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Vegan French Silk Ice Cream

July 31, 2017 · Natalie 27 Comments

Homemade vegan French Silk Ice Cream made in the blender with healthy ingredients to enjoy as soft-serve or creamy mocha chocolate chunk scoop style!

A.k.a. mocha dark chocolate chunk with a creamy vanilla swirl ice cream.

But French Silk flows much better.

I don’t think French Silk Ice Cream is an official universally recognized flavor, but the name certainly does have an ice cream alluring ring to it that this tasty combo of flavors and mix-ins definitely deserves.

I remember quite clearly the first time I tasted French Silk ice cream in a waffle cone at my aunt’s house…and the countless tubs of it I polished off the rest of that yummy summer. Up until then in my life chocolate ice cream was always just chocolate, but add coffee to the mix and now we have something mocha magical on our ice-cream-adoring hands!

The thing that confuses me is why ice cream isn’t a breakfast food. But I’m learning to accept that.

The other thing that confuses me is why French Silk PIE is just chocolate cream filling + whipped cream + graham cracker crust. No mention of mocha at all. I’m not mad about it. I don’t hold the lack of coffee flavor against aforementioned amazing-sounding pie situation. But then the espresso addition when you change the word pie to ICE CREAM just feels totally out of left field, ya know?

So there’s a mystery for you if you are up for a good googling challenge. I’ll probs just accept it and get back to eating ice cream. Or pie. Or both. Together? Nah space it out.

Soooooooo don’t be mad that I didn’t tell you this up front, but um this is actually nice cream.

So right now you’re thinking one of two things:

YAY!

Or…

That sneaky fruit-obsessed deceiver leading us on with the no-churn thing and then betraying us with this banana news-bomb!

But I know that once you experience the rich mocha flavor and smooth scoop-able texture you won’t be thinking about the fact that it’s made of 90% fruit. I’ll even spike your bowl with extra chocolate chunks if you will forgive me and try it despite your potential negative feelings towards bananas or ice cream that is sneakily healthy.

Mocha ice cream. Or banana ice cream for the full disclosure version. Because despite all the banana-free recipes I’ve posted this summer, frozen bananas are still the easiest way to instantly ice cream.

Frozen bananas + cacao powder + espresso powder. See what I mean, it’s hard to rival that kinda no-churn ice cream easy.

The recipe calls for 6-8 frozen bananas, which translates to 3 to 4 servings per batch. Because this is banana ice cream it is really best eaten the same day it is made, so if you want to scale the amounts back to make just 1 or 2 servings feel free to do so.

You can simply stir in the vanilla swirl and chocolate chunks and dig in immediately for French Silk soft serve. Or, for the perfect cone-worthy scoop, layer it all in a pan or shallow dish and freeze for 1-2 hours. That sweet spot of scoop-able but not too solid can be a narrow window when working with bananas, so don’t forget about it in the freezer or it will be a French Silk ice cube.

Vanilla swirl. This little detail turned out to be the trickiest part, but there was no way I was going to skip it. First I tried coconut cream, but that froze to be too solid. And coconut butter was even more of a chunky mess. So coconut products were out.

Something light-colored and creamy that stays soft when frozen…?

The answer was cashew butter, and wow did it make this whole recipe immeasurably more delicious. Because unlike most swirls in ice creams that are barely distinguishable in terms of taste (unless it’s a marshmallow swirl–that’s a whole different story!), cashew butter adds all kinds of rich buttery flavor in addition to the vanilla on chocolate color contrast.

I used the Artisana brand of cashew butter since it is much lighter in color than most, but any kind will taste great regardless of color. Vanilla extract, optional maple syrup, and non-dairy milk stirred in make for the perfect creamy swirl to mix throughout the cold mocha creaminess.

Dark chocolate chunks. Not chips. Not nibs. Not those little chocolate shavings that are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. Chocolate CHUNKS. The kind that make it feel like a mini spoon-search success when you find one. The kind that you strategically scoop from the carton in a peculiar shape to maximize in your cone.

Blend up a batch before summer is gone, because this is the swirly-sweet scooped stuff mocha dreams are made of!

Vegan French Silk Ice Cream

★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews

Yield: 4 people 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Homemade dairy-free French Silk Ice Cream made in the blender with healthy ingredients to enjoy as soft-serve or creamy mocha chocolate chunk scoop style!

