Vegan chocolate cashew ice cream
Rich chocolate ice cream made with homemade cashew milk, cocoa and dark chocolate. No dairy and no eggs.
Cashews are soft and, once soaked, blend into a smooth cream that replaces both milk and cream. With cocoa and dark chocolate it makes a rich, gelato-style ice cream. Dates replace some of the sugar. To be honest: it has about 190 kcal per 100 g — slightly less than cream-based chocolate ice cream — but the fat here comes from nuts and cocoa rather than cream, and there is less added sugar. The trade-off is a denser, slightly “nuttier” texture.
Type: Italian gelato · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate
Equipment
Ingredients
- 140 g cashews (unroasted) (raw, unsalted)
- 560 g water
- 80 g dates (Medjool, pitted) (5 Medjool dates, pitted)
- 35 g cocoa powder (10–12 % fat)
- 50 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
- 40 g dextrose (glucose powder)
- 1 g guar gum (E412)
- 1 g salt
- 60 g dark chocolate 70 % (with no milk in the ingredients, chopped)
Making the mix
- Soak the cashews in cold water for at least 4 hours (or simmer them for 15 minutes), then drain and discard the water.
- Blend the nuts with the dates and the weighed water in a high-speed blender into a completely smooth cashew milk (2–3 minutes).
- Mix the dry cocoa, sugar, dextrose, guar gum and salt and stir them into the cashew milk in a pan.
- Heat to 85 °C, stirring constantly, take off the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until it melts.
- Blend briefly with a stick blender, cool in iced water and leave to age in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Method — Compressor ice cream maker
- Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl pre-chills.
- Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 30–40 minutes until it has the consistency of a thick cream.
- Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for about 90 minutes.
Total time: 11 h 5 min
Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker
- Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours in advance. Take it out just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
- With the machine running, pour in the thoroughly chilled mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
- Churn for 20–30 minutes until the mix thickens. Going on longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
- Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer.
Total time: 11 h 55 min
Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines
- Pour the mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (one or two tubs, depending on their size), put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
- Put the tub in the machine and run the Gelato program.
- If the result is crumbly or powdery, add 1–2 tablespoons of water or plant-based drink and run Re-spin — with a very cold freezer even twice.
Programme: Gelato
Total time: 33 h 5 min
Stages
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 10 min
- Cooling
- 30 min
- Ageing in the fridge
- 4 h
- Resting
- 4 h
- Churning
- 35 min
- Hardening in the freezer
- 1 h 30 min
- Total time
- 11 h 5 min
Serving and storage
At about −12 °C, that is after 10–15 minutes out of the freezer. With raspberries, orange zest or a pinch of flaky salt.
In a sealed container, up to a week.
Tips
- Without a high-speed blender, strain the cashew milk through a fine sieve — bits of nut would feel gritty in the ice cream.
- Dark chocolate may contain milk fat or traces of milk; if you have an allergy or are vegan, read the ingredients.
- Blanched almonds work instead of cashews; the ice cream will be slightly less creamy.
Why it works
Cashews have about 44 % fat and more starch than other nuts; blended with water they form a milk-like emulsion that the nuts’ starch and proteins thicken naturally. The fat from the nuts and chocolate (about 9 % in total) gives the gelato full body. What is missing are the milk solids that bind water in ordinary gelato — which is why the recipe adds guar gum and cocoa, which is high in fibre.