Five Ingredient Vegan Blackberry Coconut Ice Cream
3.92 from 24 votes

vegan blackberry coconut ice cream // choosing raw

This ice cream is pretty amazing.

It’s amazing because you don’t have to heat anything, dissolve anything, or thicken anything before you put it in your ice cream maker. It’s amazing because it features only five ingredients. It’s amazing because it’s rich and creamy and the texture will hold up very well to freezing (no frosting, not too much hardening). And it’s amazing because it tastes heavenly, a glorious marriage of tart blackberries and sweet, rich coconut and vanilla. I expect to make it many more times before my last steamy D.C. summer draws to a close. 

vegan blackberry coconut ice cream // choosing raw

So, I’m pretty new to using an ice cream maker. I bought mine last summer, as I was testing recipes for the book (only one ice cream maker recipe made it in, but it’s a good one, and I actually based this ice cream on it). They are pretty awesome machines, and I think mine was a good investment, but I can’t say I’ve gotten very creative with it so far. Too many ice cream recipes seem more complicated or more time intensive than I’d like; there’s heating, then dissolving, then cooling, and then churning. It’s all well and good, but I’m always happy for an excuse to skip kitchen steps. And this recipe affords me many a shortcut.

It seems to be a fact universally acknowledged that coconut milk is the ideal vegan ice cream base. Well, OK, I take that back: my favorite vegan ice cream is and always will be banana soft serve! But if I’m using a non-dairy milk base for ice cream, then it’s definitely coconut. This post from The Kitchn contains some really good instructions on how to make vegan, coconut milk ice cream at home. But it’s a little more professional than what I’m about to share, in that you create a “custard” base on the stovetop before you get started.

To make this blackberry ice cream, all you have to do is blend up coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, and blackberries. You can use either a high speed blender or a regular one, but the high speed blender will dissolve the sugar much more efficiently. (If you use a regular blender and there’s too much crystallized sugar in the mix, you can give it a quick heating over the stove to dissolve the sugar.) You add the mixture to an ice cream maker, let it churn, and boom: homemade, summery blackberry ice cream, with hardly any fuss. Here’s the recipe.

vegan blackberry coconut ice cream // choosing raw
3.92 from 24 votes

Five Ingredient Vegan Blackberry Coconut Ice Cream

Author - Gena Hamshaw
Yields: 4 -6 Servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cans full fat coconut milk cold (keep them in the fridge till ready to use)
  • 3/4 cup vegan sugar I used cane sugar; demerara sugar, coconut sugar, and organic white sugar are all fine
  • Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
  • Generous pinch salt
  • 1 cup fresh blackberries

Instructions

  • The day before you make the ice cream, refrigerate the ice cream maker basin according to manufacturer instructions.
  • When the machine is ready, empty the cold coconut milk, the sugar, the vanilla, the salt, and the blackberries into a blender. Blend till they are totally smooth (1-3 minutes).
  • Transfer the mixture to the ice cream maker. (If it's gotten hot while blending, you may wish to cool it down in the fridge first, but it wasn't necessary for me.) Allow the ice cream to churn for about 20-25 minutes, according to the machine instructions, until it's ready. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and allow it to sit in the freezer for a few hours. Serve, garnished with mint if you like.

For the record, my boyfriend takes his ice cream seriously, and he was blown away by this stuff. It didn’t last long. I can’t recommend it enough, and I also recommend using different kinds of fruits: strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cherries whatever. If you want, you can leave some whole fruit in the ice cream to give it texture. You could also add some different flavors (cinnamon, ginger), but to be honest, I think what makes this ice cream so very special is the simplicity of it, the ease.

vegan blackberry coconut ice cream // choosing raw

In any case, I hope you’ll enjoy it as a cooling summer treat!

