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This deliciously creamy dark chocolate ice cream is so delectable, you won’t miss the dairy! Here’s an easy vegan ice cream recipe to make at home.
We’ve been experimenting with riffs on vegan ice cream for a while. Why vegan ice cream? Neither Alex nor I eat strictly vegan / plant-based. But since there are so many traditional ice cream recipes out there, we enjoy the challenge of experimenting with non-dairy ice cream. Also, vegan ice cream tends to sit better with my stomach. And this one–to us vegan ice cream is just as good as the real thing. While we’ve got quite a bit of other flavor variations: mint chocolate chip, Jamocha almond fudge, and salted chocolate pistachio, we decided we needed another one: a straight up dark chocolate ice cream. Keep reading for the recipe!
How to make vegan dark chocolate ice cream
The secret to this vegan dark chocolate ice cream is…full fat coconut milk! And in this case, the dark chocolate flavor covers it so it’s not too coconut-y, just rich and refreshing. Cornstarch also helps to give the vegan ice cream more of a body. And simmering the mixture until it is thick and using liquid sweetener like agave or maple syrup also helps for a creamy texture. And the flavor? Though it’s made of coconut, this version had no trace of coconut taste to my palate, instead overwhelmed by the burst of dark chocolate ice cream flavor.
What’s the best ice cream maker?
What’s the best ice cream maker? Alex and I use this 2 quart ice cream maker and love it: it’s a great holiday or birthday present to ask for if you don’t want to splurge for it. Churning the ice cream takes about 15 minutes. After it’s done you can eat your ice cream right away for a soft serve texture. Or, follow the instructions in the recipe below to freeze it to a hard ice cream texture: it takes about 4 hours to freeze up!
This dark chocolate ice cream is naturally sweet, dairy free, gluten free, and vegan. But mostly to us: it’s just delicious! Would you give it a try! Let us know in the comments below!
Looking for other delicious healthy dessert recipes?
Outside of this vegan dark chocolate ice cream, here are some of our favorite delicious and healthy desserts:
- Amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
- Bliss Bites (Healthy No Bake Cookies)
- Chocolate Chip Gluten Free Skillet Cookie
- Chocolate Tahini No Bake Vegan Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Almond Flour Skillet Cookie
- Easy Bananas Foster Recipe
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fudgy Vegan Brownies
- Chocolate Sweet Cherry Vegan Tarts
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Cups
- Mint Chocolate Chip Vegan Ice Cream
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls
- Simple Apple Crisp in a Jar
This dark chocolate ice cream recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Vegan Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
This deliciously creamy dark chocolate ice cream is so delectable, you won’t miss the dairy! Here’s an easy vegan ice cream recipe to make at home.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 quart 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Frozen
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 15-ounce cans full-fat coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅓ cup agave syrup
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 3 ½ ounces vegan dark chocolate, 70% cocoa
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Freeze the ice cream maker base overnight.
- In a small bowl, mix ½ cup coconut milk with 2 tablespoons cornstarch and set aside.
- Add the remainder of the coconut milk to a medium pan. Warm the coconut milk over medium low heat for a minute or two, whisking to incorporate the solids. Then add ⅓ cup agave syrup and ⅓ cup coconut sugar. Break the chocolate into pieces and add to the coconut milk; stir until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the cocoa powder, then the cornstarch mixture. Heat until the chocolate mixture is thickened, 6 to 8 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat and stir in 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla.
- Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a 1-gallon Ziplock bag. If churning immediately, place the bag in an ice bath for 30 minutes until cool; if churning the next day, refrigerate 4 hours or overnight (either way, the mixture should be as cold as possible before churning).
- Churn the ice cream in the ice cream maker until it thickens to the consistency of soft serve. Eat immediately for a soft serve consistency, or for a hard ice cream texture, freeze using the following instructions: press a piece of parchment or wax paper into a sealable container, then scrape the ice cream into the container using a spatula, making sure to scrape in the bits frozen to the edges of the ice cream maker base. Freeze for 4 hours for a hard ice cream texture.
Notes
Note: Due to the need to chill the ingredients before churning, we recommend starting this recipe the night before serving. Adapted from The Kitchn
Looks delicious!
LOVE dark chocolate, and can’t believe it’s that easy to make ice cream. Does it taste anything like a Mounds chocolate bar? Used to love that candy bar, until they started adding way to much garbage to almost all sweets.
Readers, is dutch process cocoa worth the added expense?
Please could you tell me what I could replace the honey with? I eat LCHF and honey is a definate no no for me.
Appreciate your time.
Cheers
Christine
Is maple syrup an option for your diet? What sweeteners work for you?
This is the first time ever I have made icecream. I found your recipe on Pinterest, not too complicated. So happy with it. Tastes chocolatey. It is wonderful. I love it. Now I can indulge and enjoy on occasions. Thank you for sharing this recipe
I know this is an old post but I just wanna thank you for this recipe. I just got an ice cream machine so I could make coconut milk based ice cream which is so expensive in the store. Made this a couple hours ago and with homemade coconut milk and it was really delicious and I provides me with a good base recipe to expiriment with.
