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This is a momentous occasion: I finally have a dairy free ice cream recipe!
You’d think that as much as I have built this blog around ice cream, I would surely have come up with a recipe that caters to one of the most common allergies of our day: the dairy allergy. Trust me, I’ve tried. I’ve tried many times. Unfortunately coconut milk (the most common base for a dairy free ice cream recipe) and I don’t have a good track record. I just don’t understand the stuff. It doesn’t act like milk. Or cream. Not in ice cream at least. All my efforts turned out icy and blegh. Or tasted overwhelmingly coconut milk-y. I’m kind of an ice cream snob, and I didn’t want my dairy free ice cream recipe to be a less-than stellar alternative to “normal” ice cream.
I didn’t want someone to say, “Unfortunately, I have to make Briana’s dairy free ice cream instead of her regular recipes because I have a dairy allergy.” Nope, I want my readers who don’t have any allergies to choose to make this recipe just because it’s that good.
This stuff is so ridiculously creamy that it’s ridiculous. It seriously reminds me of Dairy Queen ice cream. My sister Katelyn says she likes it better than dairy ice cream.
You’ll see that the recipe below calls for vegetable glycerin and glucomannan. Both of those add to the creaminess factor of this ice cream and I do not recommend leaving either out. My apologies, but that’s just the way it is. You have to buy store-bought ice cream, right? Well, if you choose to make your own, you have to buy ingredients. I promise you won’t regret your purchases!
Allergy people: I have labeled this as nut free based on the fact that most people who are allergic to tree nuts can in fact eat coconut. “Coconut is not a botanical nut; it is classified as a fruit, even though the Food and Drug Administration recognizes coconut as a tree nut. While allergic reactions to coconut have been documented, most people who are allergic to tree nuts can safely eat coconut. If you are allergic to tree nuts, talk to your allergist before adding coconut to your diet.” (Information obtained from FoodAllergy.org)
Want to see all my dairy free recipes in one spot? Right here!
Want to see all my ice cream recipes? Click here for a nifty picture index!
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 1 13.5 oz. can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or carton coconut milk for a nut free version)
- 1 T vegetable glycerin
- 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. butter flavoring (if you're allergic to dairy and can't find a flavoring that is certified dairy free, just omit this)
- 6-7 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, to taste
- ⅛ tsp. salt, slightly rounded
- 1 tsp. glucomannan
- Blend all the ingredients together (add the glucomannan right before blending to avoid clumping), then churn in an automatic ice cream churn according to manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately or freeze a little longer in your freezer to firm it up, if desired. Yields 4 generous servings.
- Leftovers will freeze hard in your freezer, but they'll soften right up to a great texture if you transfer them to your refrigerator 3 hours before serving. Alternately you can let the leftovers sit out on the counter for 20-30 minutes to soften up.
Most people with nut allergies can handle coconut just fine, but check with your doctor first to make sure.
Suggested products:
- Cuisinart 1 1/2 qt. Automatic Ice Cream Churn
- Ninja blender
- Vegetable Glycerin
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- Glucomannan
- THM Organic Glucomannan
Just made this! I was wondering if I could substitute monkfruit sweetener instead of all stevia? It is by far the best recipe I have ever made dairy free and sugar free…. just could taste a little bit of stevia after taste. Or maybe back off a little bit of stevia?
Sure – use whatever low glycemic sweetener you prefer, to taste!
Have you experimented with various flavors using this as your base? I would love to try mint chocolate chip, chocolate, strawberry, etc., but I am afraid I would change the consistency so much that it wouldn’t keep its creaminess.
I haven’t done much experimentation with this recipe, no, but I’m sure the flavors you mentioned would be fine. 🙂 Add some mint/peppermint flavoring and blended spinach or green food coloring for the mint chocolate chip and stir in some DF chocolate pieces after churning. Add some cocoa powder and perhaps some extra sweetener for chocolate. Add some strawberries to the mixture and blend before churning for strawberry.
