Dust off that ice cream maker and get ready for summer with our homemade toasted coconut ice cream. This fabulous vegan ice cream is so simple to make and packed full of rich, natural coconut flavor. Perfect for summer barbecues with friends or a pack of wild kids running around the yard — take your pick.
A little vodka makes perfect ice cream
My initial batch of coconut ice cream froze solid as a rock. It was completely unscoop-able. No one wants ice cream in that state, especially when you have a full box of cones just waiting for you.
After some extensive internet searching, the best solution I could find was to add just a tablespoon of vodka to the mix. It’s my new favorite kitchen tip — it keeps the ice cream light and fluffy for the perfect scoop. Bonus points: you’re all ready to mix up a vodka tonic while you wait for your ice cream to churn.
Monkfruit sweetener
Before you get nervous about sourcing a new ingredient, know that the monkfruit in this recipe is completely optional. You can easily substitute regular sugar in its place. I prefer to dial back the sugar when I can, but in instances like these, where sugar is in a starring role, I use monkfruit sweetener as a substitute.
Monkfruit is an all natural, sugar-free sweetener with zero calories and zero glycemic index. I’m always a little weary of sugar substitutes — preferring less of the real deal to using an artificial substitute — but monkfruit is completely natural! It came highly recommended by a brilliant vegan dietitian I visited last year. If you’re concerned about sugar in the slightest, you should give it a try.
After some shopping around, I’ve found Lakanto to be my preferred brand. You can read more about monkfruit on the Lankanto website
Our Favorite
Lakanto Classic Monkfruit Natural Sweetener
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Toasting the coconut
More often than not, I am disappointed when I dive into coconut ice cream. It doesn’t taste like coconut. It tastes, like sunscreen. To get the deep, rich coconut flavor that legitimately tastes like coconut, we lightly toasted the coconut on the stovetop. Coconut goes from toasty to burnt quickly, so be sure to keep an eye on it!
Ice Cream Makers
Most of us make a few brilliant and satisfying batches of fresh ice cream a year. And for those purposes, a simple ice cream maker is more than sufficient. If you’re looking to set up shop, then I recommend investing in something more substantial. Until then, we love the basic Cuisinart 1.5 quart ice cream maker. You can find the original model that we have in our kitchen for less than $50 or you can step it up and pay a little more for this year’s model.
Our Favorite
Cuisinart ICE-21 1.5 Quart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream Maker
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Mix-ins
So many flavors compliment coconut, you can try adding any of these to the mix about 5 minutes before it’s done churning:
- chocolate chips
- fresh strawberries
- diced mango
- diced pineapple
- fresh blueberries
- chopped pecans
- cinnamon
- lime zest
- orange zest
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I love coconut ice cream, so I’m very excited about this recipe.
★★★★★
Looks amazing!! I don’t have an ice cream maker. Can you make this using a good processor??
Hey Sarah! That is a very good question. I haven’t tried it without the ice cream maker and I wonder if it would be the right texture without it. Definitely worth a shot, but I might make it a little extra fluffy in the blender before freezing it. Report back if you give it a try!
Make it this weekend!
katya, this looks marvy! i have also seen great reviews on your ice cream scoop! stunning pics.
The scooper is amazing! I doubted it would live up to my expectations, but it is terrific!!
The flavor is awesome! Our local grocery store only had 13 oz cans of coconut cream – I did the equivalent measurement but o wonder of the coco cream needs to be brand specific as ours came out quite icy and was still liquid in the ice cream maker. I found the native forest brand today so will try again soon. Thank you!
★★★★★
Using coconut products to make vegan desserts turns out to be quite successful. This recipe however goes beyond good into delicious for this “mother” of a vegan who likes to please her wonderfully ethical child.. The flavor was especially nutty,and the texture was creamy. I loved the toasted coconut, adding texture and reinforcing the coconut mouthful. I added shaved chocolate to my batch. For me this dessert ranks high, along with the 5 ingredient vegan chocolate gelato.
No odd ingredients, no substitutions for flavor, straight up good food that happens to be vegan. I am so happy I found this recipe.
Well done from the old, not so vegan, foodie!
★★★★