Oh ice cream. It is definitely one of our most beloved foods. I almost never bought ice cream on my regular grocery trip unless we had a birthday or something coming. It was usually a late night, the kids are in bed and we need some ice cream so let’s go buy a box right now kind of a thing. Which is good, because it really didn’t last long if there wasn’t a defined event it was being saved for.

But we are totally in love with this ice cream. The last time we had it, it really felt like the stuff that comes out of a box, instead of some odd concoction that resembles ice cream (as previous recipes have). It comes together in a flash, and while still a treat, it’s made up of ingredients that are going to nourish your body instead of declare havoc.

How to Make Whole Foods, Plant-Based Mint Moose Tracks Ice Cream

We make it in our Ice Cream Maker which is totally life-changing. The hassle of ice, rock salt and taking turns on the crank is something we can only tell our kids about. It can also be made without an ice cream maker if necessary.

Just blend your cashews and dates together. It works best if they’ve had some time to soak, but if you forgot to plan ahead (I often do), go ahead and blend them a few times to get them nice and smooth.

Tips for the Best Ice Cream Texture

The trick to getting the ice cream to set up is plenty of cold. That sounds kind of obvious, but here are a few things to keep in mind to avoid issues:

• The time it takes for your ice cream to set up depends on two things: how cold your ice cream bowl is, and how cold your mixture is. I keep my bowl in my nice new and large freezer in the garage. It is turned down to way cold and everything that comes out of it is significantly more solid than items coming from my kitchen freezer. So that usually makes for quick and easy ice cream making.
• If your freezer is more of an average temperature, you want your mixture to be cold. You can soak your cashews and dates in about half the water (make sure they are covered). Then add ice and enough water to reach the remaining 3 cups when you blend it. You could even blend the dates & cashews in the soak water, and then after several blends and they are mostly smooth you could add the remaining water with as much ice as possible.
• Ideally you can blend it several hours in advance and then refrigerate the mixture, but I often don’t and still have good success using some of these methods.

Back when I was making ice cream with cream and sugar, I had no problem getting a green color with a few spinach leaves tossed in. But the darker color of the dates is harder to cover up and haven’t had as good of success. So a little natural food coloring may be the way to go if a strong green color is important to you.

The soft chocolate layer is pretty magical – chocolate sweetened with maple syrup always stays a bit soft, but here it works out perfectly. It has a tendency to ball up, so you want to gently layer it with the ice cream as you spoon the ice cream from the bowl to your container.

Two Other Alternatives

Just melt regular chocolate for the fudge ripple. We always used to make our own magic shell by stirring in a tablespoon of coconut oil with melted chocolate, but you could make it without the oil. Just try to keep the layers thin as that frozen chocolate will get very firm!

Even simpler, just mix in mini chocolate chips for a mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I recommend sticking a metal loaf pan in the freezer while you make your ice cream. Putting it into a cold container helps the ice cream to set up.

I hope you love this plant-based mint moose tracks ice cream! It is one of our favorites!

Enjoy!

This recipe was originally published March 26, 2018.

Print Recipe

Whole Food Plant Based Mint Moosetracks Ice Cream [Vegan, Dairy & Refined Sugar Free]

Creamy and rich ice cream made without any dairy, refined sugar or coconut milk!

Course

Dessert

Keyword

dessert, Fast, healthy, ice cream, Plant-Based, Vegan

Prep Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

25 minutes

Servings

servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup cashews preferably raw, unsalted (rinse salted cashews if necessary)
• 1 cup pitted deglet noor dates About 22 dates -- make sure yours are free of pits!!!
• 3 cups water
• 1/8 tsp mint extract
• pinch salt omit if using salted cashews
• green food coloring optional
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate squares
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Course Dessert Keyword dessert, Fast, healthy, ice cream, Plant-Based, Vegan Prep Time 10 minutes Passive Time 25 minutes Servings servings Ingredients 1 1/2 cup cashews preferably raw, unsalted (rinse salted cashews if necessary) 1 cup pitted deglet noor dates About 22 dates -- make sure yours are free of pits!!! 3 cups water 1/8 tsp mint extract pinch salt omit if using salted cashews green food coloring optional 2 oz unsweetened chocolate squares 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Instructions

1. Soak cashews and dates in water in refrigerator for 2-3 hours if possible. Add dates & cashews with soaking water to blender with mint, salt and food coloring if using. Blend until smooth. Return mixture to refrigerator if time allows.
2. Turn ice cream maker on, and add ice cream mixture. Allow to process for 20-25 minutes or until desired thickness is reached. While mixture is processing, put a large metal bread loaf pan in the freezer.
3. Melt chocolate and syrup, preferably in a double boiler set up (I just use two small pans, fill the bottom with a small amount of water and hold/set the other above it). Stir constantly until combined. Turn heat off and reheat if needed when ice cream is almost done.
4. When ice cream is finished, add approximately 1/4 of the mixture to loaf pan. Carefully and quickly spread 1/3 of the chocolate mixture over the ice cream. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Return to the freezer until ready to eat.

Recipe Notes

I prefer this ice cream after it has been in the freezer for a few hours. It gets really solid overnight (it rarely hangs around that long) so generally a few hours in advance is perfect.

To make ice cream without an ice cream maker, freeze ice cream mixture in ice cube trays after blending. Freeze until mostly solid and then add to high-powered blender and blend until it reaches ice cream consistency.