Recipe: Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
It’s pretty impossible to make an ice cream “guilt-free” while keeping that decadent taste, but this recipe comes pretty dang close! Made without dairy or refined sugar, this dark chocolate ice cream is rich and creamy. Even the most skeptical eaters will not know what they’re missing. For the past few months, I’ve been experimenting with other people’s dairy-free ice cream recipes, but all of them call for coconut. Now, I love coconut, but it has a strong taste that not everybody likes (which also makes it hard to trick your dairy-loving, sugar-loving friends and family). This recipe eliminates all uses of coconut while still making the ice cream insanely rich and creamy…and pretty guilt-free!
*Note: this recipe does call for an ice cream maker. I use this Cuisinart one.
Total Time: 90 minutes
Yield: 6 serving(s)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup smooth almond butter (don't hold out on this, you need the full half cup!)
- 8 large medjool dates, pitted
- 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup raw cocoa powder
- Almond Cream
- 1 heaping cup raw almonds
- 2 cups filtered water
- Thickener
- 1 tablespoon grass-fed gelatin
- 1/4 cup water
Directions
- ~Almond Cream~
- Soak the raw almonds in a bowl of water overnight.
- With a blender, combine the two cups of filtered water with the cup of almonds and blend until smooth. About a minute.
- Using a fine-mesh strainer or a nut milk bag, strain the almond cream from the almond pulp.
- Set almond pulp aside for another use or throw away. Pour almond cream back into blender.
- ~Dark Chocolate Ice Cream~
- Add the almond butter, dates, vanilla and cocoa powder to blender with the almond cream. Blend until smooth.
- In a saucepan, heat 1/4 cup water to a low boil and stir in powdered gelatin (we like Great Lakes brand). Transfer mixture to the blender and pulse a few times to incorporate.
- Chill the ice cream mixture in the freezer for one hour.
- Take your ice cream out of the freezer and follow your ice cream maker instructions. I tend to find that it averages 10-15 minutes in mine.
- Eat or freeze right away. If you freeze it, let it thaw for 10 minutes before scooping.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition Information Per Serving
Calories: 256
Protein: 9 gram(s)
Fat: 13 gram(s)
Carbohydrates: 32 gram(s)
Fiber: 6 gram(s)
Sugar: 23 gram(s)
From the kitchen of: Chris Freytag
2 Comments
Bonnie O'Hern on May 20, 2018 at 12:57 PM
Can you be more specific about the "Grass Fed gelatin". There are many to choose from; Great Lakes Gelatin Co., Beef Hide Gelatin, Collagen Joint Care, Great Lakes Gelatin Co., Collagen Hydrolysate, Collagen Joint Care. I am new to this.
Chris Freytag on May 21, 2018 at 10:32 AM
Hi Bonnie - any grass fed gelatin will do!