Decadent Dairy-Free Ice Cream

Ice cream and summer go together like Mickey Mouse and Minnie, sunrises and hot coffee, or peanut butter and jelly. You simply cannot have one without the other. Who doesn’t have nostalgic memories of ice cream cones dripping on sidewalks? Sweaty hands becoming sticky with sweetness, and that refreshingly cold creaminess juxtaposed perfectly against the lazy hot sun? 

When I went dairy-free one of my greatest grievances was ice cream. Particularly in summer, the season of ice cream.  However, I soon discovered that rich, creamy, ice cream can still be made without the help of cow’s milk. My favorite recipe of all is this one I'm about to share. Chocolate and peanut butter coconut milk ice cream. Because in my opinion, another match made in heaven is peanut butter and chocolate. I found this recipe on Joy Food Sunshine and tweaked it just a bit. (Check out their blog post for an awesome how-to video!) 

I love this recipe because it is sweetened with natural sugars (but isn’t TOO sweet), has some protein from the peanut butter, doesn’t have all the fake gums and junk that most diary-free ice cream has, AND is full of minerals, antioxidants, and healthy fats from the coconut milk and cacao powder.  (Yup, you can even convince yourself that this ice cream is good for you.)

To make it even better, this is one of the simplest ice creams you could ever make!

Did you know…summer is a time where your body is optimized for processing carbs and natural sugars? This is the season where nature gives us sweet melons, berries, tomatoes, and other high-fructose foods to combat the heat and support energy. If you are in the sunlight consistently and aligning your circadian rhythm with the seasons, even your gut microbiome changes to process carbs and sugars more efficiently.

How to Make Decadent Dairy-Free Ice Cream

Ok, let's stop drooling over this ice cream and get cooking! Basically all you need to do is blend and churn. Don't forget to freeze your ice cream make bowl the day before!

Ingredients

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk

• ¼ cup honey (can adjust to more or less depending on the sweetness level you like)

• ¼ cup natural peanut butter (creamy)

• 2 TBS cacao powder

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• ¼ tsp sea salt

Instructions:

1. Freeze your ice cream bowl at least 12 hours before making your recipe! 

2. Mix all the ingredients in a blender.

3. Take your ice cream bowl out of the freezer, put it on your base, and start it churning. 

4. Slowly pour in your ice cream mixture.

5. Let it churn until it is solid.

6. Store in containers in the freezer.

Topping (optional)

PB “Caramel” Sauce (optional):

Chocolate Sauce (optional)

Peanuts

Almonds

Dark Chocolate Chunks

More peanut butter (cuz you can never have too much, right?)

Serving Your Ice Cream

• This stuff freezes HARD, so make sure to plan 10-15 minutes of thawing time before scooping. 

• Optional toppings. The ice cream is amazing by itself, but it's always fun to add some toppings. Our favorites are dark chocolate chunks, more peanut butter (cuz you can never have too much, right?), almonds, or the easy dairy-free caramel sauce from this recipe.

Recipe Notes

• Coconut Milk. Just a warning, don't try low-fat coconut milk or you will be disappointed.

• Cacao Powder. If you don’t have cacao powder, just use regular cocoa powder. Cacao powder has the added benefit of containing more antioxidants and minerals because it hasn’t been heated, but they will both taste the same.

• Make it Vegan. You can easily sub the honey for maple syrup to make this vegan.

• Hand Churning. Don’t have an ice cream maker? Check out instructions on this at the original recipe at https://joyfoodsunshine.com/dairy-free-chocolate-peanut-butter-ice-cream/. It might not be as fluffy but it will still be DELICIOUS! However, if you are dairy-free and love ice cream, I highly recommend you buying an ice cream machine. You will thank me!

  
  

There you have it! A decadent dairy-free ice cream. Now go make some summer memories!