The best vegan coconut ice cream is smooth and ultra-creamy with a gorgeous melt in your mouth texture! Just 4 easy ingredients.
This vegan coconut ice cream recipe was inspired by a coconut shop in Ubud, Bali that sell the most amazing coconut ice cream topped with toasted coconut.
As soon as I got home from holiday I made it my mission to recreate it at home.
So, since I’ve been making quite a few ice creams lately, like vegan vanilla ice cream and vegan mint chocolate chip, I thought I would go ahead and make a purely coconut version.
No other flavorings, just a beautifully delicious coconut ice cream that would be just perfect for a toasted coconut topping.
If you love coconuts and tropical islands, then you will love this gorgeous vegan coconut ice cream. The coconut ice cream alone is smooth, ultra-creamy and ridiculously good, but add the toasted coconut topping and it’s next level.
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
- Coconut milk – this recipe uses one 14-ounce can of coconut milk. It should be full fat and unsweetened. Definitely don’t use a light version of coconut milk.
- Coconut cream – this recipe also uses one 14-ounce can of coconut cream. It should be unsweetened.
- Sugar – we used white granulated sugar, but you could switch this for coconut sugar if you prefer, just keep in mind that the color of your ice cream will be much darker.
- Maple syrup – you can use maple syrup or golden syrup in this ice cream.
Toasted Coconut Topping
It’s super easy to make the toasted coconut topping, it’s a mix of shredded coconut and coconut sugar.
You roast the shredded coconut in the oven and then blitz it in the food processor with coconut sugar. It’s absolutely divine!
Success Tips
Heat the ingredients. We heat the ingredients to a simmer as heating the fats in this recipe smooths them out and creates a really good texture.
Blend with an immersion blender. After the ice cream mix reaches a simmer, we blend it for 30 seconds with an immersion blender. This is the final step in smoothing out the fats and creating a beautiful texture. It’s ideal to use an immersion blender as you can just blend it up directly in the pot. If you don’t have one though then you can transfer it to your regular blend, just be very careful as the mix is hot.
Storing Instructions
Keep your ice cream stored in the freezer and enjoy within 1-2 weeks for the best taste and texture.
More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes
- Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream
- Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
- Vegan Salted Caramel Ice Cream
- Vegan Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
- Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream
- Vegan Mango Ice Cream
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Coconut Ice Cream
Ingredients
For the Vegan Coconut Ice Cream:
- 14 ounces Canned Coconut Milk (400ml)
- 14 ounces Canned Coconut Cream (400ml)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup (60ml) or Golden Syrup
For the Toasted Coconut Topping:
- 1 Recipe Toasted Coconut
Instructions
- The night before you want to have ice cream, place the bowl of your ice cream maker into the freezer.
- Then in a pot, heat up the coconut milk, coconut cream, sugar and syrup to a simmer, stirring constantly.
- As soon as it reaches a simmer, remove from the heat and blend with a handheld (immersion) blender for 30 seconds.
- If you don’t have a handheld blender, then transfer the mixture to a blender jug and blend it in there, just make sure the lid is firmly closed.
- Pour the mixture into a container with a lid and keep in the refrigerator overnight.
- The next day, remove the freezer bowl from the freezer, and get your ice cream machine ready.
- Pour the mixture into the ice cream machine and churn according to your ice cream makers manufacturer instructions. It should be around 25-40 minutes to reach soft serve consistency.
- As soon as it reaches soft serve consistency, transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe container, smooth it out, cover with foil and place into the freezer to set firmly.
- Prepare your toasted coconut topping as per the linked recipe.
- Serve the ice cream with toasted coconut sprinkled on top.
Notes
- Keep your ice cream stored in the freezer and enjoy within 1-2 weeks for the best taste and texture.
- Nutritional information is for the vegan coconut ice cream only, nutritional information for the toasted coconut topping can be found on that separate linked recipe.
I made this for a vegan Italian neighbour, it was absolutely delicious and so creamy!! I am not vegan but will definitely be making this again, my husband loves it too. I only used about 1/4 cup of sugar and will probably used even less next time. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla essence. I also toasted some pine nuts and sprinkled them with desiccated coconut to sprinkle on the top when serving with blueberries and blackberries. It was a big hit with everyone.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing and for your great review Narelle!
Here is another one looking for a recipe for that lovely ice cream she’s been eating in Ubud :-).
This recipe rocks!!! It’s 4 ingredients, super easy and super cheap! A pint of vegan ice cream is $4.99 and, there are ingredients I don’t like. Yeah, I have to hit it with the stick blender before loading it up. No big deal. The best part is scraping out the frozen stuck to the sides ice cream. I’m serving it to guests with homemade raspberry sauce! Another perfect recipe! I’ll bet I could turn this into an amazing pina colada!
Thanks so much Bonnie, so happy you like the recipe!
What do you do if you don’t have a ice cream machine?
You can beat the ice cream mixture in your stand mixer, then place it into the freezer, but before it’s frozen, bring it out a couple more times and beat it again. This gets the texture the closest to what you’ll get with an ice cream machine. Or you can just freeze it after making the mix. The texture won’t be as ‘light and fluffy’ but it will still be delicious.
Great flavor! Is there a way to prevent the coconut cream from separating after placing the mixture into the fridge? I had to use the hand blender again to break up the hardened coconut cream before placing it in the ice cream machine.
Oh wow, that’s some determined coconut cream! Haha I haven’t had that happen, but you could leave it less time in the fridge or just continue to give it another blend before churning. 🙂
Hi Alison, do you use the water from the tin coconut milk?
Hi there, yes you use the whole can, no need to separate the cream from the water.
Hi I’d love to make this coconut ice cream for my daughter, but I don’t have an ice cream maker, is there another way of making it please.
Yes it’s possible to make without an ice cream maker. If you have an electric mixer, then whip the mixture to incorporate air, then freeze and before it freezes properly bring it out again and whip again. Do this a couple more times and you should have a very similar texture to what you get in an ice cream maker.
I just got back from Ubud and was searching for recipes to help me recreate Tukie’s vegan coconut ice cream! I found your site and am excited to try the recipe. I think it’s the same shop you went to since it’s well known in Ubud. One note is that Tukie’s uses a ground-up form of coconut brittle in addition to the toasted coconut as a topping, so I am trying to find a recipe for that too.
Cool! Then you know how good their ice cream is! Hope this recipe hits the spot, very interesting about the ground up coconut brittle! 🙂
I just saw this and thought to myself, ” Oh my god, it reminds me of the most amazing ice cream I had at this coconut shop in Ubud. I would get a plane ticket just to go there and have some….and then I read that you had been there!!!
Hahaha, how cool! What a great place isn’t it! Would love to go back there someday. 🙂
Food for the soul – I love the simplicity and richness of your recipes
This looks incredible!! I love coconut anything 🙂
Thanks Liz! And I’m totally with you on that! 🙂