"Creamy" ice cream recipe for an ice cream machine?

[Biscuits & Gravy]

We bought an ice cream maker this weekend. I found some recipes online and made our first batch of strawberry "ice cream" last night. I used a can of coconut milk, almond milk, vanilla, sugar and strawberries. My kids are totally fine with it, of course, but DH and I would like it to be creamier somehow. Any suggestions? Should I have used all coconut milk instead of a blend with other non-dairy milk?

I'm open to any recipes, as long as they don't have nuts aside from almonds. :)

[crunchy_mommy]

I have yet to perfect my ice cream methods (OK, have been trying to lay off the ice cream so haven't attempted it lately!) but I did read what sounded like a good idea: You put the can of coconut milk in the fridge for a bit to help it separate more and then scoop off all the thick "cream" on the top and use the watery part for something else. It sounds like this would make it creamier, I don't know about almond milk because to me that sounds like it might make it too watery/icy, unless you're making your own, thicker, almond milk.

Hmmm now I really want to try to make some...

[mumkimum]

We never did a lot of milk or milk-like based ice creams in our ice cream maker, but instead a lot of sorbets.  And really, sorbets with creamy fruits (like mango, papaya, even banana) come out amazingly creamy (especially the mango or mango-blended anything).  Delicious.    

[Ygle]

I've done unripe (the less ripe ones have less of their own flavor) avocados, it really helps to give it a richer creamier texture. You can also use some blended up frozen bananas or tofu.  I think the creamiest ice cream we've made was using cashews which won't work for you.  Are you making your own almond milk?  Maybe increasing the amount of almonds to water might make it creamier? 

[catnip]

I don't use any other non-dairy milk in fruit-coconut milk ice cream. My recipe is one can of cocconut milk, 1 1/2 cups fruit puree, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 t vanilla. Don't skimp on the sugar, it's essential to the texture.

[Biscuits & Gravy]

Thanks for the tips! Next batch will certainly be done without the milk sub. The almond milk was Silk, not made by me. Tofu is an interesting thought, would you use the silken or just the soft? (I'm trying to remember the different textures available).

We could attempt cashews since DS had a negative test result with them, we just haven't tried them yet. I've been sticking to almond since I know for sure plus I can get almonds without cross contamination which seems a bit more difficult with cashews. My kids love mango anything so I'll put that on the list. Avocado is intriguing, too.

[Biscuits & Gravy]

In case anyone is curious, I have an update. I made a batch of ice cream yesterday using Arrowroot. I was reading around and that was a tip I came across. It is supposed to make the ice cream creamier, and it seems to have done the trick. I used this recipe, but only used a small amount of chocolate chips and it was fine, like 1/2 cup? After I put it through the ice cream maker I drizzled sunbutter into the mixture and cut it into the ice cream. I was going to add some chopped bananas as well, but DS vetoed them. It is delicious!

[Funny Face]

Thanks for sharing this! :D