We’ve been on a perennial tour of alternative food aisles for a variety of dietary needs and taste preferences. With gluten free pasta, vegan cheese, alt meat, and French fries In our opinion, it’s time to go to the freezer for ice cream. We tried dozens of dairy-free ice creams and narrowed it down to 12 of our favorites. These would be welcome additions to your dessert rotation — for shakes, cream bread, and sundae bar and perhaps most importantly, serve a warm slice Apple cake.
It’s worth noting that we’re not specifically looking for keto, light, or sugar-free ice cream. The chemistry of dairy-free ice cream (or “frozen dessert” as the FDA requires it to be labeled) is a challenge. The removal of milk affects the flavor, texture, palatability, and firmness of the dessert. We only focused on replacing milk and egg yolks, which are commonly found in custard creams. The many options here include regular sugar, alone or in combination with some alternatives. They may also include several additives. Often, we are in the “as few ingredients as possible” situation. But in this case, plant-based gum and syrups from ingredients like tapioca and brown rice act as emulsifiers or stabilizers, giving the bases the necessary thickness and viscosity. dairy-free, or it will feel thin and icing on your palate. Given that ice cream is such a delicious treat and that making it without milk is a feat, we’re cool with this trade-off.
OAT . BASED ICE CREAM
Oat milk has won the hearts of many dairy enthusiasts. It is richer than almond milk, with a more neutral flavor than coconut milk. This makes it versatile for everyday use and is an especially great candidate for cream.
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Neat vanilla
Creamy and extremely light. Almost atmospheric, with a good, strong vanilla aroma. It has a clean finish and won’t linger on your palate. Even if you’re not a fan of vanilla ice cream, you’ll be happy to have something more neutral for cupcakes, crumbs, crisps, and hot scones.
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Van Leeuwen Vegan
Brown oat milk
Sugar ChunkCreamy, smooth, brown sugar with clusters of cookies, oats, and macaroons. Like many creams, it has a few ingredients that make up the base, but oats are listed first and it has a more neutral taste than coconut.
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Planet Oat Coffee
Fudge SwiftThis has the best texture of any oat milk we’ve tried — it’s right between thick and light. It’s also more affordable than many of the ice creams we’ve tried. It was skewered a bit sweeter than we would have liked, but it’s ice cream after all.
OIL ICE CREAM
We know how weird this sounds, but without dairy fat, ice cream needs some source of fat to give it its creamy texture. The brands below have cleverly used fats commonly used in our kitchens (olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil) to add richness to their plant-based ice cream.
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Wildgood Pistachios
We’ve all heard of finishing ice cream with olive oil, but making ice cream with olive oil is a different story. The texture of Wildgood ice cream is beautiful and the flavor is vibrant. Pistachios are our favorites, but chocolate hazelnuts and mangoes fall behind.
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Cado Simply Lemon
Cado’s Buttercream has a light and very pleasant taste, without the smell of butter. The texture looks a bit uglier than some of the other textures we’ve sampled, but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable.
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Ripple Cookies
and KemWe are fans of Ripple’s pea milk and were curious to see how it could turn into ice cream. It turns out that the brand has done a solid job, relying on coconut oil as the main ingredient to achieve such a creamy texture. (It also includes some pea protein.) Overall, the combination of silky smooth cream and cookie blocks is an easy win.
COCONUT CREAM BASED ON COCONUT
Coconut milk has more fat than whole milk, so it’s no surprise that it makes great ice cream. But while coconut-flavored desserts are often delicious, that striking flavor doesn’t always go well with the others. All in all, we stick with flavors that complement coconut, and these three brands make the perfect combination.
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Coconut Bliss
Black chocolateCoconut Bliss has been around for a while, but you might not realize it after a recent rebrand. Ice cream is still delicious. It’s thick and creamy, and the dark chocolate’s bitterness balances out the natural sweetness of the coconut nicely. It has a coconut flavor, so think about what flavor you prefer with coconut when choosing a pint.
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Sunscoop Vanilla
Bean ice creamYou know it when the ice cream is almost chewy, but in a good way? Almost like fudge. It’s rare to find dairy-free ice cream, but Sunscoop does. It could be because it was stirred instead of whipped, preventing it from becoming too airy. It has a mild coconut flavor and is not too sweet.
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Nada Moo Mint Chip
This one is significantly lighter with an almost cotton-like texture. It’s the least coconut milk ice cream, easy to combine with many different flavors. The mint cake is especially delicious, with a cool mint flavor.
ALMOND-BASED ICE CREAM
While almond milk can be a decent substitute for whole milk at the coffee shop, the lack of fat in almond milk is a drawback in the ice cream department. Most of the almond-based options we’ve tried have been thin and cold. There is only one we would recommend.
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Netflix by Ben & Jerry & Chill’d
No one makes ice cream filled with almost too much food like Ben & Jerry’s. The almond base is creamy, and the mix is as generous as ever. There are several flavors that are completely dairy-free along with several dairy-free versions of the most popular pints. We love dairy-free Netflix & Chill’d. (And if you’re too emotional by the name, enjoy your spoons curled up in your chair while streaming an episode of Sex, Love & goop.)
UNDERSTANDING WITH MINEST INGREDIENTS
As we said, making dairy-free ice cream without the help of stabilizers, emulsifiers or syrups is a serious challenge. These creams have so few ingredients but so much goes for them.
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Chocolate Frozen Fruit Co.
Made with just three ingredients: dates, coconut milk, and cocoa powder. It’s light and almost refreshing — and just sweet enough.
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Coconut Cult
Vanilla Bean GelatoThe Coconut Cult has a… loyal following. That’s where all of our fermented coconuts go. We recently noticed this brand’s vanilla gelato at Erewhon and it was very tempting. Ingredients only coconut (in various forms, like coconut water, coconut cream, etc.), probiotics, Himalayan sea salt and vanilla. It’s so simple and amazingly good. There may be a shortage at the time you’re reading this — if so, you can check Coconut Cult’s Instagram for updates and delivery times.
