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Learn how to make coconut milk, coconut butter, and coconut flour from shredded coconut. It’s easy, inexpensive, and you control the ingredients.
Those who know me well know that I should have been born somewhere with coconut palms.
Not only do I love coconuts, but I also love the tropical climate that coconut palms need to survive.
While I have moved a bit closer to the tropics by moving to the Spanish Riviera from Michigan, I don’t live in a climate that allows for coconut palm trees; nor do I live in a place where it is easy to find coconut butter or coconut flour. I can find coconut milk in a can, but it costs an overpriced three and a half euros.
Why make homemade coconut milk?
Not only is homemade coconut milk much cheaper than the coconut milk that you buy in the stores, but it’s a lot more natural. It doesn’t have all of the unwanted ingredients found in canned coconut milk, nor do you have to worry about the BPA or other endocrine disruptors in the lining of the cans.
Making the coconut flour is really just processing a byproduct from making coconut milk, so I’ll show you how to make both at once.
How to make coconut milk
First, decide how much coconut milk you want to make. To make the coconut milk, you’ll use 2 parts water to 1 part unsweetened shredded coconut. So, if you need 2 cups of coconut milk, plan on using just over 1 cup of shredded coconut and add slightly more than 2 cups of water to it. Some of the water will remain with the fiber of the coconut, so you want to account for that.
I was working on a coconut flan recipe for the blog but also wanted to make coconut milk for making kefir and smoothies. (My son loves smoothies, and it’s a great way to sneak him foods, like spinach, that he won’t normally eat! If you love smoothies, here’s a roundup of over 100 healthy smoothie recipes and a great Popeye smoothie recipe for kids!)
That day I decided I wanted to make about 4 cups of coconut milk, but didn’t need it to be precise, so I used two cups of shredded, unsweetened coconut and 4 cups of water. Most of the time I make smaller batches, so I wrote the recipe for making 2 cups of coconut milk. You can easily adapt it to make as much as you need.
How to use and store homemade coconut milk
Keep in mind that homemade coconut milk doesn’t have any added thickeners, emulsifiers, or preservatives, so it’s best used immediately. It won’t work for every recipe that uses coconut milk either, as some depend on the thickeners and emulsifiers of the commercial coconut milks to work. This is true for recipes like “whipped cream” made from the thick layer that forms on a can of coconut milk when you store it in the fridge. That also goes for recipes like my easy no-bake strawberry cream pie. (You may be able to make it with homemade coconut milk if you add more gelatin to help stabilize it, but the resulting texture will be different.)
Homemade coconut oil is best when used immediately. If you leave homemade coconut milk sitting around, it will begin to separate into two layers, a watery layer below and a thick, creamy layer above.
Another difference between homemade coconut milk and the coconut milk that you buy in stores is that it tends to separate. Coconut milk is made of the fat of the coconut and water. Because fat and water don’t mix, and we aren’t adding any emulsifiers, the coconut milk will slowly start to separate into two layers. If you store homemade coconut milk in the fridge, it may develop an oily, solid layer on top and a liquid, watery layer below. If you do need to store it, it’s best to reheat it and stir it to help combine the layers before using it. Use it within a couple of days or it will start to sour.
How to make coconut milk and coconut flour
I’m combining these 2 recipes into one because making coconut flour just follows the process of making homemade coconut milk, as you will see below.
Coconut Milk and Coconut Flour
Instructions
- Soak the shredded coconut in the water for 1-2 hours. I let it soak in my blender jar because I’ll be using it in the next step anyway.
- Blend the coconut and water mixture in a blender for a minute or two.
- Meanwhile, prepare a cheesecloth or white cotton towel and a bowl.
- Pour the mixture into the cloth, and strain.
- The liquid that you squeeze out of the cloth is your coconut milk. You can use it right away, store it in the fridge for a couple of days, or freeze it in ice cube trays (I use and love these) for easy future dispensing.
- Don’t throw away the coconut fiber in the cloth. It will soon become your coconut flour!
For the Coconut Flour
- Take the pulp that is left over after straining your coconut milk, and spread it out in a thin layer on a baking sheet. I lined the sheet with some parchment paper first.
- Bake on low heat until it feels completely dry. You are almost done!…
- Grind in a coffee grinder or a food processor until you get as fine of a powder as you can with your particular machine. Even if it doesn’t get completely powdery or flour-like, it should still work quite well in recipes that use coconut flour.
Notes
What is coconut flour?
