If you love coconut or cook for someone who does, this coconut pineapple ice cream is the perfect late summer dessert. Based on a recipe from James Villas, it calls for shredded or flaked coconut, crushed pineapple, a combination of milk and cream plus almond extract.
I just so happened to have all those ingredients on hand Friday and was able to whip up a batch pretty quickly. The original version was double this and way too much for our family, so I halved it and still had more than enough.
Coconut Extract
The coconut flavor in Coconut Pineapple Ice Cream comes from shredded coconut that has been soaked in milk. If you don't like the texture of shredded coconut in ice cream, you can drain the coconut from the milk before cooking. For more coconut flavor, you can add ½ teaspoon of coconut extract.
Recipe

Coconut Pineapple Ice Cream
Ingredients
- ¾ cup shredded unsweetened coconut**
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar or ¾ cups if using sweetened coconut
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¾ to 1 cup canned crushed pineapple, very well drained and pressed dry
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Combine the coconut and milk in a bowl and chill for an hour.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until frothy. Transfer to a 3 quart saucepan and stir in the coconut infused milk.
- Turn heat to low or medium low and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone scraper, until mixture reaches about 160 degrees on a candy thermometer and thickens just slightly – it won’t thicken that much.
- Remove from heat and pour into a large glass bowl or a 9x13 inch glass casserole dish (for quicker cooling). Stir in the cream and the extracts. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for about 6 hours (or overnight).
- When ready to make the ice cream, stir in the pineapple, then pour into the ice cream container and process as per the manufacturer’s directions.
Sue
That looks yummy!
Darlene
Looks so creamy and delicious - I can almost taste it! My mother-in-law loves this flavor at PF Chang's restaurants. The waiter told us the brand was Graeter's, not sure if you are familiar with it. I'm sure she would enjoy your version.
sonya
I do love coconut ice cream. My favorite one had strawberries in it. I love pineapple too so this sounds very intriguing especially with the hot weather!