Easy, creamy chocolate ice cream made dairy free and vegan by coconut milk!
In the survey I recently posted, several people noted that they’d like to see more vegan and/or gluten free recipes on the blog. Ask and you shall receive, my friends!
A while ago, I had done some research about different ways to make ice cream without using eggs because… well, frankly it’s a pain in the ass. And I don’t like the idea of raw eggs in my schtuff. So everything I’ve been making has been sans-egg. But to make something completely dairy free, I knew I needed some combination of arrowroot powder and coconut milk, but it took a while to get the right proportions.
Since I knew that arrowroot powder makes the ice cream smooth and prevents ice crystals from forming when the ice cream is frozen, that was a necessity. And I remembered seeing coconut milk on the little pints of So Delicious Dairy Free ice cream at the store, so I did a little research on proportions and whatnot. After some trial and error, I think I finally got it right.
Even the boyfriend – who will eat literally anything – was excited about this because he’s been looking forward to me using alternatives to normal milk in things, so this was a good experiment for both of us.
And let me tell you – it’s decadent. I prefer soft serve ice cream to hard-packed ice cream, so if you’re like me I’m highly recommending that you only let this hang out in your freezer for a couple hours after you churn it because at that point it’s smooth, rich, and just plain amazing. Typically, vegan and/or gluten free recipes can be a pain in the ass with a million ingredients to make up for the stuff you’re leaving out that make it poisonous* but this only has 6 ingredients and is super easy. I may never make chocolate ice cream any other way ever again. It’s that good.
I made mine non-vegan by adding some crushed pretzels and Ghirardelli dark chocolate chunks to the batter, because… well, I don’t owe you an explanation – I just did, OKAY? Okay. All you have to do is use vegan-friendly ingredients and add/change the ingredients as you see fit to make it your own.
Leave me a comment and let me know how you adapted this yourself – I’d love to hear about it!
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Chocolate Ice Cream
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Creamy chocolate ice cream made dairy free and vegan by coconut milk!
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Ingredients
- 3 cups coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I like to use Navitas)
- 1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup (if you’re able, support a local farm and buy from them!)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life are DF, GF and V)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup coconut milk with arrowroot powder. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, combine the remaining coconut milk, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Once it’s brought to a boil, stir in the coconut milk/arrowroot powder mixture and stir until completely combined – the mixture should thicken a bit. Remove from heat.
- Add vanilla and chocolate chips and stir until completely combined and chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Pour mixture into a heat-proof bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill. You want the mixture to be chilled, so if you’re able to leave it for a few hours or overnight, that’s your best bet.
- I used my KitchenAid ice cream maker and let it churn for 30 minutes. In the last five minutes, I added my chocolate chunks and a dash of salt. If you’re making it plain, you don’t need to add anything and just let it churn until it’s good and… churned.
- Pour batter into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a couple hours if you want it to be soft-serve texture (or overnight, if you want to eat it after it’s hardened). Scoop it into a bowl, plop it on top of a cone, sprinkle it with toppings or whipped cream and enjoy!
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*Obviously I’m being sarcastic here. I just have a couple health-conscious friends who exclaim things like “Sugar is poison!” on occasion so I used sugar free chocolate chips for this one, and I’m taking a tiny light-hearted jab at them. Love yooooooou.
Let us know what you think!