This time of the year, coconuts are in abundance here on Virgin Gorda. The other day, while I was doing my regular early morning beach walks at Little Dix Bay, I saw some of the staff picking fresh coconuts to be used in cooking and presentation for the hotel.
In the past, I had seen the culinary team of the hotel uses them as “bowls” for amenities sent to guests’ rooms. They also crack them into small pieces and serve them as a part of the breakfast buffet. I had been wanting to try my hand on a homemade coconut milk ice cream recipe and decided to copy them and use fresh coconuts as “bowls” to serve my ice cream in. After all, it is so Caribbean-like to do so.

Though the problem was that I had no idea how to crack a coconut in half. To get some help, I contacted my friend Bush, who works for the hotel and does this everyday. He and I got together and spent the afternoon picking coconuts and cracking them. To my surprise, it was so much easier than I initially thought.


What he did was to use a straight edge of a nearby boulder to rap the coconut against while rotating it slightly with each whack, maintaining an invisible line at the coconut’s middle. Then, after a full rotation, the coconut cracked open into two almost-perfect halves. And even more surprising, the whole process took less than 20 seconds.


How To Make Avocado Coconut Milk Ice Cream
In terms of this ice cream recipe, it is not only perfect for these hot days of summer, but also quite easy to make.
All you have to do is to first puree the avocados in a food processor, and then add the rest of the ingredients and process them all together. Allow it to chill in the fridge.
And once it is cooled, churn it in your ice cream maker for 20 minutes or so (or as directed in your manufacturers’ instruction manual). It is truly a delicious ice cream, especially for lovers of avocados and coconut.

If you have access to it, I recommend serving it in coconut bowls like I did. The best part of it is that it not only makes it look visually appealing, but also allows you to scoop some of the flesh at the bottom of the coconut bowl once you are finished with your ice cream.


Other Ice Cream Recipes You Might Like:
Coconut Milk and Avocado Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 3 medium size 1 lbs. in total, when weighed with pits ripe Hass Avocados, pitted and skinned
- 1 can 15 ounces coconut milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon rum
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut toasted (as garnish)
Instructions
- Process avocados in the bowl of a food processor until they are completely pureed, 10-15 seconds.
- Add in the coconut milk, heavy cream, sugar, rum, salt, and lime juice. Process until it is smooth mixture, 20-30 seconds.
- Transfer it to a bowl and cover it with stretch film. Let it cool thoroughly in the fridge.
- Once chilled, churn it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Place in an airtight container and freeze until firm.
- When ready to serve, top it off with toasted coconut.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz‘s Avocado Coconut Ice Cream recipe.

Barbara P Turner
I just made this only I put 1/2 cup dark cocoa, 2 cups 10x conf. pwdrd sugar along with the lime juice, coconut milk and 1/8 tspn salt and blended it for about 3 mins. in the processor and OMG it is sooooooo good, right when I made it tasted like choc pudding. But I poured it into a bowl for the freezer and we’ll see how it does in 12 hrs in the freezer.
Aysegul Sanford
Wonderful. Thanks for letting me know Barbara.
Belle
Can I just use my Vitamix blender to make this ice cream? I do not have an ice cream maker.
Aysegul Sanford
Hi Belle,
Sadly, for this recipe you do need an ice cream maker. I don’t think that Vitamix would create the ice cream consistency you see in this recipe.
Erica
What if you don’t have an ice cream maker how else can you make it
Aysegul Sanford
Hi Erica..
I actually did try without an icecream maker and unfortunately it did not turn out well.
Hope this helps.
gillian
I am with Erica, how can you make it work without an icecream maker, what is it that they do, surely the process can be replicated some other way……
Aysegul Sanford
Hi Gillian.
I have tried making this without an ice cream maker and sadly it didn’t turn out as creamy.
Though I have not tried making them, but I have seen some recipes made with frozen bananas as the base (they call it nicecream). You may try adding some bananas to the mix and process them in a blender to see if they soften it.
I am sorry that this wasn’t the answer you needed, but like I said I tried it and it was not good.
Thanks.
Steve Heikkila
Wow! How wonderfully creative and gorgeous. This is such a great idea.
Aysegul Sanford
Hi Steve. It is delicious too 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
Pang @circahappy
I truly am a lover of avo & coco, so I will definitely love this ice cream 🙂
It’s such a fantastic idea to serve it on coconut ‘bowl,’ too.
<3 <3 <3
Aysegul Sanford
Thank YOU Pang.. 🙂
Adriana
Your creativity and talent really shines on this one! Beautiful presentation and the mixture of avocado and ice cream sounds delicious, I’ll have to make this but from Bavaria I may to settle for a beer mug 😉 hugs my friend, beautiful work as always…x
Aysegul Sanford
Oh thank you so much Adriana.. This was for our final project for Aiala’s class and I got an 85/100.
I will respond to your e-mail today and tell you all about it.
PS: I am still laughing at the blog post you wrote today.. :))
Emilie @ The Clever Carrot
Yum. Yum. Yum. This is mouthwatering. It was a million degrees today and I’d do anything to swim around in that little coconut bowl. Speaking of, I’m so glad you wrote about how to crack open a coconut; I’ve never had any luck! Or, rather, didn’t know the proper way (20 seconds?). I think it’s so cool to live in a community where someone is kind enough to show you the process. And thank you for sharing it all with us! Next time, I won’t be so intimated if I find myself under a coconut tree 😉 x
Aysegul Sanford
I know, right? It was so easy. He just did it in less than 20 seconds.
Thank you Emilie 🙂
Laura&Nora @Our Food Stories
The combination of avocado and coconut sounds (and looks!!) amazing. Never had it before. Really have to try this <3
Aysegul Sanford
Hi Laura & Nora, I have not had it before either but it was so good. I highly recommend it.
Cheers from the Caribbean!