This chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream only uses THREE ingredients for the ice cream base, plus these peanut butter protein buckeyes! (Which, I hope you already made to have on hand as I suggested in Monday’s post). ? Not only does this ice cream only need a few simple ingredients, it has no sugar added. It’s naturally sweetened with fruit! PLUS (contain your excitement) this recipe doesn’t even need an ice cream maker! Just any old blender will do.

I hope you aren’t over ice cream now that it’s September. I don’t know about where you live, but it’s actually been pretty darn hot lately! Like in the 90s in September. Not that I’m complaining at all, because as I mentioned earlier, my favorite season is summer. I MUCH prefer warm temperatures to the never-ending cold winter months below freezing!

That being said, I have definitely been brainstorming lately and I’m very excited to bring some more fall-appropriate recipes to you over the next couple of months using fall produce such as apples and pumpkin! But first this ice cream.

Ice Cream Base

As mentioned, the base of this ice cream only uses 3 ingredients: bananas, cocoa powder, and canned coconut milk. I want to assure you that this recipe does NOT taste like bananas. I had my husband try this ice cream WAY back in June when I first tested it, and asked him what the ice cream tasted like. His answer? CHOCOLATE. NOT chocolate-banana. Or banana chocolate. Or even coconut for that matter. The bananas and coconut milk provide a creamy base in this non-dairy ice cream. So if you can’t tolerate dairy or choose not to eat it, you are in luck! I also LOVE that the bananas provide natural sweetness, so no need to add any additional sugar to this recipe.

As for the coconut milk, please make sure you use the canned coconut milk and not the drinking coconut milk in a carton with other non-dairy milks. The canned coconut milk helps provide the smooth, creamy, rich texture we want in ice cream!

Ice Cream Add-ins

What makes this recipe go from good (just plain chocolate) to GREAT is chocolate PLUS peanut butter. Am I the only one who is slightly obsessed with the combination?! The peanut butter cups use protein powder instead of sugar for the peanut butter truffle filling, and the homemade chocolate shell is also dairy-free/vegan with just the tiniest amount of maple syrup to sweeten the chocolate. If you like Reese’s peanut butter cups, you are sure to love these homemade buckeyes.

Why Make Homemade Ice Cream?

There are seriously so many reasons why I love making homemade ice cream (and really any dessert!). First, I love the challenge of trying to create healthier recipes that taste just as good if not better than store-bought! I literally eat dessert every. single. night. (usually chocolate in some shape or form). But I love making homemade treats that don’t contain as much sugar and use fewer ingredients. That being said, I obviously still have “traditional” desserts (favorites include ice cream sundaes at my local chocolatier, homemade apple pie with ice cream, etc.).  All foods fit!

Not only that, while I personally don’t have any dietary restrictions, I have lots of family/friends that for various reasons cannot eat dairy, gluten, etc. so I love to create recipes they can eat! And last….when making homemade ice cream you can get SUCH a better ratio of ice cream to the peanut butter cups. No skimping here!