This vegan peanut butter cup ice cream recipe draws inspiration from the famous Ben & Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream which is originally not plant based. This vegan version is made with homemade mini peanut butter cups chopped and scattered in the ice cream base. The ice cream itself is peanut butter flavoured with a distinct saltiness that is characteristic of the original.
The base for my vegan peanut butter cup ice cream are cashews, evaporated oat milk, evaporated coconut milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk. Make sure to chill the cans of evaporated oat milk, evaporated coconut milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk in the fridge before using them in the ice cream. For best results chill the ice cream mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight before turning it into ice cream. Cold ingredients help the ice cream freeze faster which prevents ice crystals from forming.
I use evaporated oat milk, evaporated coconut milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk from Nature’s Charm brand that I love and use in many other recipes.
My vegan peanut butter cup ice cream is incredibly creamy also thanks to the addition of emulsifier soy lecithin and stabiliser guar gum which prevent ice crystals from forming in the ice cream.
Have you made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback.
More delicious vegan ice cream recipes:
- Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
- Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream (and Chocolate Orange Ice Cream)
- Vegan Biscoff Ice Cream
Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream (GF)
Ingredients
For the ice cream:
- 50 g cashews
- 65 ml (1/4 cup + 1 tsp) evaporated oat milk chilled
- 65 ml (1/4 cup + 1 tsp) evaporated coconut milk chilled
- 240 ml (1 cup) cold water
- 120 g sweetened condensed coconut milk chilled
- 120 g salty smooth peanut butter
- scant 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/6 soy lecithin
- 1/8 guar gum
Add-ins:
Instructions
For mini peanut butter cups:
- Make mini peanut butter cups as per instructions. You will only need about 9 mini peanut butter cups for this recipe (for the quantity as originally written).
- After peanut butter cups are set, chop some of them in half, some of them even in smaller bites and leave some of them whole. It's up to you how many you're going to chop and how many you're going to leave whole. 1/3 of everything is a good measure.
For ice cream:
- Make sure to put the ice cream maker container in the freezer at least 12 hours before you start making ice cream. For best result chill in the freezer also the container in which you will store the ice cream.
- Add all ingredients for the ice cream in a blender and mix well together. Make sure the mixture is really smooth.
- For best results chill the mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight before proceeding.
- Take the mixture out of the refrigerator and give it a stir. When the ice cream machine is running, pour the mixture into the ice cream machine. Churn according to the directions.
- After ice cream is made in the ice cream machine, take it out, transfer it to a freezer-safe container, adding chopped and whole peanut butter cups as you are layering the ice cream so that the cups are relatively equally scattered throughout the ice cream. Seal the container and put it in the freezer for 30 hours so that the ice cream hardens even more and peanut butter cups also become hard (the ice cream needs only a few hours to harden but the cups need 30 hours).
