This is a blog for poor students (and other frugal people) in the Boston area (and other areas). Being thrifty doesn't mean that you can't eat well. Every week, I'll show you a new way to eat well without spending a fortune. Like the Poor Student on Facebook to see the latest posts first!
It seems that Americans are finally discovering that coconut milk is a great alternative to dairy, which seems kinda weird to consume, considering the fact that cows generally do not drink human milk, right? However, this does not mean that I am against dairy products. I actually use milk in my coffee sometimes and in baking but only in small amounts because of that pesky lactose intolerance issue. Coconut milk, almond milk, and soy milk are all friendlier to my stomach. The coconut water that has recently become popular is kinda weird-tasting. The coconut milk that comes in the milk cartons is also kinda boring. The good stuff is the coconut milk that comes in cans.
Read the nutrition label!
When you pick up a can of coconut milk, it's important to read the label because the lighter stuff will be good for a lot of recipes but if you want to make some richer tasting things like chocolate coconut whipped cream, you need the full fat stuff. Some of the Asian brands have cans that look quite similar. For example, Chaukoh and Chaudoc have similarly designed cans (see pictures below). However, Chaukoh is the full fat version and Chaudoc is the light version. They label both cans "coconut milk". By the way, these are great brands and you can find them at Super 88/Hong Kong Supermarket in Allston. You can also find both the light and full fat versions at Trader Joe's under their labels. All of the coconut milk shown in the pictures below come from Thailand. However, if you compare the full fat versions, the Trader Joe's brand actually has a more calories per serving (1/3 cup) and it is labeled as "coconut cream" to make it extra obvious. There is only one extra gram of saturated fat in the Trader Joe's version (over Chaukoh) though.
(Click on the pictures to see larger images)
Can you see the difference?
Check the nutrition labels!
The Trader Joe brands
Light on the left, Full fat on the right
The Light brands
The Full fat brands
Chaudoc Coconut Milk (full fat)
Nutrition label for Chaokoh coconut milk (full fat)
Nutrition label for Chaudoc coconut milk (light)
Ice cream
The lighter stuff will generally be a bit cheaper and is pretty good for most things, including ice cream. Just make sure you churn it long enough to get the air into the ice cream so it doesn't freeze solid. In Boston, JP Licks has recently been offering a few coconut milk flavors, in case you'd like to try it before attempting to make it at home. Coconut is a great complement to chocolate. Check out my post on making dairy-free ice cream. It really takes only 3 ingredients: coconut milk, sugar, and cocoa. If you're planning on freezing some for later, add a tiny bit of vanilla extract near the end of the churning time because the alcohol will prevent the cream from freezing solid.
If you use Dutch cocoa with honey (instead of sugar), and full fat coconut milk, the result will be pretty close to premium ice-cream quality. This is where you might want to use the coconut cream with the highest fat content, such as the Trader Joe's brand. A can of coconut milk is usually somewhere between $1.70 to $2 and it will make at least a pint of ice cream. You might never buy factory-produced ice cream ever again!
Chocolate ice cream made with 3 ingredients:
coconut cream Dutch cocoa, and raw honey
Coffee Creamer
One thing that hasn't caught on yet is using coconut milk as a coffee creamer. It's a great alternative to soy milk and dairy milk. If you use the full fat stuff, it's as rich as (or maybe even richer than) half and half. However, because coconut oil solidifies at cold temperatures, the full fat coconut cream is ideal for hot drinks and might not work so well in iced drinks. The lighter coconut milk seems to work well in iced coffee. Some people don't like the "bean-y" taste of soy milk. Perhaps the coconut flavor won't be as weird for them.
Places to buy coconut milk:
Cans of coconut milk are readily available in most Latino stores, Asian markets, and even CVS. The Goya brand is probably the most popular one in the U.S. However, if you sample several brands, you'll find that some brands will have different characteristics. For instance, the Chaokoh brand does not separate as cleanly as some other brands. I put a can of Chaokoh (full fat) coconut milk in the fridge over night to let the coconut cream separate from the liquid. The liquid part was actually thick enough to be coconut milk (it was white and not clear) and the coconut cream was not solid but had the consistency of runny whipped cream. With other brands, you might get a thick layer of nearly solid coconut fat on top of what looks like clear coconut water. Depending on what you're going to do with it, you might want that layer of coconut fat. I used the Chaokoh to make the ice cream you see in the pictures above.
