When I discovered about three months ago that Trader Joe’s carried an inexpensive and kosher coconut milk, I was thrilled! However, it’s light, not whole fat (which I prefer), and as you know, I’m always looking for ways to maximize my grocery dollars. 🙂 I bought a 50 lb bag of dried unsweeteened coconut a while back, and it occurred to me that I might be able to use it to make my own coconut milk.
However, in trying to make it, I actually ended up with coconut cream! This is something I haven’t yet found kosher, and was thrilled to be able to try it out in our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie – it was rich and delicious! I also used it to make pear crisp.
It was exciting to be able to make something so tasty and incredibly frugal; here’s what I did:
Homemade Coconut Cream/Milk
- 2 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
- 4 c. boiling water
Blend both in a blender. Let sit for about fifteen minutes, to give the water a chance to absorb the coconut flavor. Pour into a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a pot, and let it drip through. Then press it so as much liquid as possible is removed – you want the pulp to be as dry as you can get it. Put the coconut pulp to the side – I’ll tell you what to do with that in a minute. 🙂 Put the coconut liquid in the fridge, and in the morning the rich cream will have risen to the top and solidified, and the water will be left below.
If you want to use this as coconut milk, let it sit out and melt a little, and mix the water and cream together by hand – it’s very quick and easy to do. If you want to use it as cream, scoop the top layer off and put it in a separate container. Use in recipes as you would cream for a rich flavor.
Now, about the coconut pulp. This is where this gets even more frugal and fun! Put the coconut pulp into the dehydrator, and dry. Blend until smooth. I’m planning to use this as coconut flour for baking. When you buy coconut flour, it’s been defatted and doesn’t have the coconut flavor anymore, so this seems like it should work well! I haven’t yet purchased coconut flour because of the cost ($7 lb). Now I can use dried coconut for which I pay less than $2 lb, and can make my own coconut milk/cream, as well as coconut flour for a fraction of what they cost at the store!
(This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.)
Avivah
Brilliant – I can’t wait to try the cream. My son is allergic to milk and so I mostly use coconut milk but sometimes cream would be so much better – like in mashed potatoes!
thanks.
i am bummed too that TJ’s only has “lite” coconut milk.
Wow, that is an awesome idea! I need to get a dehydrator to dry the flour out, but I may have to try this to see if it works for me. Thanks for posting this!
A dehydrator is something I thought was a luxury kind of appliance, but once I got one, I kept finding more and more uses for it. For the traditional foods kind of cooking, it’s invaluable! I use it to dry soaked nuts, grains, to make yogurt, to dry fruits and vegetables that I buy on sale, and now to make coconut flour. It was a much more economical purchase than I initially anticipated!
Do you know how much the 2 cups of coconut cost? And how much cream you got? Or how much milk it made? I’d love to compare it to buying coconut milk at the store, if you’ve already done the math. Thanks!!!!
I’d have to make this again to systematically measure everything to be able to give you accurate figures. If you’re making milk, you end up with most of the liquid in the recipe (some will be absorbed by the coconut). If you’re making cream, part of the liquid will remain behind and I really don’t want to guess and give you inaccurate information.
My food drier gets near-daily use too. It’s the perfect temp for making yogurt. Mine is a stacking type, so I take all the racks off and can put a different rack over the heating element to hold the yogurt.