Vegan Mocha Ice Cream

This luscious vegan mocha ice cream is perfectly creamy (thanks to coconut milk), full of rich dark chocolate and gets a hit of caffeine from espresso! It's also just 7 ingredients, and has the smoothest texture.

We're heading into the middle of August (crazy, right?!?) and I have no plans of slowing down my ice cream consumption any time soon. This summer, we've been making at least one batch every other week (and certainly buying store-bought versions in between).

I say ice cream every day, as long as it's over 80 degrees! Ya feel me? That should get us through at least mid-September.

There aren't a whole lot of great vegan ice cream places in Michigan. I have yet to find any that I really like (PLEASE comment if you know of any in the Detroit area!!), but I just got back from visiting Lizzy in Boston and had the BEST vegan ice cream at FoMu.

Their blueberry shortcake ice cream was truly sublime. Highly recommend if you're ever in Boston!

In the meantime, give this homemade vegan mocha ice cream a try!

Ingredients

This ultra-creamy vegan mocha ice cream only needs 7 ingredients. And, maybe with the exception of coconut cream, we bet you have them in your pantry already.

Also, you can whip everything up in your blender (one bowl!) before transferring it to an ice cream maker.

• Full-fat coconut milk. It's vegan ice cream, after all, so you want that extra fat content for the creamiest texture. Canned coconut milk is the best choice for this ice cream.
• Coconut cream. Speaking of creaminess, coconut cream is the key to perfectly soft and scoopable vegan ice cream. Plus it boosts the delicious coconut flavor behind the mocha in this recipe.
• Maple syrup. Our natural sweetener of choice. It's shockingly versatile, working just as well in savory roasted carrot recipes as sweet desserts like this one. For more on our love for maple syrup, and why you should always choose the pure stuff, see here.
• Cacao powder. It wouldn't be mocha without deep, dark chocolate. We choose cacao powder because it's a bit bitter. With the maple syrup, the sweetness and bitterness balance each other perfectly.
• Espresso. To finish out the mocha flavor, we have brewed espresso. We chose espresso for this mocha ice cream, rather than regular coffee, because it has a much more intense flavor. That flavor, once blended into coconut milk and cream, still gets to shine. Coffee, on the other hand, might be overpowered by coconut.
• Vanilla. This is a secret ingredient that you might not expect in mocha ice cream. However, the vanilla extract actually enhances that chocolaty flavor.
• Fine sea salt. And finally, sea salt is key to ice cream flavor and texture. We're big believers in putting a bit of salt in everything, even sweets. Consider that you usually add salt to cookies and cakes. So why not ice cream?

Instructions

This ice cream only takes 2 simple steps.

First, add everything to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

Then, pour into your ice cream maker and start churning!

This ice cream should churn in the ice cream maker for about an hour. It won't be totally solid by then, but should have some good structure. Then, you can just pop it into the freezer for a few hours (or as long as you can possibly wait), and it's sundae time!

More vegan ice cream recipes to try:

• Vegan Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• No Churn Pistachio Ice Cream via Feasting on Fruit
• Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

If you make this vegan mocha ice cream, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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