I suppose the non-dairy stuff that's made from just bananas cannot really be called "ice cream" because there's no cream in it. If it makes you feel better, call it banana fluff because that's what it tastes like. I should also mention that another blog that features this banana ice cream idea is "Kitchn". That blog has excellent ideas that go beyond what I do here. Check out their 4-ingredient peach frozen yogurt. For those of you who really want dairy milk but are lactose intolerant, there's a post about making your own Lactaid milk with lactase drops. It's by someone named "Tammy". I haven't tried it but it makes sense because lactase is the enzyme that helps you digest lactose.
In this post, I'd like to show you another way to make the banana ice cream, using unfrozen bananas. First, to recap the previous post, here are the results of the chocolate banana ice cream for jocks, which was made using frozen banana chunks. It was definitely more fun to eat than a smoothie. I had to add 1/4 cup of liquid to the mixture to bring the bananas and protein powder together to form a creamy concoction.
Freshly made chocolate banana fluff made with frozen banana chunks
When I tried to process just the frozen bananas and the protein powder, I just got a very mealy mixture that did not look very good. After adding 1/4 cup soy milk and processing the mixture again, I got the result you see in the picture above. It was smooth and creamy. It wasn't very sweet and that might turn some people off. If you have a sweet tooth, add 1/4 cup sugar. However, I thought it was sweet enough with the sweeteners from the bananas and the protein powder.
I then portioned out the mixture and stored the ice cream in some cleaned out yogurt containers. They are the perfect size (8 oz). After freezing for a few hours, it looked more like hard ice cream. The thing is, if you freeze it too long, it might get too hard and icy. At that point, you'll have to thaw it for about 10 to 20 minutes before eating it. No big deal.
A few days later, I tried the recipe again without the soy milk but added a tablespoon of honey. Since honey is a liquid, the bananas got creamy without having to add any soy milk. The result was also a little thicker than the batch made with the soy milk. So, if you don't want to add any soy milk to your frozen bananas and want it to be a little sweeter and thicker, try blending banana chunks, 1/4 cup chocolate protein powder, and a tablespoon of honey.
It looks more like hard ice cream after freezing a few hours
Another way to do the same thing is to use a blender to puree all the ingredients together and then use an ice cream maker to finish the process. The advantage is that you won't have to freeze the bananas. However, you'll need to chill the mixture for at least a couple of hours before pouring it into the ice cream maker and that you'll need an ice cream maker. Check your favorite thrift store and see if there's a cheap one. If not, the cheapest machines at department stores go for about $30 or less. You don't need anything fancy.
When you put a banana in your ice cream mixture, it actually functions as a thickener. Some recipes suggest using an egg or two and heating it up until it's thick. Well, we're students and don't have time for that fancy crap! Use a banana and you won't need to heat anything up. Also, you can use less sugar because the banana supplies a bit of that too. Genius, right?
Okay, so here's a suggested recipe for making ice cream using bananas as a thickener. You'll need:
a 13.5 oz can of coconut milk
1 ripe banana
1/4 cup honey or sugar (use more if you like it sweeter)
flavoring ingredients (e.g. cocoa powder, protein powder, vanilla, etc.)
Blend it all up and then chill it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Then, turn on your ice cream machine and pour in the chilled mixture. In about 20 to 40 minutes (depending on your machine), you'll have a nice non-dairy soft-serve ice cream. Freeze it in an air-tight container for a few hours if you prefer a harder ice cream.
Recently, I found a Rival brand ice cream maker at the Goodwill for only $10. I had been looking for one for quite a while and was very excited to finally find one that looked good. A few years ago, I found one of those hand-cranked ice cream makers but it didn't seem to work properly. However, this automatic model that I found works great! As long as you let the machine run before pouring in the mixture, the spinning paddle won't get stuck.
The problem with ice cream machines is that it's not really much cheaper to make your own, if you like the premium ice creams that have a high fat content and mix-ins. I used to buy Turkey Hill vanilla bean pints for $2.49 each. To make your own ice cream, you need milk and heavy cream, which are not cheap nowadays. Then, for those of us who are lactose intolerant, we pay a premium for the lactose-free dairy products, such as Lactaid milk. Typically, the recipe for a quart of ice cream is 1 cup milk, 1 cup heavy cream, and flavorings. The milk and cream will cost over $2 and the cost goes up from there. If you want to make vanilla bean ice cream, those vanilla beans aren't cheap! From a health standpoint, all that saturated animal fat isn't good either. From a practical standpoint, it's difficult to transport ice cream home from the store without it melting if you don't own a car! But, we still want that ice cream in the summer, right?
