My shoulder hurts but my mouth is glad 
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Homemade Coconut Ice Cream
Whenever I think of ice cream here in Trinidad, the first flavour that comes to mind is coconut flavour. In fact, I think any frozen dessert that comes to mind would be in this flavour and then the other commercial and foreign flavours which we have been bombarded with.
Coconut ice cream, to me, reminds me of home, long time, the most. Back in the day, homemade coconut ice cream was a Sunday affair. We would get out the ice cream pail and get all the ingredients to make some ice cream in the evening. We didn’t buy coconuts because we always had a few coconut trees in the backyard and there was always a few dry coconuts lying about.
If you did not contribute to the ingredients, there was always use for you when it came to “churning” the coconut ice cream. Yes, in those days the popular ice cream pails made were the hand cranked ones with the wooden pail that had the hole at the side for the excess water to drain out. Most trinis would remember those. And sometimes we would plug the hole with some “gazette” paper after the coconut ice cream was made to keep it cold in the pail.
This coconut ice cream has certainly taken me down memory lane, especially how we used the traditional method of the hand cranked pail. Here’s how to make coconut ice cream trini style. Hope it brings back some memories for you too.
Coconut Ice Cream Recipe
2 coconut
2 tins evaporated milk (i.e 410g x 2)
4 tins condensed milk (i.e 390g x 4)
1 pk custard (200g)
4 cups water, divided
1/2 cup cornstarch
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp mixed essence
2 pks salt (500g)
Ice
Add the custard to 2 cups water and stir over low heat.
Continue stirring until the custard thickens.
Make the coconut milk.
Squeeze the coconut through a strainer to collect the coconut milk.
In a large bowl mix the custard, coconut milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk,cornstarch, sugar and mixed essence.
Although true, cornstarch gives the ice cream a smoother texture and keeps the ice cream unbelievably soft even it has been frozen for a few hours. If only granny knew about cornstarch back then!
Strain the mixture while pouring it into the can. Set the dasher inside.Fill 3/4 of the can with the mixture.
Place the can inside the pail and assemble the crank.
Add ice and salt and turn the crank until it gets stiff to turn. The ice cream would take about half an hour to make. To further ripen the ice cream just place it in the freezer until it is ready to be served.
Delicious coconut ice cream ready to serve. Serve cold, duh!, or freeze immediately.I hope you enjoyed this trini coconut ice cream recipe. It is truly a classic. Don’t you agree?
Ah gone! Tell us how you make your coconut ice cream.
Yes, it has brought back those shoulder pains, lol. We did this for every family get together as I was growing up. One of my aunts had perfected this recipe but sadly she past away young, before she could give me the recipe.Thanks for bring back a much loved memory
brought back memories……i passed those mem on 2 my children…..ah gone
You’re welcome Mstrinisoul. This is what the site is about: preserving our unique cooking heritage.
Thanks for stopping by.
oh the wonders of the old ice cream pail…keep up the good work felix!
Thank you Sabella
Good evening!
(I also followed your recipe for cowheel and it was delish!)
I found your recipe during my search of Trini style coconut ice cream. yours look delish, so i followed your recipe in grams and it didnt freeze and was very yellow (from the custard powder I suppose!)like the third picture you have of the custard, it remained yellow even with the evaporated milk added. I used my kitchen aid ice cream attachment instead of an old fashion ice cream maker (but that shouldnt make a difference, right?) the question I have for you is, the recipe you have above is that the amount you used to make the ice cream or is it just the package amount. ex: custard powder you have 200g. is that the amount you used or the amount that came in the package?
Thanks for the link. and i will try try again!
It still beats me to where you may have gone wrong. With the milk from two coconuts, almost 5 cups, and the rest of milks, the ice cream should not come out yellow. The custard amount is 200g and because of the corn starch the ice cream will not freeze entirely. It will be firm but smooth.
This ice cream recipe makes a lot of ice cream. We used a large pail but the kitchen aid attachment would work as well, just that for the amount of ice cream in this recipe, it means that you would have to make it in a few batches. Even with a large pail we still had to do two batches of ice cream.
I look forward to your reply.
with two coconuts I added 4 cups water (i see now,you only use 2cups) to make the milk. I think that made it watery. I put all ingredients and made one batch, but you came up with two batches. my finish product was watery. no ice cream found. hahahaha! I will try this recipe again, TODAY, damnit! hahaha! let me kno if this is the correct ingredients plz:
2 coconuts (2cups warm water and grated coconut…..)
410g evaporate milk
390g condense milk
200g custard powder(2cups water)
1/2 cup cornstarch
4tbsp sugar
1tbsp (I used vanilla essence)
also i didnt realize that the custard would get thick so fast and it got clumpy on me, so i keep whisking it to remove the clumps. it was really thick. can the consistency of the thick custard play a part of my uniced cream?
thanks sooo much for responding and anticipate your response.
You seem to be on track now. Just to clear up few things…
First the coconut part…make sure to get two medium sized coconuts chop it up like in the 6th picture then put in the blender with the 2 cups of water then strain to make the milk.
Then it’s 4 tins of condensed milk and 2 tins evaporated milk, don’t forget that as well. I put the grams to give you an idea of the liquid capacity of the tins used.
So you see now why we had to make two large batches? That’s a lot of ice cream base to make ice cream.
With that said I think you should be on your way to making some great coconut ice cream.
I will certainly like to hear how it comes out
thank you! I will keep you posted!
hi felix,
I’d love to make this for my mom’s bday on monday. We dont have an ice cream pail tho so i was wondering if it wud work jus as well if it’s left to freeze in the refrigerator. can u give me any ideas? thanks alot an great site ^^
OK Avah making ice cream without a pail is simple but will require a bit of work.
I once got some good advice from an article written by David Lebovitz
Here are the steps
1. Chill the ice cream mixture in an ice bath.
2. Pour mixture in a bowl (plastic, stainless steel)and freeze.
3. Check after 45 mins…When it starts to freeze around the edges whisk it vigourously and place back in freezer.
4. Check every 30 mins and whisk vigourously every time.
5. Continue checking the ice cream stirring every time while the ice cream freezes.
It will take about 2 – 3 hours to make the ice cream this way but if you’re liming it’s all fun…..And no one’s arm will be hurting them
I broke my mother’s wedding gift Ice cream pail last year, So i’ll be buying an electric one and making her this coconut ice cream for Mother’s Day. Thanks for the recipe.
Never knew about the custard thing.
Thanks
Hi Felix I tried your coconut ice cream recipe and and I was wondering 2 things-i do I boil the entire pack of custard in the 2 cups of water, and ii- do I just add the 1/2 cup corn starch to the mixture or do I boil it first. My family loves the Ice cream but I still felt I did not completely understood the method. Looking for to your reply.
Yes you boil the entire pack of custard, it’s only 200 grams which is not much don’t forget to stir it while it’s boiling.
The cornstarch is to be added when you are mixing the custard, coconut milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk,sugar and mixed essence.
Hope this helps
Thank you yes this helps.
Simply Trini, does the water have to be hot or boiling before adding the custard?
Not too hot or else you will get too much lumps.