This vegan chocolate fudge swirl ice cream, made with maple syrup, almond butter, cashews, cocoa, dairy-free milk, and sweet potato purée, is a rich, creamy, chocolatey frozen treat.
This vegan chocolate fudge swirl ice cream is rich, creamy, and completely dairy-free, though we’re suspecting no one will be able to tell.–Angie Zoobkoff
In this recipe
☞ Contents
Vegan Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream
Equipment
- Ice cream maker
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons creamy roasted almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
- 7 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups raw unsalted cashews (or substitute 7/8 cup cashew butter
- 2 cups canned “lite” coconut milk shaken
- 6 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sweet potato puree
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
Directions
- In a microwave-safe measuring cup or coffee mug, whisk together 1/4 cup maple syrup, the almond butter, and 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder until completely smooth.
- Microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds until everything seems melted together. Whisk to combine and then place it in the fridge until cool and thickened.
- In a high-powered blender or food processor, combine the cashews, coconut milk and sugar, the remaining 6 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1/4 cup maple syrup, vanilla, sweet potato, and salt, and blend until completely smooth. Scrape the sides and blend once more.
☞TESTER TIP: A high-powered blender will give you the creamiest ice cream. If you’re using a food processor or not-quite-so-manly blender, try soaking the cashews in water for 2 to 3 hours or boil them in water for 20 minutes to soften them slightly prior to blending.
- Process the ice cream mixture in your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturers’ directions until the ice cream reaches a soft-serve texture, about 20 minutes.
- Gently stir in the fudge just until it’s swirled with the ice cream.
- Place the swirled ice cream in the freezer until firm and solid enough to scoop, 3 to 6 hours.
☞TESTER TIP: If the ice cream is unscoopably firm when you take it out of the freezer, simply let it soften at room temperature for 10 or so minutes before trying again.
Show Nutrition
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Cashews are the key to getting a creamy, scoopable, vegan ice cream. This recipe uses a combination of coconut and cashew to good effect. You really need a high-speed blender (read Vitamix) to get this silky-smooth and creamy. If you don’t have one, try soaking the cashews or do a short-cut soak and boil them for 20 minutes.
For the fudge swirl, be careful to add it at the last minute, and don’t continue to churn the ice cream once you do. I was using an electric ice cream maker and it was hard to tell when to stop it after adding the swirl. Mine got blended in more than I would have liked. But the ice cream still tastes great! It would probably work best just to stir in the swirl after churning. If the ice cream has been in the freezer for a while, it helps to let it soften at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before scooping.
We made this ice cream three times—the method is easy and the flavor is good and a small dish of this confection for breakfast has become a favorite.
The first time we made the ice cream we simply read the recipe incorrectly and added 7 1/2 T cocoa powder to the “fudge swirl” portion of the recipe. We thought we would melt the maple syrup, almond butter, and cocoa powder together in a small double boiler (we don’t have a microwave). After five minutes of working the strange crumbly mess, we re-read the recipe and realized our mistake. The mixture looked like cookie crumbs, so we tasted them, and they were ok—we ended up swirling those crumbs into the ice cream base at the pudding-like stage, and guess what: YUM. The crumbs worked well enough that we will add them again.
But we wanted to try the swirl version because we love fudge. So, for the second round, we followed the portions correctly, again trying to melt the fudge ingredients in a double boiler, but we just could not melt the ingredients this way. We then put all in a pan directly on low heat, which created a huge unworkable glob of chocoate-y glue. We could not use it at all.
All this is to say, YES, make this ice cream, but be aware that you will want to have access to a microwave for the fudge swirl.
Last, we made the ice cream one more time, without the sweet potato. We could not tell the difference.
To make the ice cream base takes less than five minutes; theoretically, to make the fudge swirl should take about two minutess. We did not use an ice-cream maker, and the first stage of freezing the ice cream base (to reach the pudding-like state) took 90 minutes. We will make this again and will experiment with adding berries.
Originally published May 26, 2020
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If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Jeri Henry
This is a rich, decadent ice cream and I would make it again. I wouldn’t be able to tell this was dairy-free or vegan if I didn’t know. The recipe is really simple to put together.