Why does the name ‘blizzard’ sound so much better than ‘soft serve’? Frightening frigid storm = delicious?? It’s weird…but true. If you think about it, many ice cream treats have meteorological themed names: flurry, frosty, snow cone. And then you have the odd ones out that are named after days of the week (sundae) and the thing that rubber ducks do (float). And then you have soft serve…which is just kinda boring. So that’s why this is a Snickerdoodle Blizzard.
I promised you a chilly Snickerdoodle-inspired treat and here it is! But I need to tell you a surprising secret: there is no banana in this recipe!
I love banana ice cream, but it’s kinda old news, so I had a crazy idea to make soft serve out of sweet potato. It all started when I saw this sweet potato chocolate pudding recipe. And then after I saw this chocolate ice cream tower of tastiness from Brandi over at The Vegan 8 I had to try it myself!
But it’s not orange?! That’s because I used a Japanese sweet potato (red skin with white flesh), my current top sweet potato pick. They are so sweet. Almost creamy. I would go so far as to call them (vegan) buttery. A regular sweet potato will do, but obviously it will be more orange.
This ice cream is not instantaneous, but it’s still easy. You need to bake, blend, freeze overnight, blend some more, cookie-ify, then eat! I used Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk in this recipe because it is the creamiest of the non-coconut non-dairy milks. Terrible for cereal (in my opinion), but great for ice cream! You can use any kind you like, but it might not be as super creamy.
Yield:
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PinIngredients
- 1 medium Japanese sweet potato (or regular sweet potato)
- 3/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk
- 5 pitted medjool dates
- 1/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk for blending
- 2–3 Snickerdoodle Cookies
Instructions
- Bake the sweet potato in the oven or microwave. Scoop out the flesh and freeze overnight.
- Blend the 3/4 cup cashew milk with the 5 dates. Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight.
- The following day, remove the sweet potato from the freezer and let it thaw for about 10 minutes.
- Blend the sweet potato, date/milk ice cubes, and the additional 1/4 cup milk on a high in a high speed blender until very smooth and creamy. You don’t want any lumps of sweet potato, so blend thoroughly and add 1 tablespoon additional almond milk if necessary.
- Crumble in 1-2 snickerdoodle cookies. Blend briefly to mix them in.
- Serve in a tall glass with a long spoon, and indulge!
I’m so glad my 4 Ingredient Chocolate Sweet Potato ice cream inspired you to make this because it looks sooo good! I have a bit of am obsession with sweet potatoes. I have a chocolate sweet potato fudge recipe as well and I also make caramel out of it and pancakes and muffins, lol! Can you tell I love them?
Did you see Vegan Richa’s a Snickerdoodle Popsicles yesterday?? It’s like a Snickerdoodle week, haha! Looks amazing girl!
You do amazing things with sweet potatoes! I’m in love with the ice cream and that caramel, I’ll have to hunt down the fudge recipe because that sounds incredible too! Not to mention all the wonderful savory recipes you have with them! You’re always inspiring me, after your most recent post I realized that I have been completely neglecting the wonder that is coffee flavored things…gotta get on that 🙂 And snickerdoodle popsicles!?! 😮 Thank you for telling me! And thanks for your sweet comment <3
You are so incredibly sweet, thank you so much Natalie! Funny enough, my next recipe post features sweet potatoes, LOL!! Savory recipe this time though, not sweet 🙂
No really…you made this specifically for me. First, no bananas. Second, cashew milk, a JAPANESE sweet, and snickerdoodle cinnamon goodness. Had you used figs and not dates, this just would have been everything I love…omg….you are one amazing little sweet foodie crafter 😉 XOXOXOXO
Yup it’s Rebecca perfect!!! You know that Japanese sweet potato I told you I tried, well on the way back to Gainesville I stopped again at Whole Foods and bought 3 more and then this happened! It is a glorious blend of flavors, and now I want to try fig in there too because that sounds amazing! I’d choose a fig over a date any day for plain snacking, but dates have a more neutral flavor that’s why I use them more often. Pretty soon we’re going to sweet potato-ize the whole food world 🙂
I need this in my life! I’m amazed that there is sweet potato in this ice cream. Sweet potato, cinnamon, ice cream, cookies….omg….love!
I know, it totally ended up looking just like nice cream, but there’s definitely sweet potato hiding inside 🙂 It’s pretty much a triple match made in heaven <3 Thanks Jenn!
Oh baaaaaby this looks good! I’ve made sweet potato ice cream before and it is SO good! I actually popped a baked sweet tater in the freezer before I went on my trip and now I know exactly what to do with it!
Oh what a lovely treat to come home too! I don’t have anything against bananas, but the sweet potato ice cream is such a nice change. But please don’t make me choose between sweet potato ice cream and So Delicious cashew milk ice cream 😉 haha
Looks amazeballs! Fyi, step 2 says ice cream trays. You meant ice cube, I’m assuming. 🙂
Yep, yep I did! Thanks for the heads up 🙂
This is AMAZING!!! Oh my. I’m literally overwhelmed by this recipe. Firstly – I’d never even heard of japanese sweet potatoes before, and then I had no idea you could make an ice cream from them!?!?! WOOOOOW. I neeeeeeed to try this! Ahh!! This seriously is the best ice-cream ever. Nothing beats healthy ice cream! I love banana ice cream too, but there are some days when I want to make something a bit different, and this is perfect for that!
