A creamy, no-churn, homemade ice cream with only five ingredients! This chocolate nice cream is swirled with peanut butter to make the perfect indulgence.
A go-to summer dessert! It's soft, easy to make, and allergy-friendly. You can sprinkle the chocolate nice cream with your favorite crunchy toppings or pipe on some coconut whip cream. It's delicious either way!
The ultimate summer dessert! It's simple to whip up (no ice cream maker!) and a hit with kids! Sometimes a chocolate craving hits and this is the way to solve it!
As a Certified Nutrition Coach, I love it because it's rich, delicious but also full of whole foods. Plus, the chocolate peanut butter combo is pure gold, just like with my best chocolate turtles recipe.
You'll fall in love with this chocolate nice cream because its:
- Allergy-friendly: dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo, and vegan
- Easy to make: no ice cream maker is needed
- Healthy: as healthy as ice cream can be
- Rice: loaded with real chocolate
- Cost-effective: dairy-free ice cream is expensive! Bananas are not
Ingredients You'll Need
Keep it simple for this chocolate nice cream because all you need is five ingredients!
Frozen Bananas: this is what makes the nice cream recipe ultra-thick and creamy. The bananas must be fully frozen (hint: mangos do this too and work perfectly for mango ice cream).
Cacao powder: chocolate in its purest form. You can use cocoa powder but cacao powder offers a lot more health benefits (learn about the differences between cacao and cocoa powder).
Maple syrup: used for just an extra hint of sweetness. You don't need a lot though as too much will alter the texture.
Peanut butter: because the peanut butter is swirled in, you'll want to make sure it's fresh and not hardened. Make sure to use natural peanut butter.
Almond milk: any non-dairy milk will work for the chocolate nice cream and cashew milk will result in a bit of extra creaminess.
How To Make Chocolate Nice Cream
- Place the frozen bananas into the Vitamix followed by the remaining ingredients.
- Process until smooth pausing to use the tamper as needed.
- Scrape the chocolate nice cream into a large bowl and swirl in the peanut butter.
- Portion into bowls and enjoy
Step By Step Photos
Freezing Bananas
To make your life easier, make sure to peel the bananas prior to freezing them. The riper the bananas are when you pop them into the freezer, the sweeter your chocolate nice cream will be!
Depending on your food processor (I use a Vitamix which is extremely powerful), you may want to chop the bananas before popping them in.
This can be done before freezing or frozen as bananas don't freeze solid.
Regardless, this chocolate nice cream is an amazing way to use up the bananas on your counter!
How To Serve It
This chocolate nice cream recipe with peanut butter swirl is best when served immediately as soft-serve ice cream.
While many people will re-freeze it, I have always found that it then gets too hard and isn't enjoyable.
However, you can freeze it if you want a harder style of ice cream for cones.
To do that I would first add another half a banana and remove the ice cubes. This will keep it creamier versus hard once frozen.
Then to scoop it, you'll have to let it thaw 5-10 minutes before serving. This makes it much easier to "scoop".
Important Teaching Tips
When blending, you will need to use a tamper (press the mixture down while blending) as the chocolate nice cream is super thick.
Do not add more/any almond milk! Adding almond milk to it will make it more smoothie-like which isn't what we're aiming for!
Healthy Hack: on the days when my girls want nice cream and I want them to have just a few extra nutrients, I totally slip in a bit of collagen powder to the recipe. It gives a bit more protein to the day, the flavor is undetected and it's a win for all of us.
Chocolate Nice Cream Toppings
The best part about making homemade ice cream is topping it with all your favorites!
There is peanut butter swirled into this homemade chocolate nice cream but a few of our other favorites are:
- caramel magic shell (or any of the other dairy-free flavors!)
- crushed peanuts
- enjoy-life chocolate chips
- Homemade, dairy-free caramel sauce
Frequently Asked Questions About Chocolate Nice Cream
Nice cream is a vegan, soft-serve dessert made from frozen bananas that resemble ice cream. Bananas become very creamy and ice cream-like when blended frozen. You can flavor the nice cream with berries, nut butters, chocolate etc but the trick is not to add too much liquid or it will be more like an indulgent smoothie.
To thicken the chocolate nice cream, just add more frozen bananas to the mixture. Scale back on any liquid.
A large food processor (eight cups or greater) or a Vitamix will work to make nice cream. It's a thick mixture though so expect to use a tamper and/or scrape down the sides between processing so that you have the smoothest result.
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- High protein snack recipes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Nice Cream
Video
Equipment
- Vitamix
Ingredients
- 5 bananas frozen, chopped
- 3 ice cubes
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- 3 tbs peanut butter
- 1 tbs peanut butter
- 3 tbs maple syrup
- 2 tbs almond milk
Instructions
- Chop the frozen bananas into chunks to make it easier on your blender.
