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This homemade vegan ice cream recipe is easy, rich ‘n creamy. The best vegan vanilla ice cream—incredible vanilla flavor, made with simple ingredients.
Now that the official first day of summer is fast approaching, we’ve got to start getting serious about getting in shape for bikini season making the best friggin’ vegan vanilla ice cream recipe ever! Because ice cream is soooo much better than bikinis. And way less judgmental, ya know? 😉
Today’s vegan vanilla ice cream recipe is one of my absolute favorite ice cream recipes of all time because it’s so GOOD. Like, super good. It’s easy to make, oh-so-delicious, and bursting with that vanilla flavor you know you love to love.
Wanna hear more? Let’s make this!
homemade vegan vanilla ice cream recipe
This vegan vanilla ice cream is everything you’d hope for: rich and creamy, bursting with vanilla flavor, and sweet enough to satisfy that sweet tooth, but not too sweet that you can’t enjoy more than one scoop. Try your hand at making this homemade vegan vanilla ice cream and enjoy. Bonus: this vegan ice cream is dairy-free, healthy and refined sugar-free.
What is Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream?
What a mysterious and intriguing question! In general, vegan vanilla ice cream is vanilla ice cream that’s made without animal products. That means: none of the usual ice cream ingredients, such as: eggs, heavy cream, etc.
For this particular vegan vanilla ice cream, we’re gonna rely on coconut milk and coconut cream to replace the heavy cream, and a few other vegan ingredients to create non-dairy, plant-based vegan vanilla ice cream. And if you were actually more in the mood for chocolate vegan ice cream, try this dark chocolate nice cream recipe or my all-time favorite best vegan chocolate ice cream.
How to Make Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
Learn how to make vegan vanilla ice cream in just a few super simple steps.
Chill
About 24 hours before, grab the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker and place it in the freezer to chill.
Add Ingredients
Day of, add all vegan vanilla ice cream ingredients except the vanilla bean pod into a good food processor.
Blend
Blend all the ingredients together until well mixed.
Scrape & Blend Again
Now, scrape the contents of the vanilla bean pod into the food processor and watch it blend beautifully into the ice cream mixture. Here’s where I get my vanilla bean pods.
Pour & Churn
Pour your vegan vanilla ice cream mixture into the chilled freezer bowl of your ice cream maker. Churn your ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s directions. Here is the ice cream maker I use. Churn until firm.
Enjoy
Enjoy the best vegan vanilla ice cream ever! Or, if you like it firm, go ahead and scoop your homemade vegan ice cream into an ice cream container and chill it until firm.
Vegan Ice Cream Recipes We Love: 3 Ingredient Mango Ice Cream · 4 Ingredient Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream · Coconut Chocolate Chip Vegan Ice Cream
3 secret ingredients for rich vanilla flavor
What makes this vegan vanilla ice cream the best vegan vanilla ice cream? In my opinion, three secret ingredients. You see, I spent oodles of time testing different amounts of vanilla, sweetener and coconut milk vs. coconut cream, guar gum vs. no guar gum and more. But something was always missing: an element of creaminess, lack of iciness and a flavor complexity.
These three ingredients solved it all: raw cashew butter, pure almond extract and real vanilla bean.
Raw cashew butter added a boost of creaminess to the texture of this vegan ice cream, and it helped to cut down on the iciness that’s par for the course in homemade vegan ice cream recipes. Lastly, it added a nutty, cookie-like flavor that helped to balance out the coconut flavors present in the coconut milk and coconut cream.
Then, I started playing around with different amounts of vanilla extract and found that none quite worked. So I threw in some almond extract, just to see what happened. Guess what? It brought out a special level of sweetness and flavor complexity that really drew out the vanilla in this vegan vanilla ice cream.
Lastly, I used moist, freshly-sealed real vanilla bean pods to kick up the real vanilla flavor for the best vegan vanilla ice cream ever!
The best vegan vanilla ice cream—rich and creamy vegan ice cream made with real vanilla beans and simple ingredients.
Recommended Tools for the Best Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
Raw Cashew Butter + Vanilla Bean Pods + Pure Almond Extract
My 3 secret ingredients to creating the tastiest, best vegan vanilla ice cream. These 3 ingredients create creaminess, richer vanilla flavor and add a little sumthin’ sumthin’ to your new favorite vegan vanilla ice cream recipe.
Ice Cream Maker + Extra Freezer Bowls
I’ve been using the heck out of my ice cream maker! And tbh, I have several of them–that’s how much ice cream I make… 😉 The extra freezer bowls come in so handy–I can freeze multiples in advance and make several batches of vegan ice cream in a row without having to wait 24 hours for the first one to freeze.
So what do you think of today’s vegan vanilla ice cream recipe? You’re sooo ready for it, right? 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think! Leave me a comment below and let me know—I love hearing from you. Thank you for stopping by and sharing in these sweet dessert moments with me. ‘Til the next one…
Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️
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📸 Did you make this vegan vanilla ice cream recipe? Take a pic and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #beamingbaker & tag @beamingbaker. I’d love to see it! 📸
More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
- 4 Ingredient Almond Butter Paleo Ice Cream
- Coconut Milk Ice Cream
- Almond Joy Vegan Paleo Ice Cream
- Best Strawberry Vegan Ice Cream
- Dark Chocolate Nice Cream
- Cashew Vegan Ice Cream
Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk, 13.66 oz.
- 1 can coconut cream, 13.66 oz.
- ¼ cup raw cashew butter
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 vanilla bean pod
Instructions
- The day before, freeze your freezer bowl according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. This is the ice cream maker I use.
- Add all ingredients except the vanilla bean pod into a food processor.
- Slice the vanilla bean pod down the center, lengthwise. Using a spoon, scrape the beans cleanly out of the pod and add to the food processor. Save the pod for another recipe.
- Cover the food processor and blend until smooth and well mixed. Scrape down the sides of the processor as needed.
- Pour mixture into ice cream maker. Follow directions for making ice cream according to ice cream maker’s directions.
- Enjoy immediately if you like super soft ice cream. If you like firmer ice cream, pour into an ice cream container and freeze for 2-4 hours, until firm.
- Vanilla vegan ice cream is best the first day. On Day 2 and forward, set ice cream out at room temperature to thaw for 20-90 minutes, until creamy and scoopable. Enjoy! Storing instructions below.
Notes
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Could I use this recipe with my Creami?
Hi Jeanette. Hm, I haven’t tried it with one so I can’t say for sure but I think it might be fine. If you decide to try it out, I would love to hear how it goes!
would it be possible to make it without ice cream maker?🙏🏼
Hi Karolina! While an ice cream maker is going to give you the best texture, it is possible to make it without one by freezing the ingredients in a freezer-friendly container until solid. Just know that it will need to thaw a bit before it’s scoopable. Hope this helps!
Will the coconut flavor be too overpowering with both the coconut milk and coconut cream in it? I was wondering if I could substitute the coconut milk for cashew milk and do cashew milk with the coconut cream and 1/4 cup cashew butter. I did see your comment saying the 1/4 cup cashew butter does balance out the flavor of the coconut though. Maybe I should just give your recipe a try as is and just see. Just curious.
Hi Stefanie! I don’t think the coconut flavor is too strong here, and the cashew butter definitely does help balance it all out. I hope you get a chance to try it, and let me know what you think! 🙂
Hi
Can I make my own cashew butter for this recipe.
Normally I would roast the nuts and then put in blender. Would this work.
Hi Jo! You can definitely make your own cashew butter for this recipe. Just know that roasted cashews may have a stronger taste than raw and could affect the final flavor of the ice cream. Hope this helps!