This refreshing Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream recipe is a wonderful dessert for hot summer days.
With its warming spices, it’s also incredible when the first hints of autumn are in the air.
Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream
This vegan chocolate ice cream, made with a base of coconut milk spiked with warming spices –cinnamon, cayenne, and coffee is also perfect during the colder parts of the year.
Vegan Ice Cream Recipe
This rich recipe is a year-round ice cream social that I hope your family enjoys as much as ours does.
Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cans full fat coconut milk, unsweetened, 13.5 ounce
- ¼ cup agave nectar or honey
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, ground
- pinch celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne (if you don’t want a super spicy ice cream then just use a pinch)
- 1 teaspoon organic decaf coffee beans, espresso grind
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk and honey to a boil
- Reduce to a simmer, then remove from heat
- Mix in chocolate, stirring constantly until chips are completely melted
- Cool mixture in pan on counter for 1 hour
- Stir in cinnamon, salt, cayenne, espresso, and vanilla until thoroughly combined
- Process according to the directions of your ice cream maker
- Serve
Equipment
How to Make: Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream
I love the simple 10-minute preparation of this vegan recipe. However, the star of the show is the ease of using an ice cream maker.
How to Make Ice Cream Without An Ice Cream Maker
Don’t have an ice cream maker. See my quick and easy 2-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream recipe.
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Chocolate Salty Ice Cream
If you want to enhance the flavor of this chocolate vegan ice cream recipe, sprinkle some coarse grey Celtic sea salt on top just before serving.
Inspired By Simply Recipes
My Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream is based on one from Simply Recipes. However, that one uses heavy cream and eggs, while this is a vegan ice cream recipe.
Healthy Ice Cream Recipes
Fresh, nutritious ingredients make healthy ice cream a family-friendly dessert. Here are some of my other favorites:
Dairy Free Ice Cream
I love that this Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream recipe meets the needs of people following gluten and dairy-free diets one spoonful at a time.
Ice Cream Tastes Better From Scratch
Whether churning rich chocolate or creamy vegan vanilla ice cream recipes, they always taste better from scratch!
What flavor of ice cream inspires your taste buds?
This recipe for Mexican Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first shared it in 2010.
Amanda Fish says
Hi Elana,
Your recipes are genius and I thank you sincerely. I’m thinking of subbing cacao powder for the choc chips and then skipping the boiling step. What are your thoughts on this?
Your fan,
Amanda
Elana says
Amanda, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Hannah says
I’ve made ice cream without the ice cream maker before – you need to cool down your cooked product by putting it into the blender again with 3-4 ice cubes, then pouring it into a baking pan and freezing it for 12-24 hours. After that time period, put it into a cuisinart to break up the ice crystals and get the ice cream creamy – you don’t want it liquidy again. Put it back into the freezer. It will be ready for action. If the ice cream lasts for more than a week, you may need to repeat the cuisinart step.
Elana says
Thanks Hannah! I also have this ice cream recipe that does not require an ice cream maker:
https://elanaspantry.com/2-ingredient-banana-ice-cream/
Have a wonderful day!
Elana
Guen S. says
I bought coconut milk and put the cans in the fridge thinking it would help to have them cold before making ice cream, but then saw you want us to boil the coconut milk, first, and then let it cool. I’m wondering what is the reasoning behind this–is it simply to melt the chocolate chips, or does it impart some other feature on the ice cream? Could I skip that step and just melt the chips separately, then add?
Elana says
Guen, I haven’t tried melting the chips separately for this recipe so not sure how that would work. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes :-)
Mia says
Will it work if we don’t use the ice-cream maker??
JC says
I would love to know the same thing! We have a salt-ball ice cream maker but don’t want to spend the time trying if it won’t work. ;)
Elana says
Mia and JC, I haven’t tried that so not sure. If you do please let us know how it goes!
Justine says
Hi, thanks so much for all your wonderful reciepes I lok forward to making this for my son who is dairya nd gluten intolerant
Wondering if the icecream will work just as well without the coffee
Cheers
Justine
Elana says
Justine, I haven’t tried that, but I think it would work :-)
Fiona says
Great idea, Sara – thanks!
Syd says
My boyfriend and I are both vegan and were struggling to find a healthy, but very tasty, vegan treat to bring to a dinner party. We were the only vegans invited so we wanted to impress. We decided on this dessert, and it was a hit! Very exciting!
I’ve been visiting your blog for three years now and have enjoyed pretty much every vegan recipe you’ve posted. Thanks for your inspiration!
Syd from Halifax :)
Elana says
Syd, so great that this was a hit with everyone!
holly says
This was so amazing! I made a half recipe and subbed 3 tablespoons of xylitol for the agave since the agave is very non-primal/paleo and it was great. My husband is just getting on the primal/paleo bandwagon and I was a little worried about the coconut flavor but it just tasted like the best chocolate ice cream ever. Yum! I used the ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer and it was just so easy peasy lemon squeezy! Thanks for all of your hard work Elana.
Elana says
Holly, great to hear that this was amazing :-)
Carole Dorland says
I was hoping someone would comment about using the Kitchen Aid attachment. I just ordered the attachment so thanks for that info. Following LCHF and had a craving for some ice cream..
Elana says
Carole, have you seen my Keto Chocolate Smoothie recipe? I think you’ll love it!
https://elanaspantry.com/keto-chocolate-smoothie/
Enjoy!
Elana
Mariana says
This recipe came out perfectly. I can’t even tell that it is vegan. Wanting to punch up the chocolate flavor, I combined unsweetened coca with a small amount of coconut milk in a sauce pan and then added the coca mixture to the base before cooling. To speed up the cooling process I put the ice cream base into a gallon freezer bag and submerged it in an ice bath for 20 minutes.
Elana says
Mariana, thanks for letting me know this was perfect :-)
Courtney says
Hi! I made this and it’s so delicious! I used the full amount of cayenne which gives it a spicy kick. I used honey instead of agave and regular not decaf espresso.
Question – where is the green bowl from? It’s so cute!
Thanks so much for this recipe!
Elana says
Courtney, glad this was delicious! The bowl is a flea market find :-)