★★★★★
Thank you Harriet! The Japanese sweet potatoes don’t taste too different, like the sweet flavor of a normal one amplified, and with a slightly creamier texture. The texture is the main reason I love them <3 I've only ever seen them at Whole Foods, but you could probably find them at Asian markets too. It's so true, nothing beats healthy ice cream! And banana ice cream is lovely but if I can make ice cream from other foods than you better believe I will 😉 lol
I am drooling like an idiot over this!! It looks amazing! And I can’t believe how simple the ingredient list is too!
Hahaha 😀 Thanks Sarah!
Sweet potato ice cream?!? This is amazing, Natalie!! 🙂 I’ll have to try this for sure! I’m almost starting to drool when I look at the pictures. 😀
Lol 😀 Melty ice cream can do that to a person! Thanks Sina!
Sweet Potato Ice Cream! What a crazy and awesome idea! I’d never come up with something like that. I’ve never seen japanese sweet potatoes around here but I’ll keep an eye out for them. I’m sure sweet potato ice cream made with normal sweet potatoes would have a lovely color as well! It looks delicious and the snickerdoodles are a lovely addition. Blizzard sounds so.. wild and adventures. And soft serve sounds like melting ice cream 😀
I kinda want to try it now with the normal sweet potato color because it could be the most lovely shade of light orange, who knows! But this is a good fakeout banana ice cream color 😉 haha You’re totally right about the soft-serve thing, who ever came up with that sad name!? Thanks Bianca!
Seriously Natalie, you can’t just put stuff like that online – I almost ate my iPad when I saw this. 😀 but really, this looks MAGNIFICENT, can’t wait to make my own (triple) batch!
★★★★★
I’m literally LOLing over here 😀 hahahaha But I think actual ice cream tastes much better than iPads 😉 hehe Triple batches are definitely suggested! I would’ve made a triple batch too, but I only had one potato on hand. Thanks Lucie!
Always happy to amuse you Natalie 🙂 I would assume the iPad would be a bit crunchier…maybe a bit of a choking hazard too. Anyway, I’m in love with this recipe 🙂
★★★★★
Hahahahahah 😀
Oh man, that ice cream looks insanely delicious! I haven’t had Japanese sweet potatoes in so long since they’re harder to come by around here. I think I’m going to have to track some down though because this looks to good to pass up!
They are hard to find! The only place I can get them is the Whole Foods in Tallahassee which just so happens to be on the route between my apartment at school and my parent’s house. I always stop there and stock up on fun things! But you can always just make it with the orange ones. Between this ice cream and that amazing Very Veggie Vegan Queso on your site, potatoes are just the secret to so many yummy vegan things 🙂
Uh, I thought I had written a comment here when I read it first, but I guess I got distracted 😀 I have never tried Japanese sweet potato, but if I happen to come across one I definitely have to! And I’ve also never tried sweet potato in anything else than my breakfast cookies or plain roasted. So lots of new things here! And you make me crave baking snickerdoodles again 😀
I don’t know if you’ll be able to find Japanese sweet potatoes around you or not. As I recently came to realize with the exotic fruit thing, we have pretty different produce options 😉 I love your sweet potato breakfast cookies, with the little cashew on top…so cute <3 You should somehow mesh that recipe into a snickerdoodle recipe so they'd be like sweet potato snickerdoodle cookies! And then if I put them into this ice cream we could create sweet potato overload 😀 hahaha
That’s such a good idea! I have to try that 😀
So my first thoughts were “no banana?! why?!” but then I saw. And whoah, this just blew my mind a little. Japanese sweet potato ice cream! That’s crazy and and amazing. Love it.
I did kinda feel like I was cheating on banana ice cream with this one at first, but since posting I’ve had multiple people comment saying they don’t like or can’t eat bananas, so there’s a market for this stuff 🙂 haha Plus it’s pretty crazy good so even the banana lovers can have something new <3
What a great recipe, and I love that it uses sweet potatoes! I look forward to trying it out!
It’s a little unusual, but so so good!!
This recipe is so exciting! I know this has been mentioned before but the fact it doesn’t include banana to be creamy is AMAZING! I am also a huge fan of Japanese Sweet Potato so another excuse to use is welcome. Now I just have to get my heiney to the Asian Market to pick some up and order some of those Medjool Dates.
I’m so happy you are going to try it! The texture is surprisingly similar to banana ice cream. Sweet potato can be creamier than it looks, it makes for a pretty delicious pudding base too actually. I am with you on the Japanese sweet potatoes! They have turned my into a sweet potato snob lol, it’s so hard to go back to orange once you taste those 😀 I hope you love it!!