Coconut ice recipe without condensed milk

I love when I discover new ways to do things! I think that’s one of the reasons I love blogging so much! I get to constantly indulge my insatiable curiosity by trying out cools ideas that strike my fancy (and hopefully yours too!) How cool is that??

That’s exactly what happened when I came across this idea for making ice cream without an ice cream maker. I realize that ice cream makers aren’t that expensive, but they do require electricity to work and for something that isn’t used very often, they take up valuable storage space in your cupboard. I actually RARELY use mine because I never remember to put the freezer bowl in the freezer the day before. Bottom line….I like knowing how to do things WITHOUT the aid of a mechanical device….just in case. :-) (Wow, I’m starting to sound like a “prepper!”)

My Mom used to make ice cream in an old fashioned hand crank ice cream maker. I remember endlessly cranking that thing on our patio in the summer heat. I wasn’t quite ready to go back to that!

I was looking for a method that I could make INDOORS with just the things I had in my kitchen. I found it at, ironically enough. I ended up making a few tweaks because I wanted to make more than one pint at a time (that wouldn’t go far in this hungry household!)

I ALSO wanted to try my hand at making ice cream using COCONUT MILK instead of cream. Several years ago I developed an unfortunate intolerance to dairy and ever since then ice cream has been sadly lacking in my life! Needless to say I was excited about this project!!

So let’s get started!

First I made the ice cream mix. I LOVE Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream so I decided to adapt this recipe from .

Mint Chocolate Chip Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Makes one quart of mix.

Ingredients:

• (2) 13.5-ounce cans of full-fat coconut milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 drops
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (about 1 cup)

Directions:

Whisk the coconut milk, sugar, and egg yolks together in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat.

Stir the mixture on medium heat for 15 – 20 minutes (DON’T bring to a boil) until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Let mixture cool. I put it in a stainless steel bowl and placed it in the refrigerator. It was cool within 1/2 hour.

Once cool, add the and stir.

Now we’re ready to make ice cream! (Keep the chocolate handy, we’re going to add that near the end.)

How To Make Ice Cream Without An Ice Cream Maker

Ingredients

1 quart of your favorite ice cream mix, chilled (see my recipe above OR see more options at the end of the post.)

Equipment

• Very large mixing bowl
• Medium sized bowl
• Crushed ice
• 1 cup of Kosher salt
• Electric hand mixer OR whisk
• Towel

Instructions

1. Fill the large bowl about halfway with ice (I used a little less than half of a 10 lb bag of ice. I estimate that would be equal to about 6 trays of ice cubes.) Stir in 1/2 of the rock salt.

2. Nestle the smaller bowl in the ice. Try to get almost completely buried in the ice. Sprinkle the other half of the kosher salt on top of the ice around the smaller bowl.

3. Fill the smaller bowl with the ice cream mix. You’ll want to make sure your bowl allows for a little expansion as air is incorporated into the mixture.

4. Use your hand mixer at beat the mixture for 10 minutes. The mix will thicken considerably and get cold to the touch, but won’t turn into actual ice cream, yet. If you don’t have a hand mixer (or the power is out!) you can use a whisk, but you will need to whisk for at least 15 minutes. Great tricep workout!

5. After the 10 minutes, cover the nested bowls just as they are with a towel and place together in the freezer. Freeze for 45 minutes.

6. Remove the bowls from the freezer. The mixture should be the consistency thin pudding, especially on top. However, if you use stainless steel bowls (like I did) some of the ice cream will already be freezing up fairly solid on the sides and on the bottom. Don’t worry, just scrape the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula before mixing again.

7. Mix with the hand mixer for 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes the mixture will be the texture of a very soft soft-serve ice cream. This is also the point when you want to fold in the chopped chocolate!

8. Remove the smaller bowl from the large bowl, and cover the top with plastic wrap, making sure the wrap is touching the surface of the ice cream. Air is the enemy of creamy ice cream!

9. Freeze for an additional two hours, or overnight, before serving. (Mine was more than ready for scooping after 2 hours.)

Result?

DELICIOUS! The flavor and texture were EXACTLY what I hoped they would be. Creamy, chocolatey, minty! :-) 100% success in my book!