Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk

Sweetened condensed milk is a staple in many cultures. It is added to Vietnamese iced coffee and is a key ingredient in Mexican flan and other desserts. It was one of the tres leches in CaveBoy and my wedding cake. And it is an absolute necessity for pumpkin pie. Trust me.

I tried to avoid it when I first started eliminating refined sugar from our diet. But I just couldn't get the filling to come out right. It was too loose and nowhere near creamy enough. So I started making my own. First by further reducing evaporated milk, sweetened with a few tablespoons of sugar. Then when we cut sugar out altogether, I replaced it with reduced apple cider.

This past spring we cut out dairy. So when pumpkin pie season opened, I had to re-vamp my recipe again. And here it is: the new Silly Little CaveGirl standard. This Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk is perfectly paleo and relies only on fruit juice for its sweetness. It tastes delicious on its own and bakes up beautifully in a pumpkin pie (recipe coming soon).

Enjoy!

Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk

Ingredients

1 can coconut milk

2 cups apple cider (or Simply Apple if cider is out of season)

Instructions

Add coconut milk to a small pan over medium heat. Whisk together if the solids have separated. Simmer, whisking occasionally, until the coconut milk reduces to 1 cup.

While the coconut milk is reducing, pour apple cider into a large sauce pan (the more heated surface area you have in your pan, the faster this process will go). Boil cider over medium high heat until it becomes a syrup. You will know you're close when the whole surface starts to foam up. When that happens, lift the pan of the heat to judge the consistency. 

Once you have a cider-syrup, pour the condensed coconut milk into the cider pan and whisk until fully combined. Makes 1 cup.