Cocktails with Cream of coconut
Cream of coconut is a thick, heavily sweetened coconut product made by blending high-fat coconut cream with sugar into a pourable syrup.
How it's used
Because the sugar is already in it, a drink built on cream of coconut, like the Piña Colada, usually needs no other syrup. Rum and pineapple are its usual partners. It separates hard in the tin, so stir it back together before measuring. Otherwise one drink gets the fat and the next the sugar.
Substitutes for Cream of coconut
Homemade cream of coconut
Blend coconut cream with sugar until smooth, about 3 parts cream to 2 parts sugar by weight. It lands a little leaner in sugar and fat.
Coconut cream
To replace 30 ml of cream of coconut, use 30 ml of coconut cream and add 20 ml of 2:1 syrup. The drink gets slightly larger.
Coconut milk
Thinner and unsweetened. Canned milk is richer than carton milk, but either way you have to add sugar via syrup.
Storage
Sealed at room temperature until opened, then refrigerated and used within a week. It solidifies when cold and softens back at room temperature. Decant the tin, since the metal taints what is left in it.
