Whipped (Coconut) Cream: The Perfect Topping

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a sweet tooth. In reality, I have several. All of my teeth like it sweet – all the time.

So what do you do when you have a mouth full of “sweet teeth” and the food lifestyle you have chosen to follow excludes critical substances like sugar? You see, our family follows the Paleo Diet – not so much a “diet” as a way of life. When eating Paleo only vegetables, fruits, nuts and meats are eaten, generally speaking.

Berries and Cream

For me, giving up sweets is one of the biggest things I struggle with, so I am always thrilled to find a recipe that let’s me indulge while still being true to my food beliefs.  My kids really like it too!

This summer we were introduced to making a whipped cream from coconut milk by my father.  His recipe was quite tasty.  When pressed for ingredients, he reluctantly admitted that he did use confectioners sugar to help sweeten it and give it body.  Since then, I have been on a quest to find a recipe that falls more into line with our diet.

There are many recipes online that simply call for whipping the cream that separates from canned, full fat coconut milk when it is chilled.  Some add in a bit of honey (allowed in our diet) and vanilla.  I have yet to master this technique.  Perhaps it has to do with our warm temps here in the kitchen in the desert – coconut fats liquefy when they get warm.

Mosa Cream and Dessert Whipper

After much experimenting, I stumbled on this post over at Paleo-Zone about using a whipped cream dispenser to make the whipped coconut cream. I hesitantly ordered myself one of the gadgets, even though we normally shy away from such devices.  My imaginations of the sweet concoctions were just too wonderful NOT to order one.  I waited a very long week for the dispenser to arrive, and then another couple days for the little nitrous-oxide canisters (that magically turn the cream into whipped cream) to arrive. I think my mouth was watering just about the whole time I was waiting.  On a little side note, I would suggest getting the larger 1/2 liter size dispenser – that should fit the recipe just about perfectly and still only use a single canister for charging.  The 1/4 liter size fits really well in our fridge, but it runs out just too quickly for our family.  I have a feeling my father will be receiving a lightly used 1/4 size for Christmas (shh, don’t tell).

My first batch of the whipped cream, made following the Paleo-Zone recipe, was really yummy!  It wasn’t quite as thick as I expected looking at the pictures on that site, but the taste was pretty darn good.  Of course, I can’t just leave things alone.   I am set on making something I can take back to my father and saying, “see, there is no need to use the sugar!”  So we have been playing around with it a little.   It is still basically the same, and still not as thick as I would like, but so very delicious!   A stripe of this across a banana is enough to get my son who doesn’t like bananas to gobble them up (in all fairness, he likes bananas IN things, just not as a banana alone).

Whipped Coconut Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 can full fat coconut milk, room temperature (check in the Asian food section for this)
• 1 vanilla bean (or vanilla powder or vanilla extract to taste)
• 1/8 cup honey (okay, I add a little bit more)
• 1/8 cup maple syrup
• 2 tbsp organic coconut oil (you may have to warm this up a little to melt it)

Instructions:

1. Mix coconut milk, honey, maple syrup and oil together.  I usually mix this in a large measuring cup with a spout so that it is easy to pour later).
   

   Coconut milk, honey&maple syrup, vanilla bean

2. Slice the vanilla bean open and scrape out the seeds.  Add the seeds to the cream mixture and add the rest of the vanilla bean to your extract.
   

   Vanilla Bean – sliced open and seeds collected.

3. Taste a tiny bit.  Add more vanilla or sweetener if desired.
4. Mix really well, there should be no lumps or clumps of seeds as they may plug the dispenser.
5. Pour into whipped cream dispenser.  Make sure you follow the instructions that came with it!  My 1/4 liter only gets filled up about halfway.  This recipe is enough to fill it completely 2 times.
6. Chill.  I usually do this before adding the nitrous oxide.
7. Add the nitrous oxide.  Follow the instructions for your dispenser.   Shake a lot.
8. Hold upside down and squeeze the trigger.  I suggest doing this over food, a plate, or even your hand.  It shoots out a little faster than expected, so if you have it over your mouth, beware!
9. Enjoy!
   

   Whipped coconut cream with strawberries. Disappeared within moments of this photo.