Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Posted May 06, 2018, Updated Jul 01, 2024
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This dairy-free chocolate peanut butter ice cream is easy to make with 6 nutritious ingredients! It’s rich and creamy, and no one would ever guess that it’s dairy-free!
This recipe goes out to all my lactose-intolerant friends who love ice cream. This dairy-free chocolate peanut butter ice cream is one of my all-time favorite treats. It’s rich and chocolatey with peanut butter chunks in every bite!
So many dairy-free ice cream recipe turn out icy or rock-hard and definitely lack in the creaminess department. But that’s not the case with this recipe.
Using coconut cream instead of other non-dairy milk makes this dairy-free ice cream smooth and creamy and rich.
Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream: Substitutions & Ingredients
- Peanut Butter: If you are allergic to peanuts you can use any nut or seed butter.
- Honey: Maple syrup can be used in place of honey for a vegan version.
- Coconut cream. Full-fat coconut milk works just as well as coconut cream. I don’t recommend any other substitutions.
How to Make Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Let’s discuss how to make this recipe, and don’t forget to watch the video.
Make the Peanut Butter Chunks
The first thing you need to do is make the frozen peanut butter chunks! Everybody knows that the absolute best chocolate peanut butter ice cream has lots of chunks of peanut butter mixed in.
There have been (many) times that I actually added extra peanut butter balls to store-bought ice cream because there simply wasn’t enough, which is why I prefer homemade ice cream.
I prefer to use pure peanut butter (not add any sugar to it). Simply portion out the desired amount of your favorite peanut butter onto a tray lined with waxed paper. Then freeze it for one hour.
Make the Ice Cream
Once the peanut butter is frozen, add all of the ingredients for the ice cream into the container of your Vitamix and blend until smooth.
Then pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and let it churn! It’s important that (unlike many other recipes) you do not chill the chocolate peanut butter ice cream mixture! It must go directly from the Vitamix into the ice cream maker.
The bowl of your ice cream maker must be frozen in order to churn the ice cream!
Turn on Ice cream maker
Turn the ice cream maker on before you pour the mixture into it. Pouring ice cream into an already moving container ensures that it will not freeze to the bottom or sides, which could hinder the churning process by preventing the machine from rotating.
When your Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream forms a ball and no longer has a liquid consistency, it is done! At this point it could become so thick that the ice cream maker stops rotating, which is another indicator that it’s ready!
Assemble
Once the ice cream is churned, mix in the peanut butter balls and freeze again.
The peanut butter balls will thaw very rapidly, especially if you use an all-natural variety. This means that you need to mix in the chunks as quickly as possible when you remove them from the freezer.
Either mix the peanut butter balls in by hand, or add them to the ice cream maker before the base forms a ball too solid to add mix-ins .
Freeze/Store
Once the ice cream is finished, freeze it for at least 1 hour before serving. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Serve
You may need to remove it from the freezer for 5 minutes to soften enough to scoop and serve. Serve it with your favorite toppings or plain!
Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Recipe FAQs
When stored in an airtight container in the freezer it lasts for up to 2 months.
Yes, but you will either need to churn it in two batches or use a larger ice cream maker.
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Dairy-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Chunks
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
- 14 ounces coconut cream
- ¼ cup honey (or maple syrup)
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
Make the Peanut Butter Chunks
- Cover an 8×8” baking pan with wax paper. Drop 1 teaspoon spoonfuls of peanut butter onto the waxed paper.
- Put the baking pan in the freezer until the peanut butter is hardened.
Make the Ice Cream
- Add all ice cream ingredients in the order listed to the container of a blender.
- Blend for 30-60 seconds or until the mixtures is smooth.
- Turn on the ice cream maker and pour the mixture into the machine while it is spinning. (**See note below if you do not have an ice cream maker)
- Churn the ice cream for 20-25 minutes until it becomes a firm ball or the ice cream maker stops rotating.
- Add the peanut butter chunks at the end of churning. You can add them to the ice cream maker just before the mixture becomes too hard, or you can mix them in by hand.
- Transfer the ice cream to an airtight, freezer-friendly container and freeze for at least 2 hours, or until completely frozen.
Video
Notes
- Peanut Butter: If you are allergic to peanuts you can use any nut or seed butter.
- Honey: Maple syrup can be used in place of honey for a vegan version.
- Coconut cream. Full-fat coconut milk works just as well as coconut cream. I don’t recommend any other substitutions.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FYI. You will need to find another coconut cream. The link is to the Traders Joe Coconut Cream which contains 2g sugar per 1/3 cup. Paleo does not allow refined sugars
Hey! You just need to look at the ingredients of the coconut cream you choose to use and make sure there is no added sugar. The 2g of sugar listed in the nutritional information in this case occurs naturally in the coconut cream itself and does not come from the addition of sugars. Trader Joe’s now makes an organic variety which I love!
