Treat yourself to this delicious vegan black forest ice cream aka nice cream. No ice cream maker is required, it's super quick, delicious and perfect for grown ups and child friendly too.
Calling all ice cream lovers! I have the perfect summer time or even annual day ice cream for you.
It's incredibly easy to make, creamy and you won't want to share with anyone either (no judgement here) and it's healthy too.
Let's face it lactose free/vegan friendly ice cream is expensive as hell. I don't know about you guys but I am fed up of paying double or triple the amount just to ensure it adheres to my lifestyle.
A few years ago I stumbled upon a perfectly tasty vegan solution to dairy ice cream. I don't recall who introduced me to it, but thanks anyway!
I started toying around with the idea until I published this Vegan Banana Ice Cream recipe.
The foundation to the ice cream is simply frozen bananas which some refer to as "nice cream". You whip them up in a food processor until it becomes "ice cream" texture and then you eat it.
Yes, one ingredient does the job! It's okay if you don't like the taste of bananas because here comes the fun part, you can mask it with ANY ingredient that you can think of - strawberry, blueberries, coconut, plum etc...
Anything at all and throw some nuts/seeds/chocolate chips etc.. in the mix as well!
Today I'm going to show you how to make some chocolate flavour ice cream. It's chocolate cherry aka black forest.
You will need a few ingredients - cherries, cacao powder (vegan friendly) some frozen bananas, nut milk and some vegan chocolate chips if you wish.
As mentioned the bananas do need to be frozen for this recipe to work. No frozen bananas equals no ice cream since the frozen consistency yields a more fluffy volume to work with.
If possible you want the cherries to be sweet especially if you are using fresh ones and plan on freezing them down.
Which is why I recommend making this recipe during it's peak season - June/July.
How to pit cherries without a pitter
- Remove the cherry stem (if required) you should be able to just pull it out with ease.
- Proceed to slice through the top of the cherry and rotate it around (you won't be able to slice through the pit so don't worry).
- Use both hands to pull away on half of the cherry from the pit (you may need to wriggle it around).
- Then use a small pairing knife to pluck the pit from the cherry (cut around it lightly, not too deep) and it will come away with ease.
The steps
- Add the banana, cacao powder and cherries to a food processor fitted with an S blade.
- Pulse the ingredients into a smooth ice cream like consistency (you may need to stop the processor and scrap down the sides a few times) and add the almond milk while it churns.
- As the banana/cherries are becoming ice cream add the any additional chopped cherries and vegan chocolate chips if you are adding them and pulse a few times so they are evenly combined/disturbed
- Serve the ice cream or store in a freezer friendly tub lined with wax/parchment paper.
Notes and tips
- It's extremely important to freeze the bananas in advance. You want your banana to be extremely hard not soft or somewhat hard or this will compromise the texture.
- Use frozen cherries or simply freeze down some fresh ones, depending on the time of year or convenience, you may find either one of these cheaper to use, just go with what works financially better for you!
- Store any left over "ice cream" in a tub in the freezer, you may want to line your tub with parchment/wax paper
- If possible purchase cherries that are already pitted, this will save a bunch of time and effort.
- Do a taste test and adjust as you go along, I did find the ice cream does have a very slight taste of banana, you may want to add more cacao/cherries.
More vegan ice cream and chia puddings to try
- Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream
- Homemade Coconut Ice Cream
- Vegan Pistachio Ice Cream
- Vegan Coconut Popsicles
- Mango Chia Seed Pudding
- Papaya Chia Seed Pudding
**Don't forget to comment below and star rate if you have tried my recipes. Let's be friends and engage on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram I also like to pin on Pinterest, where you can find more amazing recipes.**
Black Forest Ice Cream (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 3 large bananas frozen
- ¼ cup almond milk (60ml) can use any other nut milk
- 1 lb frozen cherries (450g) (about 2 cups worth, heaped)
- 4 tbsp cacao powder (80g)
- a handful of vegan chocolate chips and some cherries halves/small pieces optional
Instructions
- Add the banana, cacao powder and cherries to a food processor fitted with an S blade.
- Pulse the ingredients into a smooth ice cream like consistency (you may need to stop the processor and scrap down the sides a few times) and add the almond milk while it churns.
- As the banana/cherries are becoming ice cream add the any additional chopped cherries and vegan chocolate chips if you are adding them and pulse a few times so they are evenly combined/disturbed
- Serve the ice cream or store in a freezer friendly tub lined with wax/parchment paper
Notes
- It's extremely important to freeze the bananas in advance. You want your banana to be extremely hard not soft or somewhat hard or this will compromise the texture.
- Use frozen cherries or simply freeze down some fresh ones, depending on the time of year or convenience, you may find either one of these cheaper to use, just go with what works financially better for you!
- Store any left over "ice cream" in a tub in the freezer, you may want to line your tub with parchment/wax paper
- If possible purchase cherries that are already pitted, this will save a bunch of time and effort.
- Do a taste test and adjust as you go along, I did find the ice cream does have a very slight taste of banana, you may want to add more cacao/cherries.
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