Ingredients

Scale

Vanilla Swirl

1/4 cup cashew butter
Optional: 2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1–2 tbsp non-dairy milk

Mocha Ice Cream

8 frozen bananas
3–4 tbsp cacao powder ((or cocoa powder))
2 tsps espresso powder
1/3 cup chocolate chunks

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the vanilla swirl, whisk together the cashew butter, maple syrup (if using), and vanilla extract. Add the non-dairy milk slowly until it is a thick but pourable consistency. Set aside.
In a high speed blender or food processor, combine the frozen bananas, cacao powder, and espresso powder.
Blend on high until creamy and smooth. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides or use a tamper.
Add the vanilla swirl and chocolate chunks, and serve immediately as soft-serve.
Or layer into a shallow pan, and freeze for 1-2 hours until scoop-able. Running the ice cream scoop under warm water first can be helpful too!

More frozen fruity feasting for you…
–Ice cream on a stick and with a salty sprinkle.
-Swirled and sweet and good for you green stuff!
-Just like Reese’s except minus the chocolate and not cup-shaped and ice cream.
-Those layers though!
–Cookie-inspired and seasonally forward-thinking.

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Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwiches

July 27, 2017 · Natalie 12 Comments

Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwiches made with no-churn strawberry ice cream between chocolate + vanilla no-bake cookie for a healthy triple layer treat!

Chocolate. Vanilla. Strawberry snuggled in between.

Okay maybe snuggled is the wrong word with its warm+fuzzies connotation when this is more of a cool+creamy situation. But those three have been squished and squeezed and squared into one compact triple layer bite, and there’s so much yum going on it’s starting to feel flavor-crowded!

Since ice cream sandwiches are my favorite kind of sandwiches, after experiencing the no-bake deliciousness of these chocolate chip cookie dough ones I knew I wanted to try out another flavor before summer slipped away from us. Those chip-speckled ones have already been remade many times with positive reviews, so I figured you’d be cool with it too, yes?

I can’t think of a classic ice cream flavor that lends itself better to being sandwich-ed than Neapolitan. It already comes with three distinct components built in, and one of them is perfectly fruity for the no-churn ice cream filling. Not to say that butter pecan or rocky road didn’t cross my mind. No worries though, those are stashed away in my brain (or very long word doc of ideas) for next year.

I partnered up with Your Superfoods on the video for this recipe, so you will see a couple of their delicious superfood products in the mix. Not surprisingly, the Chocolate Lover mix was my favorite – it has a rich and intensely chocolatey flavor that almost made me wish both cookie sides were chocolate. But that would be breaking the Neapolitan rules. The Energy Bomb mix was bright and delicious too – with acai as the first ingredient it blended wonderfully with the strawberry ice cream.

If you want to give those mixes or any of their products a try, you can use the code NATALIE15 to receive 15% off ->

Vanilla. I am proud to say I have finally reached a point where I can buy the BIG container of coconut flour knowing that I will actually go through it all before the expiration date (does coconut flour even have an expiration date?)

Coconut flour, you’re pretty cool. And coconut flour combined with date paste makes for the best no-bake cookie/cake texture that I just can’t get enough of. That is literally all this cookie layer requires: date paste + coconut flour + vanilla extract. And if you skipped the extract, neither the world nor the cookie would fall apart.

Chocolate. Cookie once, flavor twice. If you save half of that grain-free vanilla cookie dough from above and add cacao powder or cocoa powder or the Your Superfoods Chocolate Lover mix, sandwich cookie side two is done. Just like that!

Actually you may need a little extra date paste or non-dairy milk too, since any of the chocolatey powder options will dry out the dough. Mix, add, taste, and adjust as need be.

Strawberry. I saved the fruitiest flavor for the frosty filling, because frozen fruit makes no-churn blender ice cream-ing very easy. The only ingredients required for this pink sandwich center are frozen strawberries and coconut milk. I added in the Your Superfoods Energy Bomb mix too for extra tangy berry superfood fun, but it’s optional.

You will want to use full fat coconut milk to keep the ice cream creamy, and stirring a few times as it’s freezing before adding the top cookie layer helps too. Store-bought strawberry ice cream would work as well, but I do not recommend strawberry nice cream because it gets way too icy after freezing overnight. Even with the coconut milk, I do suggest removing the sandwiches from the freezer 10-15 minutes before slicing and eating for best texture.

Three layers. Only six necessary ingredients. No grains or added sugar or baking or even sharing required. Just clear out some space on the bottom shelf of the freezer and build a fort with bags of frozen vegetables and cold packs – no one will ever find you sweet sandwich stash!