Cookie Dough Vegan Popsicles

These cookie dough vegan popsicles are made of whole foods like blended cashews and almond butter, which makes for a smooth and creamy dairy free popsicle.

This weekend, we brought dinner to some friends who just had a baby. For dessert, we brought these cookie dough vegan popsicles. Now, popsicles aren’t the best food item to transport across town, but we couldn’t resist. After dinner, we slid them out of the molds and stood in the kitchen, each slurping our dripping vegan popsicles against the hum of the cicadas. These are delicious, everyone murmured. What’s in them? The baby’s mama held her in one arm and a popsicle in the other. This is life, I thought. Good friends, good food.

About the book: Glow Pops

And these cookie dough vegan popsicles are more than just good (tasty), they’re good for you too! The recipe is from the book Glow Pops by our pal Liz Moody, a compilation of wholesome popsicles that are nutrient-filled. Instead of straight up sugar, they’re loaded with fruits and veggies that nourish. And they’re not just healthy dessert recipes: Liz points out that some of the pops contain enough fiber, good fat, and protein to make them healthy meals. (She’s even got a few savory pops.) Her approach to health is similar to ours: eat whole, real foods. And her popsicles are full of them.

Get the book: Order Glow Pops by Liz Moody

How to make cookie dough vegan popsicles

So just how to achieve a cookie dough flavor with whole, real foods? The magic is in the cashews, which are soaked until blended, they form a creamy consistency. Add a bit of almond butter, some maple syrup, and the magic ingredient: a whole lot of vanilla. Blend it all together and you’ve got a delicious, cookie dough smoothie (which yes, I tried right out of the blender). Frozen, these babies are out of sight.

A few more things about these creamy vegan popsicles:

• For the “chocolate” chunks, we chopped ups some large dark chocolate chips and added them to the mixture. The recipe calls for mini chips, but we couldn’t find any at our nearest groceries. We chopped the chips we had onhand to make sure they’d stay suspended in the mix. For the full whole food effect, use cacao nibs; they’re are full of anti-oxidants and have a very dark, almost bitter chocolatey flavor.
• They’re protein-packed. Compared to the typical creamy popsicle sold in stores, this version makes for filling dessert or snack that’s not just empty calories.

Lastly, here’s a few popsicle pro tips we learned from making popsicles a few more times this summer:

• Popsicle sticks: The Glow Pops recipes suggest to freeze the popsicles for 1 hour, then insert the sticks and freeze for another 4 hours. This makes the sticks easier to position. Also, I noticed I tend to insert the sticks all the way into the mold so the part of the stick that protrudes is very small. Instead, make sure to leave a few inches of the stick for the “handle” so that it’s easy to eat.
• Unmolding the pops: Most recipes say to run warm water over the molds, then slide them out. With these vegan popsicles, we had trouble with the “running water” method taking quite a while, so we tried placing them in a mug filled with warm water. This did the trick, and much quicker than using with running water. (It was also a little safer, as it’s easy to splash warm water on the pops while attempting to unmold.)
• Storage: If you want to freeze these vegan popsicles for later use after unmolding, lay them flat on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Freeze them for 1 hour after unmolding (until they’re completely frozen), then transfer to a sealable plastic bag and store for up to 3 months.
• Popsicle molds: Here’s the popsicle mold that we use; we like it and would recommend it.

Looking for healthy dessert recipes?

Healthy dessert recipes (or healthyish, really) are what you’ll typically see on our table. And that’s what these vegan popsicles are all about: using nutrient-dense foods, natural sweeteners and lighter takes on the traditional dessert recipes. Here are a few healthy dessert recipes we love:

• Angel Food Cupcakes with Maple Cream: a lighter take on a cupcake, these angel food cupcakes feature maple flavor and fresh raspberries
• Bliss Bites: one of our top healthy dessert recipes, it’s an inside-out peanut butter cup that’s made solely with whole foods: oats, peanut butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, and cocoa powder
• Berries and Peaches with Mint Syrup: this healthy dessert recipe couldn’t be simpler: make a syrup with fresh mint, then drizzle it over seasonal berries
• Banana Berry Vegan Ice Cream: this one’s more of a sorbet; it’s creamy, flavorful, and hits the spot on a hot summer evening
• Chocolate Drizzled Peanut Butter Popsicles: these are also creamy vegan popsicles, made with peanut butter and coconut milk
• Strawberry Vanilla Shortcakes
• Strawberries with Balsamic and Greek Yogurt: one of our classic favorite healthy dessert recipes, strawberries are mixed with balsamic vinegar and honey, then perched atop Greek yogurt with a bit of mint

This vegan popsicles recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, naturally sweet (using cacao nibs). For vegan / plant-based, use maple syrup and cacao nibs or vegan chocolate.

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