve yet to be disappointed. My favorite is their chocolate mint. It is of course very expensive & a rare treat in my house, I look forward to trying some of the recipes I’ve found, esp this one. In my home wheat, dairy & soy are out, & we’re vegetarians anyway, When soy was removed I cried. I thought all the good creamy ice creams were just a no, until I found this coconut based stuff that rivaled my dearly loved Breyers for quality! Best of luck to anyone else out their struggling to stay healthy & keep their families healthy. I have vegan friends who swear by cashew ice cream, I have yet to try it.
If you are fortunate enough to have a champion, here is an easy to make sweet treat on a hot day. Chop up some ripe bananas & freeze them, frozen strawberries are esp. good too, but don’t limit yourself, any frozen fruit will do. (except peaches, you can’t taste them over the banana) run them through the champion, alternating banana strawberry to make it as even, & as pink or red & as strongly flavored as you like, the bananas make the strawberries sweet enough to eat. It’s totally healthy, not quite as sweet or as elegant as the above recipe, but for a quick sweet treat on a hot day, it’s delicious & easy, then you’ve got the fancier more expensive stuff for special occasions. You can easily run a sweetener through too. you might run a little plain banana through right at first, because for some reason the champion melts that 1st tbs. Then it comes out like perfect soft ice cream.
While this recipe is nice and has potential, it is decidedly NOT ice cream. Ice milk perhaps but it has no creaminess to it whatsoever and freezes solid as a brick. Maybe next time I will add some coconut oil to improve the texture. I have to say that I am pretty disappointed, as your picture is a vision of deliciousness and the stuff in my freezer is a lump of semi-transparent brown ice. I sometimes think that in the act of replicating ‘normal’ foods we overreach in our comparisons.
Well, we think it’s pretty darn good.
Did you use full fat coconut milk? Everyone who has tried it (including those not on a special dairy free diet) thinks it’s very creamy.
You know, I used homemade and that must be where it went wrong. I’ve been making it for a few years to drink and it always has a nice thick layer of fat on top. I assumed (that’ll teach me) that it would have the same fat content as the stuff in the can. I apologize for my judging the recipe so harshly but if you tasted how disappointing my results were … blech. I’m not inclined to purchase canned milk but I will most likely try adding some additional coconut oil to my previous disaster and see what happens. If I have any luck I will let you know. And thank you for your cordial response to my grousy comment. It was very gracious of you.
If I use this recipe for black berries, how much strained black berries would I put in instead of chocolate? I accidentally made the chocolate ice cream with coconut milk with water in it and it was a little icy, but it was still good. I also ran out of agave and used yacon syrup, which has a lower glycemic index and I think it was pretty good, although it has a little more flavor than agave.
Delicious, but how many calories is it? Very good receipe. Thanks
Do you need to mix this on the stove? Or just make it at room temperature, then start the freezing process? I’m new to ice cream making, so thanks!
I have made this recipe a dozen times and it turns out perfectly. This is such fast and tasty way to make ice cream. It’s also a much healthier way to curb my my ice cream addiction!
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