Quick & Easy Homemade Coconut Milk Ice Cream

This coconut milk ice cream is definitely in the running for quickest and easiest recipe I’ve ever made. There are two total ingredients: light coconut milk and  frozen 100% juice concentrate. No measuring cups needed. However, it does require the use of an ice cream maker, so I apologize to those who didn’t receive what they (mistakenly) thought was a useless wedding gift… (who? me?)

I posted a recipe for Coconut Ice Cream with Berries back in 2008 (wow, has it really been that long?) which required scraping coconut meat out of a baby thai coconut. While both delicious and nutritious, I wanted something quicker this time. Here’s the scoop:

Ingredients:

2 Cans Light Coconut Milk

1 Carton Frozen 100% juice concentrate

Note: For those of you who don’t have these prices memorized like I do, light coconut milk costs $2.80 per can at Vons (Safeway), while it costs only $1.00 per can at Trader Joe’s.  Booyah.

Step 1: Blend

Blend coconut milk and frozen juice concentrate in blender.

Step 2: Let the Ice Cream Maker do the Work

Follow your specific ice cream maker instructions. For me, this meant pouring the chilled coconut milk mixture into the chilled canister, turning on the motor, and layering the perimeter with ice and rock salt.

This is the ice cream after about 30-40 minutes of churning. Mmmm…creamy and delicious.

Step 3: Harden Ice Cream

Harden the ice cream in your freezer or ice cream maker. OR, just eat it! I packed the soft ice cream into this glass bowl to harden, but if you eat it at this point, it has a consistency similar to that of frozen yogurt. So delicious. In fact, I kind of prefer it at this stage…and not just because I’m eager and impatient to try it. : )

Serve and Enjoy!

Because of the frozen fruit concentrate, this ice cream has a texture about halfway between sorbet and dairy ice cream. I imagine it would be less sorbet-like if it was flavored and sweetened another way (say cocoa powder, agave nectar, and some ribbons of dark chocolate fudgey-ness…maybe next time).  The Pine-Orange-Banana juice gave the ice cream just enough sweetness and a little bite of tang too.  Delicious.

The Recipe, Condensed:

Ingredients:

2 Cans Lite Coconut Milk

1 Carton Frozen 100% Juice Concentrate

Preparation:

Blend coconut milk and frozen juice concentrate in blender. Pour mixture into ice cream canister and follow ice cream maker instructions. Eat & Enjoy.