Coconut flour is a high fiber, low carb “flour” that can be used in place of wheat or other grain flours in cooking and baking. It is especially used in recipes for diets that seek to eliminate wheat flour like gluten-free diets, GAPS, and paleo diets.
You have to be a bit careful when replacing it in baking as coconut flour tends to be a bit drier (you’ll probably need to add some more liquid to compensate) and it has a different consistency than wheat flour. You could substitute a small percentage of it, though, in a recipe to reduce your flour intake. Luckily, there are a lot of good recipes out there that use it.
When making homemade coconut flour, depending upon the type of food processor you have, you likely won’t be able to “mill” it as fine as store-bought coconut flour. For most recipes, that shouldn’t be a problem, but it is something to keep in mind. To get it finer, you can try running it through a coffee grinder after the food processor.
What is coconut butter?
Coconut butter is a cream made from pureeing dried coconut. It is a whole food that includes the fat and fiber of the coconut.
Not too long ago I mistakenly thought that coconut butter was just a term that people used for coconut oil when it reached its solid state at cooler temperatures. I later found out, though, that coconut butter and coconut oil are really two different, wonderful things!
Coconut oil is different from coconut butter because it coconut oil is the fat of the coconut, separated from the coconut fiber. It is white as a solid, but it is a clear, transparent liquid when the temperatures are warm enough.
On the other hand, Coconut butter has coconut pulp in it. So, even when temperatures are high, it is white and more like a nut butter, definitely not a liquid.
Now, in the summer heat, mine has separated with a thin layer of coconut oil floating on top. In the winter, it’s a lot harder to coconut butter because it becomes almost rock solid! That’s why you want to pour the homemade coconut butter into a storage container right away after making it. You don’t want it to solidify in your food processor making it almost impossible to remove later on.
Another way to be able to easily use coconut butter in the winter is to pour it over a prepared baking sheet lined with either silicone or parchment paper. When the coconut butter solidifies, it’s in a thin sheet that can easily be broken into small pieces for easier use. Another great idea is to pour it into silicone candy trays, making little coconut butter “truffles.”
How to make coconut butter
Coconut Butter From Scratch
Instructions
- Add the shredded coconut (or coconut chips) to a food processor and process until smooth. Depending upon the strength of your food processor, this can be a quick and easy process or a long one that doesn’t appear to be working…
- If you are having problems getting your coconut butter to form, stop every minute or so, at first, and scrape down the sides so that your blades can reach all of the coconut mixture. Also, make sure you use enough coconut to have a big enough mass for your blades to reach it all well. If you have a high potency blender, you can also use that, but you will likely have to stop to push the coconut down from the sides more often.
- At first, you will notice the coconut getting a little bit clumpy. Keep processing, and it will start to release its oils. Once some of the liquid from the oil is released, it makes it easier for your food processor to work the rest of it. Keep processing until you get the consistency you like.
Notes
Shredded coconut seems way to dry to turn into something so creamy without needing to add anything else. If you blend it for long enough, though, it will eventually turn into coconut butter! My old food processor actually took much less time to make the coconut butter. I think the blades hit much lower and so it really kept moving the coconut better, making the process much easier. I was starting to doubt that my newer food processor would even be able to make coconut butter at all, but it eventually did.
I experimented with making coconut butter with toasted coconut chips, and I ended up with a delicious toasted coconut butter.
I used part of my first batch of coconut butter in my coconut flan. It’s also super good in my coconut date balls, a sweet snack that is even autoimmune paleo safe.
Do you love coconut as much as I do? Which of these is your favorite? How do you use them?
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What happens if you use sweetened coconut to make coconut milk?
I suppose you’d end up with a sweet coconut milk. 😉
I bought a can of Goya Cream of Coconut T the store the other day. When I opened it, it was solid solid and supper sweet almost like sweetened condensed milk. What is this used for and how do I use it. Thanks.
Hi Sharon,
Yes, there are sweetened coconut creams on the market. They are usually used for making things like piña coladas or coconut cream pies.
I’d probably choose the first option and throw it in the blender with some pineapple juice, ice, and rum and invite a few friends over. 😉
Hi can you use desiccated coconut instead?
Hi Michelle,
Yes, it’s desiccated coconut! 🙂
You’ll want the unsweetened stuff without other additives.
