Coconut butter, oil, milk, flour, and cream can be found in many grocery stores, allowing people with dietary restrictions to enjoy many recipes and baked goods.
You can purchase coconut cream in stores and online, but making the product at home is an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.
Making homemade coconut cream ensures you know exactly what goes into the cream, keeping it free from preservatives and artificial sweeteners.
You’ll discover how to make coconut cream in this post. We’ll cover two different methods that you can use depending on the time and tools you have available.
Keep reading to find out how to make delicious coconut cream at home!
More About Coconut Cream
Before we get into the recipe, it’s a good idea to go over what coconut cream is. There’s lots of debate over the differences between coconut cream, coconut milk, and occasionally cream of coconut.
Coconut cream and coconut milk are both made from water and coconut meat, but they are treated with separate techniques.
Coconut cream contains more fat, which gives it a creamy, thick consistency. Coconut milk, however, is made with a smaller amount of coconut and mixed with water.
The difference between the two is like the difference between cream and dairy milk’s texture.
Coconut cream also needs a larger amount of coconut milk and needs the blend to split into separate parts.
Selecting And Storing Fresh Coconuts
It’s important to choose the right coconuts when making coconut cream. International food stores that stock tropical products typically have a larger, competitively priced selection compared to regular grocery stores.
If you’re making coconut cream, look for brown, mature coconuts. These have more cultivated flesh compared to green, younger coconuts.
Try to choose hydrated coconuts, as this shows that they are fresh. In most cases, weighty coconuts have more water. If you shake them, you should hear water moving around inside them.
Look out for three round marks, or ‘eyes’ at the coconut’s apex. Make sure that these dents aren’t soft or moldy.
Fresh, entire coconuts will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks, or at room temperature for a week. If you’ve cracked a coconut open, you’ll need to keep it in the fridge. Use this up between two or three days, or freeze it in an airtight container to keep it for longer.
Cracking Coconuts Open
If you’ve never cracked a coconut before, it may look like a difficult task. The good news is that a little practice and perseverance can help you do this easily.
Begin by finding the coconut’s softest indentation, or ‘eye’. Use a corkscrew or metal skewer to make a hole through this eye. You can make a second hole if you wish, as this will help you drain the coconut water.
Drain all of the water from the coconut, then bang the fruit a few times with a tool. You can use a large kitchen knife’s blunt edge, a hammer, or a sturdy countertop side.
Hit the fruit hard around its center, taking care as you do so. You may need between ten and 20 hits to separate the shell.
Making Coconut Cream: Blender Method
Now that you know some more about coconuts, let’s find out how to make coconut cream! You’ll need a blender, a nut milk bag, and coconuts for this first method.
Follow these steps to make coconut cream with a blender:
Start by removing coconut water from the coconuts. Use a nail, screwdriver, or a sharp instrument to make holes in the coconut’s round indentations.
Drain the coconut water from the fruit and set aside. You can pour the coconut water into smoothies or drink it straight later on.
After you’ve drained the coconut, break its shell and take out its nutty flesh. You can bang the coconut against a hard surface, break it with a hammer, or use a hand saw to do this.
Transfer the coconut’s flesh to your blender, then pulse a few times to shred the flesh. Pour four cups of water into the blender, then blitz once more to create coconut milk. If you want to make a creamy dairy cream version, you can substitute semi-skimmed milk for the water.
Now transfer the coconut milk blend into a nut milk bag, then compress it to pass the liquid through the fine material. You can store the leftover coconut shreds for later.
Pour the coconut milk into a large jar, then put it aside. A tap dispenser jar is best as it will help you remove the coconut liquid, but a regular jar will suffice as well.
After a while, the creamy coconut matter should separate from the runny water, floating on top. If you have a tap dispenser jar, simply pour the runny liquid out through its tap. If you don’t, spoon the cream out from the top of the jar.
You’ll be left with coconut cream, but if you want to make it creamier, leave it in the fridge to chill. The cream will release any remaining water, making it thicker and more luxurious.
Making Coconut Cream: Juicer Method
You can make coconut cream faster by using a juicer, as the appliance does the separation task for you.
Follow these steps to make coconut cream with your juicer.
1. Start by draining water from the coconut, as outlined above.
2. Break your coconuts open with a small hacksaw, hammer, or your preferred method.
3. Scoop out the flesh from the coconut shells, then strip any brown skin from the nut. You can leave their brown skin on, but this will make your coconut cream look brown instead of white.
4. Move coconut flesh strips through the juicer. You should notice shredded coconut pass through the juicer’s shute, while coconut cream will move through the juicer’s dispenser.
5. You can use the coconut cream immediately, or refrigerate it in an airtight container between three or four days.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how to make homemade coconut cream!
You can do a lot of things with coconut cream, particularly in dairy-free recipes. Coconut cream is great for thickening recipes, like curries or soups. You can also spoon it on top of desserts, like pies or tarts, for a decadent finish.
No matter what you do with it, we hope you enjoy making coconut cream at home!
