A decadent chocolate gelato made with just 5 ingredients, and prepped in just 5 minutes! Dairy-free, nut-free, sugar-free, and vegan.
If you know my work, you know ice cream is my favorite treat. Favorite.
If there is another dessert to be had – cake, pie, cookies – it better be paired with ice cream!
In my early cooking days I watched a lot of Bobby Flay cooking episodes. I’ve heard him express a similar sentiment about ice cream, that he would choose ice cream anytime over any other dessert.
Yes. Exactly.
I do buy a lot of vegan ice creams. Coconut Bliss is one of my favorite brands (hello salted caramel chocolate), but I’m also very fond of Amy’s, So Delicious, and Nada Moo.
There’s something special about making your own ice cream, though. It tastes – well – homemade. You can customize to your sweetness and ingredient preferences, and you can taste the love!
Tricky thing is most homemade ice cream recipes require an ice cream maker, and many of us don’t have this appliance (or we may not want to pull it out any given day)! I have a full ice cream chapter in LTEV, but most of those recipes do use the ice cream maker.
This Chocolate Gelato needs no ice cream maker. It benefits from a high-speed blender, but more of us in the vegan and plant-based world have a rambo blender!
This is also one of those gem recipes that just “came together”. I tested it one day as a pudding, throwing a few ingredients together, and using dates as the sweetener (with my chocolate chia pudding in mind). It literally took 5 minutes to make. I decided to freeze it, just to see how it would turn out. To my delight it froze beautifully. With 5 simple ingredients, and 5 minutes of prep (excepting freezing time), I was happy to retest. And retest. And retest this chocolate gelato. 😉
I think I’ve said enough. Time to make the ice cream! Happy scooping…
Vegan Chocolate Gelato Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup refrigerated coconut cream (from can of regular coconut milk, see note)
- 1 cup (packed) pitted dates (see note)
- 1 cup frozen overripe sliced banana
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder or seeds from one vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (see note) optional
Instructions
- In a high-speed blender (I use Blendtec and the twister jar), combine all ingredients (see note if using a standard blender).
- Puree until very smooth.
- Transfer to a container to freeze (see note for mousse/pudding ideas). It will take 4-5 hours to freeze to a firm set, but will soft-set like a gelato in less time (about 2-3 hours). Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
Notes
- Coconut Milk Note: Use regular coconut milk (rather than light) from a can in this recipe. Before using refrigerate it overnight, or for a few days. The thick cream will rise to the top and be easy to scoop and measure. Use only the thick cream.
- Date Note: Dates must be soft to easily puree. Some pitted dates can be old and dry. If your dates aren’t soft, try presoaking them in non-dairy milk for a half-hour or so until they soften. Vanilla Note: I prefer the flavor of vanilla seeds or pure ground vanilla bean, but you can also use vanilla extract if you want to add that touch of flavor.
- Blender Note: A standard blender may have difficulty churning the dates and frozen bananas into a smooth mix. You might want to first process the bananas and dates in a food processor, adding a small amount of the milk and then transferring to a blender to achieve a smoother puree.
- Idea: As a mousse, try serving topped with fresh fruit or layered in a parfait glass with Vanilla Cashew Yogurt!
Share your feedback anytime about this recipe, love to hear from you!
Todd Kelly says
I have a 12oz can of “coconut cream” from Trader Joes, so does that mean I can just use the whole can? It is not the same thing as coconut milk right?
Dreena says
Hi Todd, yes, you can use coconut cream – that’s what we’re trying to get from the coconut milk by refrigerating it. However, you only need 1 cup of the cream, so that’s about 8oz – don’t use full can.
Roma says
http://minimalistbaker.com/no-churn-vegan-chocolate-ice-cream/
This recipe is very similar and doesn’t use bananas. 🙂
Meka says
I have made this twice and love it. I didn’t use as many dates as the recipe says as I didn’t feel I needed that much sweetness but my gelato was definitely not scoopable once it had been in the freezer a few hours so I wonder if the dates made the difference. It was too tiresome taking it out and waiting for it to soften so turned it into a frozen chocolate tart making a chocolate ‘cheesecake’ base then spreading the softened mixture over the top and refreezing. This made it thin enough to cut and eat straight from the freezer. Second time I made it I added 2 tbsp peanut butter to it and had to resist eating half of it before it even hit the freezer. This time I froze it in a 3/4inch thick sheet so I can slice it for serving- not sure what to pair it with this time though. Any other suggestions for flavour combos to try next time?
Ekko says
I wandered here from HHL blog this looks amazing and easy. I can’t wait to try it.
Nichole says
This sounds fantastic, and super easy!! Definitely on my list of recipes to try!