I was low on honey and feeling kind of cheap so I substituted some sugar. Did about a 70/30 honey/sugar split. Even still, the honey really added to the texture of the ice cream. Love that it’s a healthy sweetener too. Unfortunately it adds to the cost. Gonna try coconut sugar at some point. Cheaper, but a healthy choice as well.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe! The recipe is really versatile, we like this mint chocolate chip version a lot too: https://www.acouplecooks.com/2012/07/mint-chocolate-chip-ice-cream-naturally-sweet-dairy-free/
Let us know if you try the coconut sugar and if it works out :)
WOW! This looks amazing! So glad that I found your site and in particular this recipe. I have just started down the route of making my own dairyfree, glutenfree icecreams so it was a pleasure to find your recipe! Thanks for sharing it. Keep up the great work on your lovely website too.
Love your recipe! I’ve made it twice in the past month :) Love how simple and easy it is to make!
Thanks for letting us know! So glad you enjoyed it.
i took it out and blended it some more with my hand blender. now when i eat it it kind of feels like there are chunks of chocolate, so it’s not so bad :)
Can’t go wrong with chunks of chocolate! Glad it worked out :)
I like the taste but there are little chunks of coconut in it, I only have one type of coconut milk available here in Spain and I have never used it before but when I opened the can there was a chunk of the coconut oil/meat in it and I don’t know if this is normal, should I have only used the liquid part? Also I had to freeze it while stirring because I don’t have an ice cream maker!
Typically there should not be coconut meat within the coconut milk – funny! Having small chunks of coconut in it shouldn’t hurt anything — and actually sounds kind of good :) Did it work out for you?
I’m sorry to say that this didn’t turn out well for me :(. Did you guys use Dutch-processed cocoa powder to make the flavor more prominent, or a certain mild type of coconut milk? Ours tasted hugely of coconut and barely of chocolate! I was disappointed with the results, but you seem to love it so I was wondering if I did something differently by just using regular cocoa powder. Thanks!
P.S. Love your spinach and artichoke grilled cheese sandwiches! They are great!
I am so sorry to hear this didn’t work out! We’ve made it several times and it has been delicious each time. We just used 2/3 cup regular cocoa powder and 1/2 cup honey, along with normal coconut milk (1 can full fat and one light.) It’s hard to know what might have been the issue here…perhaps try it again? (Though I’d hate for you to not like it the second time!) If you live anywhere close to Indianapolis, we’ll make you a batch!! :)
I tried this recipe and it was a hit in our house. Even my toddler son who doesn’t usually like ice-cream loves this. For an extra treat we served sprinkled with dark chocolate chips
Woah, no heating? This sounds too good to be true. I’ll have to test it out soon. ;)
Made this over the weekend- it turned out delicious! Thanks for a perfect dairy-free ice cream that me and my dairy loving husband can both enjoy!
Wonderful – so glad to hear it was a success! We can’t stop making it :)
I’ve been making coconut milk ice cream all summer and I just can’t get enough. I, too, have found that the full fat/lite combination works best :) Not to mention, it contains considerably less fat than using two cans of full fat coconut milk – win! I haven’t tried making a version with liquid sweetener, yet. But I’m gonna have to. Your ice cream looks so delicious.
I’ve been using coconut milk a lot in smoothies lately. I’d love to try it in ice cream soon!
Love your photo! Sounds like a great recipe, I look forward to giving it a try!
Yum! This looks perfect :) I can’t believe I haven’t tried a chocolate coconut milk ice cream before! Must try :)
Mmmm … my favorite kind of chocolate … dark! This looks amazing. My husband and I have been making fruity ice creams & sorbets this summer with coconut milk/cream, but we haven’t ventured into chocolate yet. I will have to give this a go!
From a fellow ice cream fiend… Beautiful!
This looks incredible! I’ve been a bit smitten with the chocolate coconut ice cream from Trader Joe’s and am excited to try this one at home. YUM! –Meg
Let us know if you tried it out! I’m dying to see if someone likes it as much as we do or if it’s just us :)
Just gorgeous. Can we come over again? :D
Please?! :)
YES! I am so excited to try this. I have really been on a roll making ice cream after purchasing a Cuisinart ice cream maker at a rummage sale for $2.50 last summer. I haven’t tried any dairy-free varieties besides sorbet, so this makes my day. Thank you!
This sounds so delicious! Love the flavour combo!
This is such a brilliant idea! And I love the simplicity and more natural element of this recipe as opposed to using a milk or cream base. Looking forward to trying this over the weekend (although I’m can’t ever pass up mint chip, so that may have to come first). ;)
Hi Sonja and Alex! I have a question – why the regular and light coconut cream? Was there a reason for this, in terms of taste and texture, or did you simply want to cut some of the fat out?
We tried several variations and liked this one the best!
Hi Marnie! My stomach is a bit sensitive to high-fat foods, so I found the combination of light with regular coconut milk was a little easier for me to handle. However, you could make it with all regular coconut milk too! Good question!