For an ice cream that doesn’t get as hard in the freezer, feel free to use xylitol to taste instead of the stevia. 🙂 This is one of my older recipes and I’ve learned a few tricks since it was posted. 😉
Here’s a list of my DF ice cream recipes here on my site; you’ll find a few other flavors there: https://www.briana-thomas.com/indexes/fuel-type-allergy-info-theme/dairy-free-ice-cream/
You can find some other options like Café au Lait and Creamy Red Raspberry Sherbet in my second cookbook, Convenient Food: https://www.briana-thomas.com/convenientfood/
Thanks, Briana! I made this tonight for my husband and I. Delicious! I sweetened the recipe with 2 T of pyure.
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing your sweetener measurement!
Have you ever stored your ice cream in the freezer when it’s done? I’d like to know a good container to freeze the ice cream in. Thanks!
Yes, I often store leftover ice cream in the freezer. 🙂 Any airtight container will work. I like to use a fairly flat and thin Tupperware container (thin containers help leftover ice cream thaw to a scoopable consistency faster). Most homemade ice creams will freeze pretty hard when stored like that for a long time because they don’t have the stabilizers that storebought ice creams have. Leaving them out on the counter for 30-60 minutes to soften will do the trick.
First of all this was amazing!!!! I am so excited. Thank you so much!! My only question is about the glucomannan. It made little balls of it in the ice cream which weren’t enough to make me not eat it again but I am wondering if maybe I did something wrong. Do you just sprinkle it into the mix or do I have to do something to it first. I was thinking maybe it happened because I was adding it to cold liquid. Any ideas?
Hi Corina! I’m so glad you liked it – thanks for trying it! In a lot of my recipes I’ve made a note to add the glucomannan immediately before blending so it doesn’t have time to clump (this is why it’s listed last in the ingredients), but I must’ve left that out in this recipe. It will clump if allowed to sit in either hot or cold liquid, but if you blend immediately after adding it there’s not usually a problem. If you continue to experience issues, add the glucomannan a little at a time while blending, if that’s an option.
Hi Briana. I’ve tried to use gluccie before and my stomach can’t take it. Could we sub xantham instead ? If so, how much. Thank you !!!
They’re usually interchangeable in a 1:1 ratio, but I’ve heard from a few people that the texture of xanthan gum isn’t quite as good as gluccie in ice cream. You’re welcome to try! Maybe decrease the amount a bit.
Do you think I could double this to make a large batch for my 4qt machine?
I haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why not!
If I want to add blueberries to this to make a blueberry flavored ice cream how should I go about it? I have oodles of fresh picked blueberries and would love to make a flavored ice cream with them. Thanks in advance!
I’d just blend them up with the ice cream mixture for an easy method – or make a blueberry sauce with blueberries, a little water, glucomannan, and sweetener and swirl it through the ice cream after it’s done churning. You’ll get a prettier color that way. 🙂
Hi Brianna, im loving your cookbook! I ordered vegtable glycerin to try your ice cream recipes. I ended up with NOW brand.. it doesnt say food grade on it and I didnt realize that until after eating it :p is this brand still recommended for cooking with?
Yes, from what I’ve heard, NOW brand is fine. 🙂
I just made the recipe. There’s a few things I would want different next time. Let me just start by saying I made a couple substitutions. I used just a little over two packets of Truvia for my sweetener, and I used xantham gym instead of glucomannan. Also, I scooped out the refrigerator-hardened coconut milk from the can and put it in my blender mixture. then i only poured half of the liquid from the can into my blender mixture. I thought if I used all the liquid, it would make for a thin ice cream.
I wish I would have used three or four packets of truvia, more vanilla extract than what the recipe calls for, and none of the liquid from the can of coconut milk. I don’t know how doing these things differently would affect the outcome, but the ice cream didn’t have much sweetness or flavor in my opinion, and I would like to mask the coconut milk flavor more screen. It was creamy, but like froyo creamy. I would’ve liked it a little thicker. I’ll make it again, but I’ll definitely try instituting these changes and see what happens.
According to this sweetener conversion chart, you’ll probably need at least 1/4 c. of Truvia to replace the stevia I used in this recipe. 🙂 https://media.trimhealthymama.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/05/07222306/THM.Sweetener-Conversion-Chart.pdf
I’m sorry it wasn’t what you were looking for. I loved it with the whole can of coconut milk (have never experimented with just using the cream), so maybe try it like that next time?
