It’s common to see 2nd editions of popular books, but often they are just an image update. When I decided to do a new edition of Go Dairy Free, I wanted to make it a total overhaul. After all, I’ve learned a lot in the last 10 years. Why shouldn’t I share more knowledge and delicious recipe hacks? One thing that I discovered was how to make delicious dairy-free frozen dessert that doesn’t taste like coconut! This dairy-free cookies and cream ice cream recipe uses that secret.
Adapted from the brand new Vanilla Ice Cream recipe in Go Dairy Free 2nd Edition, this cookies and cream ice cream is made with Ripple Pea Milk Beverage. Why pea milk (that name always makes me giggle!)?
For starters, it’s richer than most dairy-free milk beverages with both a good dose of plant-based fat and protein. These ingredients help tremendously in the making of a good dairy-free ice cream.
It’s also an emulsified milk beverage. This means that it stays quite fluid, but it also has the ability to emulsify easily with more oil. Oil doesn’t freeze, so it aids in creating a soft, creamy consistency. This eliminates the need for ingredients like eggs, nuts, and coconut. And the combination of milk beverage and oil is fairly neutral in taste. So it ends up tasting like the ice cream flavor you are making, not the base!
Ripple Pea Milk Beverage has become a staple in my ice cream making. I used the Unsweetened Original in this dairy-free cookies and cream recipe, but the Unsweetened Vanilla would also be delicious. Or, you could use a sweetened version and simply reduce the sugar.
Also, I used dairy-free, gluten-free sandwich cream cookies to make this recipe. They tend to be a little more crumbly than your average “just dairy-free” sandwich cream cookies. So I added quite a few chocolate crumbs, and the more I stirred the darker and more chocolaty my cookies and cream ice cream became. You might see more vanilla ice cream streaks than I did if using wheat-based, dairy-free cookies.
This post is sponsored by Ripple Foods. But as always, the recipe, photo, and opinions are all my own. I chose to make this cookies and cream ice cream recipe because Ripple really IS the milk beverage I’ve used to create several coconut-free, allergy-friendly ice cream recipes!
Special Diet Notes: Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, optionally gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
- 3 cups Ripple Unsweetened Dairy-free Pea Milk Beverage (original or vanilla)
- ⅔ to ¾ cup sugar (see Sweetness Note below)
- ½ cup non-GMO canola oil or other neutral-tasting oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla flavoring or paste
- 1/16 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (corn-free is available)
- 20 chocolate sandwich cream cookies, chopped into pieces (gluten-free, if needed; see Cookie Note below)
- Pour about half of the milk beverage into your blender and add the sugar. Blend for 1 minute, or until the sugar dissolves.
- With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil through the lid opening (keep your hand around the opening as it might splatter!). Continue to blend for 1 minute.
- Add the rest of the milk beverage, vanilla, and salt, and blend for 15 seconds.
- Add the xanthan gum and blend for 1 minute.
- Place the blender jar in your refrigerator and refrigerate for 2 hours or longer.
- Give the mixture a quick 10 second blend.
- Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.
- Once the churning is complete, stir in the chopped cookies.
- Pack the ice cream into a freezer-safe container, and freeze for 2 hours for soft set, or 4 or more hours for firm.
Cookie Note: It can be hard to locate sandwich cream cookies that are gluten-free AND top allergen-free, since most brands contain soy. So I created a quick "cheat" recipe for making your own Top Allergen-free Better-than-Oreo Cookies.
Pin this Dairy-Free Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Recipe!
60 Comments
Cluld the ice cream maker being causing icy ice cream? I followed the recipe dorecrly, other bloggers as well, and it’s ALWAYS icy. I dont know how to get the smooth texture with dairy free ice cream. Tastes great just the iciness want to get rid of.
Hi Reese, Ice crystals are always more common with homemade ice cream, and even more so with vegan ice cream. What milk beverage did you use? Did you alter any ingredients? Just getting a baseline, and then I can offer tips for getting creamier, less icy results. Keep in mind, many store bought dairy-free ice creams have ice crystal issues as well, and production ice creams use much better equipment than what we have available to us at home! The less compression and churn, the higher the chance for ice crystals.
Quick tips though on what helps get rid of the iciness:
Sugar – sugar-free alternatives will not work the same. Think of sugar like a tenderizer. It helps to soften the ice cream and contributes quite a bit more than people think to the texture. Without it, or with too little, the ice cream is dense and icier.
Fat – Fat doesn’t freeze, water does. So any liquid in the recipe can form ice crystals, but the fat will not. The higher ratio of fat, the lower the ice crystals.
Binders and Emulsifiers – The reason I ask about the milk beverage, is using one with binders and emulsifiers is very important for this recipe. Ripple is an emulsified milk beverage, much more so than most almond milks or similar. It’s also on the richer side. The emulsifiers help combine the liquid and the fat, which prevents ice crystals, and the binders, like gums, help to lock that emulsification together. This is why so many dairy-free ice creams have ingredients like lecithin and gums.
I hope that helps!
Would this work without xantham gum? We don’t have it or guar gum on hand. Would maybe arrowroot powder work if it’s used to thicken the mixture?
It’s primarily used to hold the emulsification so that the ice cream is creamy and doesn’t separate. This also helps to prevent an icy finish. Starch won’t necessarily do that (and you would need to use a lot more of it), but you can try omitting it. A good route if using starch is to make a pudding style ice cream. Heat it like you would pudding. But I can’t guarantee it would work with this recipe without testing.
Can this be made without cookies?? I am just wanting a vegan vanilla ice cream for a cobbler…Thanks!
Yes! It is similar to this recipe, where you can just omit the chocolate chips – https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/chocolate-chip-ice-cream
Can you make this without the oil?
No. That would make ice milk and you would need to adjust all of the other ingredients. If you want to skip the oil, I would try swapping in full fat coconut milk or coconut cream for the milk beverage and oil. It obviously will have more of a coconut flavor then.
This recipe is so perfect for summer. And it looks even better than store bought ice cream!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it with the Chocolate Ripple for my 5 year old with multiple food allergies! I cut the sugar just a little since the chocolate Ripple is sweet and we didn’t add the cookies. Thanks again! We really like Ripple!
That’s fantastic! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe and that chocolate version sounds delicious!
Ice cream season is upon us and this is a great recipe!