I bought myself an ice cream maker this past spring & am using it quite often. Since then, I have made a Matcha tea ice cream, a chocolate mint avocado ice cream, peanut butter cup ice cream, vanilla ice cream, lavender & blueberry ice cream & my favorite, a chocolate ice cream. It’s been a glorious summer of refreshing ice creams!!! I’d like to share my favorite one with you, the chocolate ice cream. It’s so creamy & chocolaty that I can’t wait to make it again!! It made enough to serve 4 small ramekins. This recipe was inspired by The Minimalist Baker. Love that Blog!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of high fat coconut milk in a can (1 can worth) OR you can use 1 3/4 cups worth of heavy whipping cream**(There will be some cream or coconut milk remaining in the containers. Save this for when you’re making the ice cream).

1 cup almond milk, unsweetened

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. almond extract (you can use any extract you wish, really, I just liked the almond)

1/4 cup & 2 TBSP. of sugar, ground in a coffee grinder (this makes a difference) (you can substitute honey if you wish too)

Peanut Butter Topping:

2 TBSP. natural peanut butter

4 TBSP. coconut oil

Directions:

1. Place coconut milk (or heavy cream) & almond milk, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, almond extract & sugar in blender & blend til well mixed. Refrigerate for 4 hours in the blender.
2.  Once ready & chilled, and while ice cream maker is running, pour into previously frozen bowl (that comes with your ice cream maker) so less waste sticks to the sides, and there is less chance of it getting jammed. Keep this going for 20 minutes. *During the first 10 minutes, I poured in about 1/2-3/4 cups worth of my homemade whipped cream (see earlier post). I also took this time to pour in what was left of the heavy cream or the canned coconut milk.
3. While the ice cream is going, a homemade peanut butter topping was being made.
4. Pour ice cream into serving bowls (I used clear ramekins) & poured the peanut butter topping on it.
5. Put the small bowls into the freezer to harden the peanut butter topping a bit & not melt the ice cream. After 5 minutes, or longer, if you want topping harder, take out of freezer & serve. YUMMMYYY!!!!

**Even though I prefer to be vegan, I have used both heavy whipping cream & canned coconut milk – FYI, the whipping cream does make it creamier, but it’s still delicious with the coconut milk.