Sinfully rich, indulgently dark, and secretly healthy chocolate ice cream!
This no-churn, creamy chocolate nice cream has a secret:
A full 1/3 cup of cocoa is packed into the recipe, for the ultimate richness. It’s the perfect healthy frozen treat for any dark chocolate lover.
Every time I make this chocolatey nice cream, I can’t stop eating it from the blender!
The new-and-improved recipe is adapted from the chocolate version of my original Banana Ice Cream Recipe, and it uses only natural ingredients, without any additional sweeteners.
If you’re not a dark chocolate fan, you can of course add a little stevia or pure maple syrup or your favorite sweetener if you wish. But it is not required for the recipe, especially if you start with ripened bananas, often referred to as “nature’s candy” because of their ability to sweeten recipes naturally without having to add extra sugar.
For those of you who don’t want a banana flavor, the extra cocoa added in this healthy ice cream does a great job masking the banana, and opting to use the nut butter (or your favorite nut-free alternative) masks it even more. I honestly could not taste any banana at all.
Then again, I love bananas so I might not be the best person to ask!
Once blended, I threw caution to the wind and increased the chocolate flavor even more by adding my newest obsession – Chocolate Brownie Larabar Bites.
I am so in love with these things, along with their Mint Chocolate Truffle flavor… Seriously, in love. The other day, Target had them on sale for $4.99 a package, and I bought eight packages of both flavors! Yes, 16 packages total. Yes, possibly just a little bit crazy. But they will go quickly.
Just like the ice cream, Larabar Bites rely on natural sweeteners and are made with just six to nine ingredients (vegan, non-GMO, and gluten-free). I like to eat them straight out of the freezer, but they’re shelf-stable and make a fantastic healthy, portable snack. So far I’ve only seen them at Target or on Amazon, but they are pretty new, so hopefully more places will start carrying them soon. They also come in Cherry Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Macaroon.
If you can find them near you, I highly recommend throwing a few into your healthy chocolate ice cream!
Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream
Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 3 frozen, overripe bananas
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter, optional
- pinch salt
- broken-up dark chocolate bars or chips, optional
- I added a few broken-up Larabar Bites
Instructions
*Make sure bananas are at least partially brown before peeling, chopping, and then freezing.
Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor—you can add the optional chocolate and the brownie bites before or after blending. Process until completely smooth, adding a little milk of choice if it’s too thick for your blender to process. Either serve immediately as soft serve, or freeze for about an hour and then scoop out with an ice cream scoop. Although nice cream tastes the best the day it’s made, you can technically freeze for up to a few weeks and thaw before eating.
Link Of The Day:
I love making my own Larabars (we make the blueberry flavor!). I’d love to try mint chocolate!
I love Lara bars but haven’t tried the bites yet!
The apple cinnamon is my favorite but I’d love to try the mint chocolate bites!
Looks delicious! I’d love to try the chocolate bites!
I would love to try the Hazelnut, Hemp and Cacao.
I like the Coconut chocolate chip variety!
Chocolate chip cookie dough is my all time favorite! Would love to try the bites though.
I love the Apple pie but I would love to try the Chocolate Chip Dough.
Great recipe, Katie! I’ve always wanted to try Larabars, but never seem to have! I’d love to try the Hazelnut, Hemp and Cacao.
Hello Katie! My favourite so far is peanut butter chocolate chip, and I’d really like to try hazelnut cacao! Can’t find them in Singapore.
My all time favorite is chocolate chip cookie dough! I recently tried the hazelnut cacao though and loved it. You really can’t go wrong with any of the flavors!
I”ve only ever tried the Apple Pie ones and they’re great. I’d love to try the Brownie Bars, though. #Chocoholicforlife.
Peanut butter chocolate chip is my favorite flavor combination, Larabars included!
I have never had the chance to try a Larabar ever! I would love to receive any flavor!
I would love to try Cherry Chocolate Chip. Whenever I slept over at my Granny’s house as a child, she would have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream waiting for me in the freezer. That flavor combination will always remind me of her, no matter what form the chocolate and cherries are packaged in.
I love the cherry chocolate ones! The blueberry muffin flavor is a close second, though.
I’m a sucker for their chocolate brownie bar! Also the chocolate chip cookie dough.
Apple Pie is my fave 🙂
I love Larabars and love the short list of ingredients. I’ve been enjoying blueberry muffin and cherry pie flavors recently!
I love the superfoods hazelnut, cacao, and hemp bars as well as the cashew cookie! Though I would eat any of them – I don’t think I’ve ever DISLIKED a Larabar flavor! Can’t wait to try these new “bites”!