How to Make Coconut Milk
Homemade coconut milk is creamy and nutty and will make you want to swear off the canned stuff forever.
Making coconut milk at home is incredibly simple. All you need is shredded coconut, a food processor or blender, hot water, a large bowl, and cheesecloth. If you’re starting from whole coconuts, see yesterday’s post on preparing shredded coconut. You can also use the dried unsweetened stuff.
Fill your food processor with shredded coconut. Add enough water so that it’s almost level with the coconut (about a cup of water per coconut). (Dried coconut will require extra water and ~15 minutes of soaking to rehydrate.) Blend on high for several minutes, until all coconut has been ground down a bit.
Loosely center your cheesecloth in a large bowl. Pour the coconut and resultant liquid into the cheesecloth.
Then gather the cheesecloth around the remaining meat and squeeze out all the liquid you can muster into the bowl. Voilà!
The first press is always the best, but you can repeat this process one or two more times, reusing the same coconut, for a lighter milk.
Refrigerate milk in a sealed container and use within 2-3 days, or freeze it if you won’t be using it right away. It will separate in the cold, so take it out and blend together at room temperature before using. This also allows you to adjust the thickness and fat content of the milk if you desire, or to simply skim off the top layer and use in any recipe that calls for coconut cream.
If you want something more akin to the drinkable coconut milk on sale these days, feel free to add extracts and sweeteners to taste.
Tags: veganmofo 2009
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This is too awesome beyond words!
I have no idea why making my own coconut milk has never entered my mind.
You are GENIUS!
And guess who’s got three bags of coconut in the cupboard at home?
I know exactly what I’m going to do with it now.
Thank you so much! I want to start making lacto-fermented drinks, but I don’t like eating too much soy, and I have a young son that I don’t want to expose to nuts too early (allergies run in the family). So this is perfect! Now to get some kefir grains…
when i was a kid in singapore we used to go to the wet market and watch the guy make coconut milk like this to order. then we used to take the leftover solids home to snack on!
This is the easiest, BEST, recipe I’ve ever seen on the web for making coconut milk! I love it!
I have a question though … I’ve tried several times to make coconut milk. Instead of a cheesecloth I use heavy duty paper towel and it works fairly well. But the ‘milk’ I get is very thin almost like water. I want to use it in coffee and tea. Is there a way to make it more thick? I use homemade cashew milk at the moment but coconut is just so much more healthier!
Thanks a bunch!
First of all, make sure you’re adding a minimal amount of water to the coconut in the first place. Then, as I mentioned, refrigerating the milk after you’ve finished making it causes the fat to float and the coconut water to sink to the bottom. So the best way to thicken up your homemade coconut milk is to chill it (in an air-tight container) until it separates. Scoop the top layer of coconut cream into a bowl and whisk in coconut water (that fell beneath) bit by bit until you’ve achieved your desired consistency. Also, take into consideration that the coconut cream will soften as it comes to room temperature. Good luck!