Any recommended toppings for this? 😉 I’m thinkin’ maybe some toasted coconut flakes and Skinny Chocolate chunks, but you are the wild topping queen (ahem, frenchtoastinabowl). 😀
Haha…well, my go to is (of course) peanut butter, but I like your suggestions too. 😛
I ended up going with some mashed blackberry sauce! Can I just say….on behalf of the dairy-free THTeens….thank you. Seriously! It was so good! Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t had ice cream in a while, but it honestly reminded me of a while back when I topped some vanilla Blue Bell with blackberry sauce, too. I did taste some coconut, but I thought it was very light and sweet. 🙂
Woohoo! I’m not dairy free, but I really enjoyed it myself. I love the blackberry sauce idea.
With a gluten, dairy, & egg allergy in our home I’ve been making dairy free ice cream for years. There’s a lot of “extras” in this ice cream that seem entirely unnecessary. I’m curious about the “why” behind them. In our home we simply use the Coconut cream and/or milk, sweetener, & a flavouring. It’s fluffy, creamy, delicious ice cream with no extra fillers. Which made me rather curious as to why you’ve included glycerine & glucomannan in your recipe??
I personally find that they give me a smoother, creamier result. The glycerine also helps keep the ice cream from sticking to the sides of the freezer and keeps the ice cream scoopable instead of icy if leftovers are frozen then thawed.
I pulled up this recipe to make it for our picnic supper but, alas, I didn’t have my coconut milk refrigerated! So, I’m sticking it in the fridge right now and I’ll make it another day. But, my understanding is that the milk will separate when it’s refrigerated; do I use all of the milk in the recipe or only the creamy part of it? Thanks.
You use the whole can. If I were you, I would just make the recipe as directed with your room temp coconut milk. I think it should still work – it’ll just take a little longer to churn. 🙂
Thank you so much! I can’t wait to try the recipe. Since my husband and I have had to go on a very restricted diet for health concerns we had to give up dairy; I miss all those cheesy rich THM recipes and the cool creamy, cream cheese and cream recipes. So, this should hit the spot!
Experimenting with any dairy free chocolate and/or peanut butter ice-cream?
I’m currently working on my cookbook recipe list so I haven’t had time to do much experimentation outside of that, but those are great ideas! If chocolate/peanut butter is what you’re hungry for, you can just add some cocoa powder, natural peanut butter, and a little extra sweetener to this recipe. 🙂
I did just that and oh my it’s delicious. Thank you for this recipe in general. I have figured out that I can just add 2 T of coconut fat with the milk and sweetener and do whatever flavor I want. Dairy isn’t my friend right now and with the low coconut fat, I like that i can consume large, large amounts of this! YUM!
Mmm….now I want some!
I don’t have an ice cream maker. Do you know if this will work by using a blender? I don’t know a lot about ice cream makers to understand how they work.
Ice cream makers are great in that they continuously churn the ice cream while freezing it, providing a smooth, non-icy texture. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you could try freezing the mixture in ice cube trays then blending the cubes in a blender with a little liquid. The texture won’t be as nice this way though.
Absolutely fabulous. Just like DQ, I shall survive the summer on this.
Oh YAY! I’m so glad you liked it!
I was just reading a recipe for homemade gmarshmallow and it said vegtable glycerin was not allowed on THM plan. But you have it here in your ice cream recipe. You must have done research and found it to be allowable for THM.
It’s been my understanding that small amounts are OK. The main THM fanpage has shared some of my ice cream recipes using vegetable glycerin, they’ve never said anything to me about it not being on plan in the amounts I’m using it in (and I’ve had a good bit of communication with them), and I believe one of their ice cream recipes in their new cookbook calls for a small amount. 🙂
THANKS THANKS THANKS!!!!! Looking forward to trying this ……… after i order vegetable glycerin (never heard of THAT) & glucomannan. i JUST found nutritional yeast & xanthan gum at the grocery store!! i’m learning about SOOO many “new” things!
Vegetable glycerin was new to me too, but now that I have it, I’m not going back!