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.
OHEMGEE!!! I am in love!!! This is soooooo yummy and easy! I actually made it a couple days ago, but waited to post a review until I saw how it did after being frozen for a while. Amazing!!! One thing I don’t like about homemade coconut based ice cream is that after it’s been frozen it’s hard as rock and doesn’t do well even after it is softened a bit. This was great. I’m wondering if it’s because of the peanut butter that it was able to maintain it’s creaminess. It’s so tasty and creamy. I will definitely be making this on a regular basis. Sorry I didn’t get a picture – I ate it too fast. LOL. Seriously, I ate half of it before it ever made it to the freezer, then I kept coming back over the next few hours to grab a spoonful as it hardened. YUM! 🙂
So good! But I can’t really taste the chocolate. Would this still work without the quarter cup of peanut butter in the ice cream “batter”?
This looks delicious! Does it keep long?
This sounds delish however I am Keto. I wonder how the taste would be if I substituted stevia or swerve for the honey?
Hey Michelle! Honestly I don’t use zero-calorie sweeteners so I couldn’t guarantee the taste or texture would turn out the same if you tried it! But if you give it a whirl, please report back and let me know how it goes!!!
WOW!!!! I am so thankful for this! Have been craving this ice cream almost everyday and wanted a healthy alternative!! Thank you soo so much!
I stumbled upon this recipe after a devastating diagnosis of a long list of food allergies and sensitivities. I LOVE my ice cream and could never stand the thought of going through the summer without ice cream! I have a question. I’ve used both full fat coconut milk and coconut cream in recipes before. They both had the same amount of cream and water. When you say a 14oz can of coconut cream, is it the cream that comes out of a 14oz can, 14oz of cream (meaning it could be more than one can to equal 14oz, or the whole can (whatever comes out of it), which is both coconut cream and water? Thank you!!!
Hey Jessica! GREAT question! I mean all the contents of a 14 oz can of coconut cream, liquid and solids!
So yummy! For anyone without an icecream maker, I skipped the blender and used my kitchenaid mixer with whisk attachment and metal bowl. Worked great!
I just finished making this ice cream! It is so creamy and delicious! Easy to follow directions!
Thank you so much for a great recipe!
This is my first ever vegan ice cream as I’ve just recently had to cut dairy and eggs due to my breastfed baby having allergies. Wow! It’s delicious. I made a double batch this morning. Yum, yum, yum! I used maple syrup as I didn’t have enough honey and also added an extra tbls of cocoa and 50g of finely chopped, 70% cocoa, dairy free, chocolate. I was eating it with a spoon while the machine was still trying to churn it. Can’t wait for after dinner to have some more.
Hey Melanie! I’m So glad you loved it! Yay!
Im really excited to try this for the second time. I used cream of coconut the first time and learned it’s not the same thing. I’m curious though, how does the mixture harden in the ice cream machine if the machine is not frozen beforehand? Thanks!
Machine is frozen. The mix isn’t chilled like normal ice cream recipes.
Hey Jess! The container in your ice cream machine MUST be frozen to make this recipe! It’s the mix that isn’t frozen! To further clarify….Blend the ingredients in the blender, then put the frozen container onto your ice cream maker and turn it on. Then pour the mixture directly from the vitamix into your moving, frozen ice cream maker!