This 5-ingredient Paleo ice cream only takes minutes to prepare and hits the easy button on dairy-free ice cream! Dairy-free ice cream is $5 a pint and often has ingredients I don’t totally love (like cane sugar and unpronounceables). This one has ZERO refined sugar – and is only sweetened by 1/4 cup of honey for the pint (2 cups) of ice cream. That was pretty dang exciting to me as a mom.
No ice cream maker required, though you will get faster creamier results if you’ve got one. I love my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker – fast and is big enough to make a double batch. And this ice cream is creamier than most store bought dairy-free ice creams I’ve tried so far (which is a lot). You’re going to love this one!
Paleo Mint Chip Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut cream **see note below
- 1/2 cup almond or other dairy-free milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoon mint extract
- 1/3 cup dairy-free chocolate mini chips
Instructions
- In a blender, combine all ingredients except chocolate chips. If you have a powerful high speed blender, only use the lower settings. The very high speeds will make this chunky (and there's no coming back from it!). It should be smooth.
- Pour combined liquid into a freezer-friendly dish (if using ice cream maker, skip to below step). Sprinkle in chocolate chips. Seal and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.
- If using ice cream maker, pour combined liquid instead into the ice cream maker and add chocolate chips. Turn on ice cream maker and mix for 25-30 minutes. This will result in a soft-serve texture, which we love! If you want something more firm, put in freezer for another 30 minutes to firm it up.
- Serve right out of freezer and enjoy!
Notes
**Coconut cream must be used in the recipe, NOT just coconut milk. They sell cans of coconut cream in some natural food stores. You will need just one can of coconut cream. Make sure you use just the cream and not the liquid from the coconut cream can. During the summer I keep my coconut cream in the fridge to help the coconut cream solid.
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If you can't find coconut cream: take 2 cans full-fat canned coconut milk and place it in the fridge overnight. Remove from fridge and open, pouring out the liquid and keeping only the solid cream. And sadly, I have found a few brands of coconut milk that due to some kind of stabilizer (not sure which one), it will never solidify in the fridge, so if that happens, it's not you ; ). I have had good success with Thai Kitchen brand.
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If you can't find coconut cream: take 2 cans full-fat canned coconut milk and place it in the fridge overnight. Remove from fridge and open, pouring out the liquid and keeping only the solid cream. And sadly, I have found a few brands of coconut milk that due to some kind of stabilizer (not sure which one), it will never solidify in the fridge, so if that happens, it's not you ; ). I have had good success with Thai Kitchen brand.
I got the ice cream maker and love it! Silly question…so today I bought the TJs coconut cream cans. When I pop it into the fridge the coconut cream becomes solid…how do I measure this to be a cup for this recipe?
Good question. You want the solid part, it works best in the recipe. You don’t need to be exact – generally the solid part of one can of coconut cream is equal to about 1 cup. Enjoy!
Could you use NutPods flavored creamer in this?
Definitely! It’s delicious with Nutpods – use that in equal amounts instead of the almond milk. It really revs up the flavor!
Holy moly! This is the most delicious ice cream I’ve had in awhile. Most grocery store options are full of cruddy ingredients— it’s so cool that I had all items in my pantry. I am so excited to experiment and try other options. Your ice cream maker recommendation is also a game changer. So good 😋
YES all around – it’s so empowering to make this ice cream not only from scratch but with such great ingredients. Happy you enjoyed it and had great success with the ice cream maker too.
I asked for and received for my birthday the ice cream maker you recommended! I made this recipe yesterday for two close friends who were visiting. I added the NEW gluten free Oreos instead of chocolate chips. Everyone loved it!! Such a simple, yet impressive, recipe. Thank you for sharing it!!
YAY for the new ice cream maker – that’s a fun birthday present! I’m so happy you dove into this recipe and loved it, thank you!
Outstanding! I got the ice cream maker you recommended for my birthday and just used it for the first time. I used Peppermint Flavor and TJ’s 100% Cacao Chips (I love unsweetened chocolate!) and the result was amazingly delicious and I felt so good about the ingredients. I have never made ice cream before, so it felt like a magical science experiment. I can’t wait to try more flavor variations.
Making your own ice cream is truly magical and such better ingredients! YAY that this was a new favorite, thank you!
SO EASY AND SO GOOD. Bought an ice cream maker just because of how much I love this recipe. Tastes like soft-serve, so much cheaper and better than storebought dairy free ice cream.
This recipe is so easy and so delicious. It has been wonderful to have a homemade ice cream recipe to make for my stepdaughter who is dairy-free. Everyone else in the family loves this recipe too.
Aw, I’m so happy this gave you an option for your step-daughter! Thank you!
EASY, EASY, EASY! Easy enough for the kids to help make and so creamy and tasty!
One of our favorite weekend treats & even better when you use her magic shell recipe