When the weather warms from spring into summer, I abandon my warm pumpkin and chai-spiced custards in favor of cool and hydrating treats, vanilla mint ice cream and orange creamsicles. The combination of mango and cultured coconut milk make for one of my favorite frozen treats this time of year – slightly tart, faintly sweet, with a punch of mango in dotted bites, so when I was invited to participate in a yellow- and white-themed virtual baby shower for Pure Ella, I jumped at the opportunity to share this sweet, summertime treat – one I know you’ll love if you make it.
Culturing Coconut Milk
My recipe for these homemade popsicles begins first by culturing coconut milk and coconut water with kefir starter culture (I order it from Body Ecology), as it’s better than culturing coconut milk with kefir grains, which I reserve for making true milk kefir. While culturing dairy milks will thicken them, culturing coconut milk – which lacks the protein found in dairy milks – results only in the same thin-textured liquid made slightly tart. But it’s that lovely tartness that provides these popsicles with such pleasant flavor.
| Cultured Coconut Mango Popsicles | Print |
- 1½ cups full fat coconut milk (available here)
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 packet Body Ecology Kefir Starter Culture (get it here)
- 2 tablespoons coconut nectar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 Ataulfo mangoes, chopped into ½-inch chunks
- Warm the coconut milk and coconut water in a large saucepan until it reaches about 90 F degrees. Remove the saucepan from the stove, and whisk in the starter culture. Pour the coconut milk into a jar, cover it tightly with a lid, and let it sit in a warm spot in your counter for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, stir the coconut nectar and vanilla extract into the cultured coconut milk, and then fold in the chopped mango.
- Pour the coconut milk and mangoes into your popsicle molds, and freeze for at least 12 hours, or until hardened.
Wow! These look incredible. I guess I’d never thought of culturing coconut milk–but the idea has me excited.
What a gorgeous and delicious recipe!
I am intrigued by the cultured coconut milk and the beauty of the mango ~ I cannot wait to try this 😉
Thank you so much for honouring me with all this food and love 😉
You are just the sweetest and I just wish I could hug you in real life to say Thank YOU! 😉
♥ Ella
Ohmydeargod, these look amazing! I just downed a few lemon poppy seed truffles from Gabby and I cannot wait to chase them down with these incredible popsicles! Loving the flavors…
1) Cultured coconut milk might have just blown my mind. 2) You’ve just reminded me that I need to purchase a popsicle mold STAT. These look awesome, Jenny!
I love this recipe! <3 you and everything you do Jenny!
What a perfect summery treat for Ella’s Virtual Baby Shower – love the creamy coconuty and mango-y popsicles you made! They look absolutely divine! Thank you for sharing this dish for Ella’s Virtual Baby Shower, it’s so great to meet new bloggers! 😉
Hi Jenny,
Don’t the cultures die when frozen?
Here I’ve used culturing for the flavor live cultures impart: a wonderful tartness that balances so nicely with sweet coconut milk and mango. That said,freezing (especially HOME freezing) is likely to damage the cultures cellular structure to some extent, although the jury’s still out on whether or not it completely kills all of them. Certain cultures frozen VERY fast and at VERY low temperatures (something you’re unlikely to see with the freezer in your kitchen) will remain intact and viable.
I will be making these asap! I’m curious about the amount of starter, though. The packet says it can culture 1 quart of milk but this recipe only uses 2.5 cups of liquid. Could I increase the recipe up to 1 quart of liquid but still use 1 package of starter? Thanks for your expertise!
Ooooh, how delicious. Coconut and mango are made to be together. I’ve never done any home culturing but I’m keen to give it a go.
Lovely to be introduced to your blog through Ella’s baby shower 🙂
Beautiful recipe Jenny, as always. With your cultured dessert and my sprouted appetizer, we’ve got all kinds of yummy nutritious goodness happening 😉 I will for sure be making these this summer. xo
Jenny, these are GORGEOUS! No tot mention they sound completely delicious. Thank you so much for contributing to Ella’s baby shower. We are both so happy that you could be a part of it and are incredibly thankful!
Such a nice warm weather treat!
These look amazing!! I love the colour and I am especially intrigued by the cultured coconut milk. I never miss a chance to squeeze more probiotics into my gut!
Loved connecting with you through this baby shower! I’ll definitely make some regular visits now. Everything I’ve scoped so far from you looks wonderful.
i love mangoes and yogurt popsicles. these are perfect for the springy baby shower.
These sound absolutely delish! Perfect timing, I’ve a very ripe mango ready to be used for something yummy! Thank you so much for sharing!
Sign me up for a whole tray of these babies!!
I made these & my grandkids 5 & 1.5 yrs LOVED them!!! Made a new batch with pineapple since I didn’t have time to run to the store for more mangos! Yum too!! The left over liquid I made them smoothies blended with Spirulina added – thanks so much for such a healthy concept for my loves!!
Why do you say that a Kefir starter is better than using Dairy Kefir grains for the Cocanut Milk ??
Because repeatedly culturing milk kefir grains in coconut milk will damage them. This is a non-issue when using a starter.
what is coconut nectar? Where can you get it?
I am interested in making this but from reviewing this recipe and the links, I get that you are using the kefir grains (for the first time?) in the coconut milk. But the kefir listed at body ecology states that it’s a dairy kefir grain. So their kefir starter will grow and be happy in coconut milk?
I recently made these and ate them through my labor and birth and they were AMAZING! The only thing I could keep down and a terrific heartburn remedy. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I love the idea of making these, but I was looking at the starter culture, and if each packet can be reused 7 times, that’s a LOT of popsicles and I’m not sure how to otherwise use the starter. We also are away from home for significant periods of time, so it would be nice to be able to buy just one or two packets (I don’t know anyone else I could share with, and there are only two of us who would be eating anything I made with the culture). I may try doing this with some yogurt to culture the coconut milk – it would certainly be worth trying.
Hi Susan,
I make these only periodically, not regularly, and do not reuse the culture. Just because you can reuse the starter doesn’t necessarily mean you should feel obligated to do so.