Here are three easy solutions. The first is the most complicated one but offers you the most variety. The second one is very simple but you might not be able to create all the flavors you want. Both are healthier and cheaper than buying heavy cream and milk. The third solution is for athletes and people who want some protein in their ice cream.
Solution #1 - coconut ice cream
The first solution is to use coconut milk, which can be found for as little as 99 cents a can (e.g. light coconut milk at Trader Joe's). One 13.5 oz can should be enough for nearly a quart of ice cream because it expands as it churns. Also, you need to add stuff like flavorings and sugar. For about $2, you can make anywhere between 1.5 pints to a quart of chocolate ice cream, depending on what you add. The coconut milk is usually a buck or two a can and the other two ingredients are probably in your house already. BMS has Goya brand coconut milk for $1.69 a 13 oz can while CVS has the same for only $1.39 a can. The coconut milk replaces the milk and the cream in the typical recipe if you use the full fat Goya (or other brand) stuff (the light coconut milk will obviously make a lighter ice cream). I should also point out that the taste of coconut is actually quite mild. If you want coconut flavored ice cream, you need to add some kind of coconut extract and maybe some coconut flakes.
The basic recipe is just the coconut milk and some kind of sugar. Substitute whatever you like in place of the cocoa. Blend it all up either by hand or in a blender. Turn the ice cream machine on, pour in the mixture, and let it churn for about 15 to 30 minutes (depending on your machine). At that point, you'll have a great soft-serve ice cream. Use a wooden spoon to get all the ice cream into air-tight containers and freeze it for about an hour to have a harder ice cream. That's all there is to it. The bowl is easy to wash by hand and you can put it back in the freezer once it's dry.
Variations:
add a shot of espresso or instant espresso dissolved in a small amount of water to the mixture
add tropical fruit chunks (e.g. pineapple, coconut flakes, mango, or banana) during the last 10 minutes of churning
omit the cocoa powder and add vanilla beans (but not vanilla extract because the alcohol will prevent the ice cream from solidifying).
add nuts during the last 5-10 minutes of churning.
The second solution is to use only bananas. This idea is the simpler one because it doesn't require an ice cream maker. There's actually a machine called "Yonanas" that is basically a sideways blender, that makes ice cream with frozen bananas. However, you don't need to do that. Why buy a machine that does only one thing? The only equipment you really need is either a food processor or blender. The processor works a little better, I think. Basically, you cut up 2 or 3 bananas, freeze them for about 5 hours, and process them. Eventually, you'll have delicious and refreshing soft-serve "ice cream" that's healthier for you and cheaper than regular ice cream. Here are a couple of people on youtube who have successfully demonstrated that it works:
This lady used a hand-cranked food processor!
She used an automatic food processor.
Frozen banana chunks in the Bella Cucina cup
Since most people use a food processor, I was curious to see if it would work in a blender and it did! However, I needed a splash of soy milk to get the blades going. Other than that, the two bananas were all I needed and there was enough to serve two people.
All done, ready to eat!
It was pretty amazing how the texture resembled regular soft-serve ice cream. In a blender, you really need at least a little bit of liquid to get the blades going. I also had to shake it after every 10 seconds at the beginning to help it along. After a few shakes, it all came together. The taste was actually very banana-like and sweet enough without adding any sugar. So, if you don't have an ice cream maker but have some ripe bananas and a food processor or blender, this would be an easy way to have some cheap ice cream all summer. It's actually very good. After you try this, it'll be hard to pass up a package of ripe bananas in the clearance section at the supermarket!
Golden opportunity! Only 49 cents a package. Less than 10 cents/serving.
Solution #3 - Ice cream for jocks
Finally, for those of you who need/want some protein in your ice cream, here's a recipe for high protein chocolate ice cream inspired by a body-builder blogger named Charli. I'm leaving out the xanthan gum because it's $11.99 a bag and it's not necessary. If you like the flavor of Mexican hot chocolate, add a dash of cayenne pepper. Rather than mixing it up and then freezing it, I suggest freezing the banana for about 5 hours as in solution #2 and then using a blender to mix everything up into a soft-serve style ice cream. I've tried this with hemp protein powder and it's more fun to eat than having a smoothie.
1. Freeze the banana chunks for about 5 hours or more.
2. Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend until it's smooth. If you're using a blender and it's not moving well, add a Tbsp of liquid (e.g. soymilk, water, any kind of milk).
So, there you have it - 3 easy ways to make non-dairy homemade ice cream at home. Enjoy!
