Whenever I buy ice cream from the grocery store, I am so disappointed. Many are way too sweet, have strange additives, etc. Making your own ice cream really doesn't take all that long, you just need to plan a little. The secret to the creaminess of this ice cream is fresh coconut meat from a young Thai coconut. While it may seem daunting to crack a coconut and extract the juices and meat, it's really rather simple after you've done it once. It's one of those things that I get great satisfaction doing. Here's a quick video on how to do it.
This particular ice cream recipe was adapted from "Raw Food for Everyone" by Alyssa Cohen. It's incredibly rich, creamy, and ever so chocolatey. You might also be surprised to learn that it doesn't have a heavy coconut taste. I think the chocolate overpowers the coconut. The next time I make this recipe I'm going to make a fruit version.
One final note: coconut water from a fresh coconut is so much better than the store bought. I don't enjoy drinking pre-packaged coconut water but I can see myself sipping a chilled glass of fresh coconut water.
Ingredients
1 cup cashews
1 cup raw coconut meat
2 cups coconut water*
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
3-4 medjool dates, pitted
24 hours ahead of making ice cream, place ice cream container into freezer to chill.
Crack your coconut according to video instructions. Invert the coconut and drain coconut water into large measuring container. If you get lucky, you will get about 2 cups of water from the coconut. Pry off top of coconut and scrape out the meat. Combine everything in VitaMix blender and blend until completely smooth. It will probably be warm from all the processing. Cool in refrigerator for at least four hours. Process in ice cream maker.
*If you don't get a full 2 cups of liquid from coconut, top off with soy milk, coconut milk or any other non-dairy milk of your choice.
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| This is what young Thai coconuts look like in the store. I like to check the bottom and make sure it looks nice and fresh. |
Your use of fresh coconuts is inspiring to me, but I'm not sure I'll ever be as hardcore as you! I always use the fat from cans of coconut milk in my ice cream, and your way sounds really awesome, but one time, I tried to open a coconut and I beat and beat it until it had beaten me. This was AFTER I'd watched an internet instruction video about how to do it. If I were on Gilligan's Island, I'd have to stick with mangoes.
ReplyDeleteThe secret to opening a young thai coconut is to use a chefs knife and just whack that coconut with the edge of it. It might take me a whack or two to get a usable hole to drain the water and then I carefully pry the top off. And you don't need any special tools (beyond a metal spoon) to scrape the meat out. I used to think it was an unnecessary hassle to use a fresh coconut until I successfully opened one and then TASTED it – wow! Now it's just a fun part of making ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my coconut was a young thai one. It didn't look like the picture about at all. It was round and brown, like in a cartoon, where one falls off a tree and whacks someone in the head.
DeleteSounds like you got a hold of one of those regular coconut. Much, much easier to break into a young Thai coconut!
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