Substitutes for coconut cream

June 5, 2023 6:38 AM

This recipe looks great but the person I'd be sharing it with doesn't like coconut flavor. Do you think I could substitute heavy cream for the coconut cream, or any other ideas?

(I don't find coconut cream / chocolate cake recipes to be particularly coconutty, but this person notices.)

posted by beyond_pink to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

It seems like the coconut cream is providing part of the structure of the filling, so I would substitute cream cheese or whipped cream, folding it through the rest of the filling ingredients once everything else has been melted, combined and cooled.
posted by london explorer girl at 7:00 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Because the recipe wants you to melt the coconut cream before mixing it with other ingredients, I think using heavy cream will work just fine.
posted by Dolley at 7:02 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Sour cream might also be an option. I think it's a bit closer to the texture of coconut cream than heavy cream is, and should melt down OK. Greek yogurt was the other thought I had, but I think you'd want to do that as a late, cooled addition, like cooker girl's suggestion.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:10 AM on June 5, 2023

Best answer: Because it is no-bake, I don't think you'd want to heat up heavy cream. Whip it first, separately, and add everything else to it gently. Or find a chocolate mousse recipe and substitute it as the filling for that crust.
posted by mcgsa at 7:25 AM on June 5, 2023

Best answer: From a traditional French pastry perspective, the coconut cream is the substitution, for regular heavy cream. This is a chocolate ganache filling, which is basically just chocolate and cream.
posted by bitslayer at 7:29 AM on June 5, 2023 [8 favorites]

Best answer: I would be looking to match the rough proportions of fat, other solids, and water. The fine folks at Tetrapak say that coconut cream is 25-37% fat, so heavy cream at 33% would be an excellent choice. If someone doesn't like the dairy taste, you could also use shortening or neutral lard and some water to make the correct mixture, though you might also need some emulsifier depending on how the texture is supposed to be.
posted by wnissen at 2:34 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]