The ice cream recipe I return to over and over is Ice Cream 4 Ways because the texture is incredible. It’s soft and luscious and some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. I believe the secret is that you give yourself a head start incorporating air into it by whipping cream to soft peaks and folding it into chilled custard (that only has one egg yolk in it, as it happens) and churning from there. As I made it the last time, I wondered if you could achieve the same thing by whipping coconut cream and I was determined to try. Thankfully it was family dinner again tonight and I had my excuse. I was going to start with my own Ice Cream 4 Ways as the basis, but I wanted a fully vegan recipe so I started with Serious Eats instead. I have made this recipe before and liked it but I did think the texture could be improved upon, partly because I don’t add the alcohol as we’ve got family who doesn’t partake.
I had a can of coconut cream but for the coconut milk I had only cartons which are 8 oz instead of 13.5. I decided just to use 16 oz of coconut milk and I adjusted the other ingredients from there. I only had half the corn syrup I needed but I didn’t bother with a replacement and it was fine. Because I wanted something to offset the natural sweetness of the coconut, I used coconut sugar instead of turbinado. I’ve done that in my dairy ice cream with great results and it worked very well here too.
This ice cream took a lot longer to churn than the dairy version and when I scooped it I felt resistance that made me fear the texture would be icy or grainy. Not so! While perhaps a bit less pillowy than the dairy version it definitely had the best texture of any vegan ice cream I’ve had. I want to experiment next time with maybe using a dairy alternative other than coconut milk while still using whipped coconut cream. Perhaps a combination of almond milk and coconut cream would be good.
Note that for best results you need to make the coconut milk base the day before and stick the coconut cream in the fridge that day as well and then churn it all up the following day.
INGREDIENTS
- Place the coconut milk, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat over medium until simmering, stirring frequently
- Remove from heat and stir in the salt and vanilla extract
- Use an immersion blender to blend well for 30 seconds or whiz in a blender
- Pour into a container with a lid (I used a quart Mason jar) and refrigerate
- On the day you’re going to make the ice cream, remove the can of coconut cream from the fridge and place in a medium bowl and whip to soft peaks using a hand mixer, a whisk or you can use a stand mixer. Whip until you get soft peaks
- Pour the coconut milk mixture into a large bowl and fold in the whipped coconut cream
- Churn according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, then harden for at least 4 hours in the freezer before serving
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