Coconut cream - how thick should it be?

[tuzmusic]

I've tried the technique with leaving coconut cream in my fridge for a few hours. The stuff that maybe rises to the top...it's not all that thick. The book describes it as solid, so I'm expecting something more gelatinous. But is the creamy stuff I'm getting, with a paint-like consistency, the coconut cream I'm looking for?

PS. the book mentions saving money by making your own cream, but it's used in enough recipes that it seems like it would be better to buy a whole can than to "waste" a can of coconut milk for the few tablespoons of cream you skim off yourself, no?

[SugarcubeOD]

The lower the fat content the less likely it is to harden/thicken... there are more and less fatty coconut milks out there and if you want the hard stuff then you need to get a (usually) more expensive can.  Personally, I just shake the can up and then use it that way.

[ShannonM816]

A lot depends on what you're using it for. If you're trying to make it like a whipped cream, it needs to be pretty thick to whip up right. If you're adding it to soup or coffee, you can probably use the thinner stuff, or maybe not even bother separating it.

If you can find a brand that is nothing but coconut and water, it will separate better than ones with guar gum or other ingredients. Be sure you're buying the full fat version, not lite or lowfat coconut milk. Cans of coconut cream do still have some water -- I've found them at Sprouts pretty consistently, usually in the baking section, if you want to try that. Basically, the difference between the canned versions of  lite coconut milk, full-fat coconut milk, and coconut cream is the amount of water in them, and then some brands do seem to be thicker than others, I'm not sure if there's a different percentage of coconut they use or something inherently different in the actual coconuts they're using.

[tuzmusic]

Thanks! I'm just using it for all the various recipes in the book that call for it