- Place the bananas into the blender or food processor followed by the remaining ingredients (reserving one tablespoon of peanut butter)
- Blend until combined
- If using a blender you will need to use a tamper to blend the mixture as it will be thick. If using a food processor you may need to stop and scrape down the sides.
- Blend until thick and combined. Use a spatula to place mixture into a large bowl.
- Stir in the remaining peanut butter for a swirl look.
- Scoop into bowls and top with your favorite crunchy things!
Notes
- When blending, you will need to use a tamper (press the mixture down while blending) as the chocolate nice cream is super thick.
- Do not add more/any almond milk! Adding almond milk to it will make it more smoothie-like which isn't what we're aiming for!
- Cocoa powder can be subbed in for cacao. Know that cocoa powder is sweeter but without the nutrients that cacao powder has.
- Makes 2 cups, each serving is ½ cup
Disclaimer:
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data"
Nutrition
This chocolate nice cream recipe is perfect for dessert. It's gluten-free, vegan, simple, and utterly tasty.
The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is classic and should never be underestimated. So skip the sugar and rock this real food, delicious treat.
Vanessa says
THanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
fitasamamabear says
If you put it in an airtight container in the freezer it will keep a few weeks without being freezer burnt BUT it freezes HARD. If you like the soft serve style it's best eaten immediately.
Suzanne says
This look so good! CAn you make other flavors with this base?
fitasamamabear says
It's super tasty! And yup you sure can, I have a blackberry one that's delicious too (https://fitasamamabear.com/blackberry-banana-nice-cream/) but any flavor combo will work!
Carol Little R.H. @studiobotanica says
WOW. This looks easy to make. I have all the ingredients except almond milk.. Will fix that and
make this happen asap! I have a sweet niece who is vegan and will surprise her with this recipe!
fitasamamabear says
Ohh she'll be in heaven. I could eat this one ALL day lol
Miriam says
Thank you for this delicious recipe!!! My little doughter loves ist! Greetings from Germany:-)
fitasamamabear says
Oh! You just made my day 😀 Thank you so much for giving it a try and super happy to hear your daughter enjoyed it (mine also love it!). Have a fun day!
Emily Fata says
No word of a lie, I was actually looking for a vegan chocolate peanut butter ice cream recipe. I've decided to transition from vegetarian to vegan, and one of the hard things for me to give up was ice cream...especially chocolate ice cream. THis is definitely going to help ease those cravings. Thank you!!
fitasamamabear says
Ahh what awesome timing! Good luck on the transition, it's tricky because it's a habit change but you can do it! Glad you can still get your ice cream fix 😀 Coconut milk ice cream works nicely too.... 😉
Jamie says
OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We are healthy eaters but I have a major sweet tooth that kills meeee! Pinning this!!!
fitasamamabear says
I also have a sweet tooth. You can definitely be healthy and still indulge 😀 Make this...then make almond cookies and then fudge haha I keep a serious freezer stash of treats!
Erin says
Great recipe! Definitely going to give this a try!
fitasamamabear says
It's soo addictive!
Courtney says
I’m not even a huge fan of bananas but this just looks and sounds delicious. I love all of your recipes!
Steve says
I’ve never tried anything specifically vegan but this looks and sounds divine! I know what you’ll say but will I enjoy it as much as Say a dairy ice cream? Will it be as rich? I am going to have to find out myself aren’t I....
fitasamamabear says
Haha you will have to find out yourself... 😉 I don't think it's as rich (unless you add some coconut milk). There's no additional sugars added so the bananas keep it pretty sweet but probably not as fully rich as regular sugar. Consistency wise though it's similar to soft serve which is always awesome 😀
Mars says
Looks delicious! I've never had peanut butter ice cream before!
fitasamamabear says
You're NEVER had peanut butter ice cream?? GAHHH make this. Make this now 😀
R says
Is there something I can replace with the bananas? I'm allergic to them. 🙁
Thank you!! 🙂
fitasamamabear says
Ohh bananas?! That is horrible to me- sorry! I would try a coconut milk base. So divide up a full fat coconut milk can into ice cubes, freeze them and use that. The ice cream will be insanely decadent though just fyi - Now I need to try it this way! lol
Lauren @ Simply-Well-Balanced says
This looks like a great after school snack for the kiddos! They are always asking for ice cream and this is a great way to easily be able to say yes!
fitasamamabear says
Ohh I didn't even think of that! Definitely a better alternative but it's addictive... you've been warned 😉
Farrah says
Chocolate + PB is such a great combo--I can't wait to try this! I have everything but the bananas! *-*
fitasamamabear says
MMmm enjoy it when you do! Soooo tasty!
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
What would we do without chocolate and PB? 😉
fitasamamabear says
Clearly we would cease to exist 😀 It's a life staple
Nikki @ Notes of Life says
Ohhh, this looks and sounds delicious! I might just have to make it 😀
fitasamamabear says
It's one of our favorites!