Vegan iced coconut milk

Although this post is about a vegan recipe, it's not going to be my Vegan Recipe of the Month, because it's definitely not a healthy, veggie-centric dish. Instead, it's an indulgent treat — ice cream — converted to a vegan form.

As the weather has grown steadily more summery here in New Jersey, I've begun to have cravings for ice cream. However, since Brian and I have gone off red meat and dairy almost entirely now, buying the real stuff — or even the lower-fat "light" stuff — wasn't an option. And while our local stores do carry a few plant-based ice cream alternatives, they're all pretty pricey. Plus, the only one we've tried that we particularly liked, the chocolate coconut milk ice cream from Trader Joe's, hasn't been available for a while now.

Fortunately, we do have an ice cream maker, and enough room in the freezer to chill the metal canister. So I went hunting online for a vegan ice cream alternative that wouldn't be too complicated to make at home. And since desserts tend to freeze best if they've got more fat in them (which freezes smooth instead of forming ice crystals), I decided to look for a coconut-milk-based recipe for our first attempt.

My new favorite vegan blog, surprisingly, wasn't much help here; the only recipe she had was for a vegan version of black ice cream, which didn't look appetizing to me at all, and which seemed unnecessarily complex to make. But a site called Chocolate Covered Katie turned up a recipe that looked much simpler — or at least, looked like it could be much simpler. The ingredient list called for a cup and a half of canned, full-fat coconut milk, plus "1/2 cup additional coconut milk OR milk of choice"; likewise, it called for a quarter cup of sugar or other sweetener, plus "pinch stevia or 1 additional tbsp sweetener of choice." So, in its simplest form, the recipe could be made with only four ingredients — coconut milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla — and  all you had to do with them was stir them up together, pour it into the ice cream maker, and churn.

Although the recipe specifically called for coconut milk, Brian wavered over whether to use that or coconut cream, which we also had on hand. He thought since it was richer than coconut milk and contained less water, it might freeze better. However, I argued that for our first attempt, we should stick to the recipe as written, so we went with the coconut milk. The can we had was 15 ounces, and the recipe called for 16, so Brian made up the rest of the volume with almond milk.

After about half an hour of churning, the ice cream had reached approximately the consistency of soft-serve. Further churning beyond that point didn't seem to thicken it up any more, so we just dished it out that form. With my first spoonful, I realized why the recipe had suggested cutting the coconut milk with a half cup of other "milk of choice"; this stuff has a very strong coconut flavor. Although I'm quite partial to coconut, I found it a little too overpowering, but Brian liked it. I also found it overly sweet. I ended up sprinkling a little dark chocolate on mine, which toned down the sweetness and the powerful coconut taste somewhat, and found it enjoyable enough to go back for a small second helping.

After eating a little less than half the batch, we put the rest in the freezer. When we went back for it two nights later, we found it had frozen not just to a scoopable consistency, but harder than that — hard enough that it had to be sort of chipped out with the spoon. It had also developed a noticeable volume of ice crystals in the mix. It was still tasty, just not as smooth as before.

Overall, I'd say this vegan iced coconut milk was pretty good for a first attempt, but it wasn't quite the perfect dairy-free substitute for ice cream. If we try it again, I might consider using the coconut cream rather than coconut milk for a smoother consistency, then cutting it with a half-cup of almond milk as the recipe suggests and maybe toning down the sugar.

On the other hand, perhaps we should try moving on to a different recipe and see how that works. The same blogger also has a recipe for oat milk ice cream, which seems like an ideal application for homemade oat milk. We found the stuff wasn't workable as a milk substitute because it more or less turns to glue when heated, but that shouldn't be a problem if it's being chilled instead. And it's considerably cheaper than coconut milk.

The only catch is, it's also much lower in fat, so to give it the right texture, the recipe also calls for half a cup of "nut butter of choice," such as peanut butter or almond butter. And not only does that addition jack up the cost, it's not a flavor I particularly want in my ice cream. She says you can use "a neutral nut butter such as raw cashew or coconut butter" for flavors such as mint chocolate chip, our personal favorite, but we've never found either of those in stores, and making it from scratch would add considerably to the hassle.

So basically, it's not clear yet what we'll be trying next on the nondairy ice cream front. The only thing we can be sure of is that, as summer continues to heat up, we'll definitely be trying something. Keep watching this space for updates.