I’m a HUGE fan of anything chocolate and peanut butter! I have to say this ice cream has become my favorite one of ALL time that I’ve ever made!! Thank you for sharing!
YAY Alex I’m SO glad you enjoy it! It’s my favorite ice cream of all time too! 🙂 <3
Could you use almond milk instead of coconut cream?
Hey Amanda. I do not recommend using almond milk. The ice cream will turn out icy and hard, not creamy.
Love the sound of this ice cream. Chocolate with peanut butter is my absolute favorite! Quick question, because of some very strange food reactions I cannot use honey, sugar or maple syrup. I can however use stevia. Any guess on how much? TIA
What a great recipe! I’m excited to share with a vegan guest at a retreat I co-host every year. I just wanted to give a heads up about the use of honey. Because it is an animal by-product it would not be considered vegan (it’s one of those sneaky ingredients like marshmallows). I see you have a sub for maple syrup… do you think it would it work with agave?
How many servings is this recipe?
Laura,
I’m not a huge fan of coconut but I really want to try this recipe. Does the end result have a strong coconut flavor to it?
Hey Christine! It honestly does have a slight coconut flavor to it….however it’s not too strong. However however (LOL), I love coconut so I might not be the best one to judge. I haven’t tried this myself, but you could try to sub a non-dairy creamer for the coconut milk and see if it works well. I’d chose one that isn’t sweetened or flavored if you wanted to go that route. If you do make his with coconut cream, please report back and let me know if it was too coconutty for you! 🙂
Laura,
My husband got me an ice cream maker for Christmas last year and I had given up on dairy-free ice cream until I tried this recipe. We ate the entire batch in 24 hours! The vanilla one is in our freezer right now waiting to be devoured. Thank you so much! I hope to see some more ice cream recipes this summer! Strawberry?
Hey Jennifer! I’m so so SO glad you didn’t completely give up and gave this one a whirl! I definitely have some more ice cream recipes coming this summer, sea salt chocolate is one I’m working on! And sounds like I definitely need to add strawberry to the list! 😉 Thank you for stopping by to let me know you enjoyed this, it means so much!
Made this yesterday and it’s still not frozen after more then 24hrs in the freezer. I used a hand crank ice cream maker (tub was in the freezer for 2 days). It never got super thick with hand churning so I gave up and decided I would just place in the freezer.
Ice cream is thick and sticky. Is this from the honey? I know I used the right amount. But maybe I’ll use less next time. Anyone have any tips?
The sticky mess tastes good at least!
Hey Katie! I’m so sorry that happened! I have made this recipe many times and have never experienced something like this. Usually my ice cream is so frozen it’s difficult to remove it from the ice cream maker! That being said…did you make any substitutions? Did you use full-fat coconut cream? If you didn’t make any substitutions I would recommend using an electric ice cream maker!
I used this coconut cream. Correct stuff?
http://mtpearl.colemans.ca/coco-colada-cream-of-coconut-425-gr/
Hand crank ice cream wasn’t fun. So I think an electric is needed either way!
Hey Katie! It actually looks like that might not be just plain coconut cream…after researching that it might have been blended with a sugar solution?! I use this Coconut Cream and it works beautifully. As long as the ingredient list just says “coconut cream” you should be good to go! Again I am so sorry that it didn’t turn out for you! It’s very strange to me that it STILL isn’t frozen an entire 24 hours later! I’m completely puzzled by that! I wish I could’ve been in your kitchen with you to observe the process! Yes! I found my awesome ice cream maker on a yard sale page for $20! If you search around you can definitely find one that’s great and budget friendly!
Thanks for the recipe! I plan on making this very soon. One question though…. in the reply to this comment thread, you link to a 5.4 ounce can of coconut cream. In the ingredients list, you link to a 14 ounce can. Can you please tell me which size can is best for this recipe? Thanks so much! 🙂
This recipe absolutely calls for a 14 oz can! I will fix that link!
I had the same result using cream of coconut. Thought it was the same stuff. Still gooey. Hope to use it on a cake or something because it still tastes amazing!
I think cream of coconut is something very different than coconut cream! Try using coconut cream next time!
BTW…I used So Delicious Culinary Coconut Milk. It’s mostly coconut cream, and you can buy it at Walmart. More convenient than having to go to the health food store or Indian market.
Great tip for anyone who might not have access to a store that sells coconut cream! 🙂