Hello! I just read this because because I’m having some trouble with storing freshly made coconut milk. I live in Singapore where access to coconuts is abundant. Yesterday I made a batch of coconut milk with freshly grounded coconut, put it in an airtight container in the fridge and this morning it had separated, cream on top and water at the bottom. But is was also spoiled! The container lid popped when I opened with a gassy noise and the smell was sour. Has this happened to you? This is the second time I try to make coconut milk and it is spoiled the next day. Any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong?
Hi Isabel,
If you are having that issue, it’s probably because it’s in too warm of water for too long before blending. I’m since realizing that you don’t really need to use warm water nor do you need to let it soak for very long. In fact, if you are using a blender, you can extract quite a bit of coconut milk from coconut and cool water immediately.
If you make it that way, you are much less likely to have that happen.
And, yes, I have had that problem when I have had the coconut in warm water for too long. It will start to ferment and go sour!
I’m slowly making my way through all of my older recipes and updating them with my new findings- and this is one of the ones I want to add new information to. 😉
you should do that bc I just made mine this way and then read this comment lol darn it. I hope mine doesn’t spoil tmrw! I only let it soak for one hour.. so hopefully it will be ok
Hi Kat,
Yes, you should be fine. Normally it’s OK even if you use warm water and let it soak a long time. I used to do it that way.
If the temperature is hot where you are, though, and it stays really warm the whole time, it can start to sour. I had that happen once too.
I really should update the recipe part to give that warning. I’m slowly making my way through EVERY post on the blog and adding new information, new pics, videos, etc.
It’s taking forever, of course, but these sorts of comments really help me fix it up better with important information when I get to it!
Hi, by mistake I bought coconut flakes instead of the shredded. Would that work the same?
Hi Nichelle,
Yes, that’s totally fine. In fact, I’ve heard people say that the flakes turn into a smoother coconut butter. (I haven’t found that to be the case, though. For me, they turn out exactly the same.) 😉
Could I use store bought coconut flour and just add some coconut oil to replace the oil lost in the process of making the flour?
Hi Ashley,
That’s an interesting question and one I haven’t considered as it would be more expensive for me to make it that way. Here coconut flour is rather expensive.
I’m not really sure how much oil you would need to add or how, exactly, it would turn out. Logically it should turn out like coconut butter, but I’m not really sure.
If you do try it, I’d be curious about the outcome! 😉
How long does it last the coconut flour?? Thanks!!!
Hi Constanza,
I’d say it should keep for at least as long as the shredded coconut. (You can check the packaging for the best used before date on that.)
In actuality, it will probably keep longer than that because you are removing most of the oils. The oils going rancid is really what is making the shredded coconut go bad.
O my gosh! This is amazing, and way easier then I ever imagined. I wish we had a blender while we are here in Costa Rica. Maybe our next place will have one. LOL we decided the next 30 days we would be doing an elimination diet. Coconut milk is acceptable on it. BUT the stuff in stores is junk. You have me tempted to just go buy a blender 😉 Thanks for this amazing post! BE well sista.
Hi Erin,
Wow, I’m sure Costa Rica is lovely!
I’m not sure I could live without a blender. I love making nut milks and butters, vegetable puree soups, and smoothies. 🙂
Hopefully you can find an inexpensive one to get you making lots of healthy foods (and piña coladas once off the elimination diet- ha!).
How much water would I use if I wanted it to be like a Silk or So delicious beverage drink? My daughter can’t drink milk. So was hoping for an alternative without thickeners
Hi Kristine,
I live in Spain, so I’m not really familiar with either Silk or So Delicious.
In any case, my guess is that both of these probably use thickeners.
Homemade coconut milk is pretty thin, and doesn’t resemble store bought coconut milk. Adding less water isn’t going to really help fix that. Because it doesn’t use thickeners, it can’t always be used for the same recipes. Some recipes, like those for coconut cream “whipped cream,” rely on the thickeners of store bought coconut milks to work correctly.
For drinking plain, though, or adding a bit to tea or coffee, I actually prefer homemade. Homemade almond milk made in the same way is another wonderful alternative, and so much better than store bought almond milks.
Hi Tracy-Thanks for sharing this. I look forward to trying out these recipes. I’m wondering if when you make the coconut butter, if you are using the coconut pulp from what was left from making the milk or are you using “new” unsweetened flaked coconut?
Hi Sharon,
You use “new” unsweetened coconut for coconut butter because you want all of the fat of the coconut working to your advantage. 😉
The coconut pulp is really only good for coconut flour because most of the fat has been stripped of it.
I love coconut butter in the summer! 🙂
(In the winter it goes super solid for me here, so it’s a lot harder to use.)