Cashew Ice Cream

4.87 from 22 votes

This cashew ice cream is rich and creamy and made with homemade cashew milk for the creamiest, most perfectly textured ice cream ever!

Prep Time1

Total Time1

Course: Dessert, Ice-Cream

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan

Servings:

Calories: 437kcal

Author: Alison Andrews

Ingredients

For the Homemade Cashew Milk:

1 cup Raw Cashews (150g) Soaked in hot water for one hour
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Water (270ml)

For the Cashew Ice Cream:

2 cups Homemade Cashew Milk (480ml)
1 cup Coconut Cream (240ml) Canned, Unsweetened
1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
¼ cup Water (60ml)
¾ cup Cacao Butter (100g) Finely Chopped
¼ cup Coconut Oil (55g)
½ cup Cashew Butter (120g)
⅓ cup Coconut Sugar (50g)
1 teaspoon Salt

Instructions

At least the day before you want to make ice cream, make sure the bowl for your ice cream machine is placed into the freezer so that it's ready to go the next day.
Prepare your homemade cashew milk. Add 1 cup of cashews to a bowl and then pour over boiling water and let it sit for 1 hour. Then drain the cashews and add them to the blender jug along with 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons fresh cold water and blend very well until completely blended in. You should not have to strain this milk at all. It should be totally smooth. Use all of the milk in your ice cream.*
Add the homemade cashew milk to a big bowl along with the coconut cream and set aside.
Then get all your other ingredients ready before proceeding.
Add the sugar to a saucepan along with the quarter cup of water. Stir constantly until the sugar is melted. You'll know it's melted when the wooden spoon is no longer making a scratching sound along the bottom of the saucepan.
Add in the cacao butter, coconut oil, cashew butter, coconut sugar and salt and whisk in until everything is melted together.
Then pour this out into the bowl with the cashew milk and coconut cream.
Use an immersion blender to blend everything together. If you don't have an immersion blender, then transfer everything to your blender jug and blend it and then return it to the bowl.
Place the bowl into the freezer for 15-20 minutes so that the mixture gets chilled. When the mixture is chilled you might find that the mixture has started to harden along the sides, just stir it up well.
Pour it into the ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer directions until you reach a soft serve consistency. Depending on the ice cream machine you have this could be anything from 25-45 minutes.
When it's reached soft serve consistency, pour it out into a loaf pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon, cover and place into the freezer to set completely.
When it's set, scoop into bowls and enjoy.

Notes

Cashew milk. If your batch of cashew milk makes slightly more or slightly less than 2 cups, don't worry about it. It should be close, and if so, then just use it all in the ice cream. The difference would come about from the amount of water your cashews absorbed while soaking and if it's a little more or less, you may end up with a little more or less volume. If it was a big difference (like ½ cup short) then you could use a little extra coconut cream to compensate. If it's a little over, then just use it all and don't worry about it.
Coconut cream. You can also use canned, full fat, unsweetened coconut milk.
Cashew butter. It's ideal to use a cashew butter made from roasted cashew nuts. You can also make your own cashew nut butter.
Prep time excludes time spent soaking (for the cashews) and time spent chilling or setting. It is for the hands on time, including the time spent churning.
Method inspired by the book Artisan Ice Cream.

Nutrition