Before I go, a head’s up that my wonderful friends at 22 Days Nutrition are hosting a fun giveaway to celebrate my book! If you pre-order the book and send them a photo of your reciept, you’ll be automatically entered to win $150 worth of their vegan, gluten free, soy free, organic protein powders and bars (a tub of protein and 2 boxes of bars, to be exact, along with a t-shirt and other goodies). It’s a fun chance to explore the book while also getting to know this fabulous brand. Check out the details here!

Have a great evening, folks.

xo

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    26 Comments
    • I just made it last night with blackberries I have growing in my yard. It was delicious but next time I make it I’ll definitely refrigerate the blended ingredients before pouring into my ice cream maker.

  1. I can’t wait for the weekend to come, so I can make try your amazing recipe and make this ice cream to my girls. It’s gonna be a huge hit for sure. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Thank you very much for this incredibly wonderful recipe I wish to make soon! One of my favourite flavours of ice cream of all time is blackberry ice cream! Could I perhaps use fresh nut cream or fresh coconut cream for this recipe? I would love to hear from you!

  3. Hi Gena,

    I have made lots of vegan ice cream back in my early days of eating this way, and I agree, banana soft serve is the absolute best, but I also agree, if you are going to make a vegan ice cream other than that, you have a winner here! I passed my ice cream maker on to my son and daughter-in-law, and soon I’ll be passing my blackberries canes on to the new owner of my blue house, but she does gardening and cookingcamp with school age children, and I can’t think of a more fun and easy way for them to play with the berries! I’ll certainly pass this on both to family and friends. It’s cherry season here in northern Idaho. . .hmmm. . .:)

    • By the way, meant to say, so neat that you don’t have to heat anything up on the stove–I’ve made blackberry ice cream before that was really good, but oh so labor intensive–yay for easy and delicious!!

  4. This sounds amazing. What is the make and model of the ice cream maker you’re using? It sounds like I am all of a sudden in the market for one…

  5. This looks soo pretty 🙂 I can’t wait for blackberries but for now I’m enjoying the first strawberries and raspberries of the season. I don’t have an ice cream maker but i like to freeze the “smoothie” in an ice cube tray then pop the cubes in the Vitamix to make ice cream and I think I’ll be trying this recipe like that soon enough 🙂

  6. This looks absolutely incredible! I have to get an ice cream maker one of these days!

  7. I think I already commented on your Instagram picture of this, sharing my story about coconut-milk blackberry ice cream. This recipe makes me want to get an ice-cream maker again! I agree about simplicity when, particularly on the topic of ice cream. My aunt and I were just talking about ice cream on father’s day, and how even the most extravagant ice cream flavors still don’t hold a candle to plain ol’ vanilla with hot fudge on top.

    By the way, I love the reference to your boyfriend! Obviously it’s always a blogger’s personal choice which details about her life she wants to make public, but I speak for myself (and probably other fans of yours) when I say that I always love reading pieces about my favorite bloggers’ intimate lives. 🙂

  8. Wow, that looks delicious! Maybe its time to make an investment in an ice cream maker…

  9. My goal this summer is to get an ice cream maker and make vegan ice cream! I also wish there was a good way to make vegan frozen yogurt since I’m more of a fro-yo fan! I guess coconut yogurt would work?

  10. This really does sound amazing! I don’t use my ice cream maker nearly enough, and I always look forward to picking fresh blackberries in the summer – this recipe was meant to be. Thanks for sharing!

  11. These pictures are amazing. Simple & delicious–my fave combo. And I LOVE the color of the ice cream. You’ve inspired me to dust off my ice cream maker–I often just get lazy & make *ice cream* in my Blendtec 🙂

  12. I don’t have an ice cream maker (one day hopefully), but your pictures really made me want blackberry ice cream. So frozen bananas and blackberries it is! I like the whole fruit chunks idea, so thanks for inspiring me as always.

  13. Sherbet for the win! I’ve been making serious do with a similarly effortless ginger number I put up last week, but I can’t wait for my first batch of good blakberries. This is a beauty.