Chocolate chip ice cream is a classic, and this dairy free version is sure to please! This homemade ice cream is smooth, creamy, and loaded with flakes of dark chocolate.
Ice cream cones are the perfect summertime dessert, right?
There’s nothing like a cone full of rich, creamy ice cream. Thank goodness it’s easy to make delicious ice cream that’s dairy free!
With our family’s food allergies, we’ve found most ice cream shops to be unsafe. There are too many nuts around for our comfort level. But we love ice cream! So a few years ago, I purchased an ice cream maker. Now we can make our own amazing flavors of dairy free, nut free ice cream.
The ice cream maker was a great investment – we have used it pretty often in the summer months. We love homemade flavors like chocolate chip cookie dough, Black forest, and brownie batter ice cream.
This year, I decided it was time to tackle a classic recipe and make it dairy free – chocolate chip ice cream.
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Ingredient Notes
- Full Fat Coconut Milk – This is the kind of coconut milk that comes in a can, and it is necessary to make creamy, rich, dairy free ice cream. I use Thai Kitchen or Native Forest brands.
- Dairy Free Chocolate Shavings – Take a bar of your favorite dairy free chocolate, and use a sharp knife to create shavings. These blend in so nicely with the ice cream base, making for a much more enjoyable texture than lumpy chocolate chips. I like to use Enjoy Life or PASCHA chocolate bars for making chocolate shavings.
Substitutions
- Dairy Free Milk – I don’t recommend trying this with a different dairy free milk. Thinner milks like rice milk or soy milk will result in an icy texture, or it may not even thicken and freeze up at all.
- Chocolate – I love the texture of the chocolate shavings, but you could use mini chocolate chips if that’s what you have on hand. The chocolate chips do get rather hard when frozen, though.
- Cornstarch – If you can’t have corn, just leave this out, or use some potato starch instead. The cornstarch does make the texture of this ice cream a little smoother, but the recipe will still work well without it.
Special Equipment
You do need an ice cream maker for this recipe. I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker that works well and doesn’t take up too much space.
Step by Step Instructions
- Finely chop the dairy free chocolate. Set aside.
- Mix the ice cream ingredients in a mixing bowl. I like to use an immersion blender to make sure everything is fully blended and smooth.
- Pour the ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker, and follow the instructions for your particular model to churn.
- Towards the end of the churning time, add the chocolate shavings.
- Continue to churn the ice cream until it is firm and frozen.
- Scoop the ice cream into a bowl or cone and enjoy!
Gluten Free Cones
There are a few options for gluten free cones. Both Joy and Let’s Do Gluten Free make gluten free ice cream cones. Joy is more widely available in mainstream grocery stores, and I have seen Let’s Do Gluten Free cones at Whole Foods. You could also make your own gluten free waffle cones. Please call and make sure any brand of cones is safe for your specific needs.
More Dairy Free Ice Cream Recipes
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Recipe
Homemade Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
This is the most delicious dairy free chocolate chip ice cream. It's rich and smooth, and loaded with lots of dark chocolate.
Ingredients
- 27 ounces full fat coconut milk or coconut cream
- 1 Tablespoon corn starch or potato starch
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 3 ounces dairy free dark chocolate
Instructions
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If your ice cream maker has a freezer bowl, make sure you freeze it the night before you want to make this recipe.
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Use a sharp knife to make chocolate shavings or flakes. Carefully scrape the knife against the edge of the chocolate bar to scrape the chocolate into little shavings. Set aside.
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Pour most of the full fat coconut milk into a mixing bowl, keeping about a ½ cup of the milk in the can. Add the cornstarch to that ½ cup of coconut milk and whisk well with a fork. Add that to the bowl as well.
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Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt to the bowl of coconut milk. Use an immersion blender to mix well.
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Pour the liquid mixture into the ice cream maker. Churn according to the instruction manual. If you are using a model with a freezer bowl, it should take about 25 minutes.
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Five minutes before the ice cream should be done mixing, add the chocolate shavings to the ice cream maker.
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Continue to churn until the ice cream is firm and frozen. Serve immediately, or scoop into a freezer safe container to store in the freezer. If for some reason your ice cream isn't as firm as you would like, just put it in a freezer safe container and freeze for about an hour to firm it up before serving.
Recipe Notes
This ice cream is best eaten right away, but it cane be stored in the freezer for up to one month. If you do freeze it, it will get very hard, so be sure to thaw it out before attempting to scoop it.
Full fat coconut milk must be used in this recipe. If you use a different non-dairy milk, it will create an icy texture, or possibly not firm up at all.Â
If you can’t have corn, you can leave the cornstarch out, or use potato starch instead.
Darryl
This is so good!