Vegan peanut butter and cookies ice cream - super rich and creamy vegan peanut butter ice cream filled with peanut butter cookie dough and Oreos. No hint of iciness and no bananas! Eggless and dairy free.
Following on from the success of making my rich and creamy vegan chocolate ice cream, I was keen to adapt the recipe to create some more vegan ice cream flavours.
One of my favourite shop bought vegan ice creams is Ben and Jerry's peanut butter and cookies flavour and I really wanted to make my own version. I have to say, I think that my homemade version is even better!
It is a really smooth and creamy vegan peanut butter ice cream which is loaded with chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough balls and crushed Oreos. It. Is. Incredible!
Like my chocolate ice cream, the base is made using part blended cashews and part full fat tinned coconut milk. This gives such a smooth and creamy texture and the ice cream has no hint of iciness. I also can't taste the coconut at all so if you're not a fan of coconut don't worry!
Lets Break Down The Ingredients:
Cashews: Soaked and blended with water, cashews make a delicious, rich cream which is perfect for making a smooth and creamy ice cream.
Coconut milk: Full fat tinned coconut milk adds extra creaminess – no light or drinking varieties please!
Xanthan Gum: Pretty much all commercial ice creams contain some sort of stabiliser such as guar gum. This helps to stop the ingredients from separating and keeps the ice cream smooth and creamy.
Because guar gum is not so easy to get hold of, I used xanthan gum which is sold in most supermarkets and does the same job. You can omit it if you can’t get hold of it.
Peanut Butter: I use a smooth, creamy peanut butter like Skippy as I think that gives the best flavour and texture. It would probably work fine with a runnier natural variety, but creamy is best.
Salt: A little bit of salt really helps to balance the sweet, and it goes so well with peanut butter!
Vanilla Extract: A dash of vanilla helps to enhance the flavour.
Caster Sugar: Caster/superfine sugar dissolves easily but you can swap it for another type of sugar if you prefer. I haven’t tested using maple syrup/agave so I am not sure how swapping for a liquid sweetener would affect the texture.
Ice cream needs a certain amount of sugar for the best texture; reducing it could result in a more icy ice cream.
Cookie Dough And Oreos: If you just want plain peanut butter ice cream then it is absolutely delicious just on it's own, but the addition of chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough and crushed Oreos really takes this over the top.
I make the cookie dough using oat flour/finely ground oats so it is safe to eat raw (some people are sensitive to uncooked flour so using oats is safer).
Use whatever kind of Oreo type cookie you prefer, Oreos and Bourbon biscuits both work well and are vegan friendly.
How To Make Vegan Peanut Butter And Cookies Ice Cream:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
Cover the cashews in boiling water and set aside to soak for at least half an hour then drain. (You can also soak them in cold water overnight instead).
Place the soaked cashews in a blender along with 250ml of water and blend until very smooth.
Add the full fat coconut milk, xanthan gum, peanut butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and continue to blend until the mixture is completely smooth.
There should be no hint of grittiness if you rub some of the mixture between your fingers – you don’t want lumpy ice cream.
Cover with greaseproof paper directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming then place in the fridge until completely cold. (I leave it in there overnight).
While the base is chilling, make the cookie dough. Mix together vegan butter, smooth peanut butter, light brown soft and caster sugars, oat flour, milk, vanilla and salt then stir through some finely chopped chocolate.
(To make your own oat flour you can simply place some oats in a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth).
Roll the mixture into small balls, place them spaced apart on a tray and freeze until solid. (Leave them in the freezer until the ice cream is churned.)
Give the chilled ice cream base a good whisk then churn it in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. (See below for instructions on how to churn it without an ice cream maker).
Once it has reached soft serve consistency, mix through the frozen cookie dough and the crushed Oreos and transfer it to a container. Place in the freezer for a couple of hours to firm up before serving.
Once the ice cream is fully frozen it will be quite firm; let it sit out at room temperature for a bit before scooping.
What If I Don't Own An Ice Cream Maker?:
If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can still make this vegan peanut butter and cookies ice cream, it just takes a bit more work.
Once the base is chilled, pour it into a large freezerproof container and pop it in the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so, remove it from the freezer and give it a quick whisk with an electric mixer to break up any ice crystals then return it to the freezer.
Repeat this until it reaches soft-serve consistency then stir through the frozen cookie dough balls and crushed Oreos.
More Vegan Ice Creams:
- Rich and creamy vegan chocolate ice cream
- Vegan vanilla ice cream (no coconut!)
- Vegan chunky monkey ice cream (banana ice cream with chocolate and walnuts)
- Chocolate coconut sorbet
- Mango lassi sorbet
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Vegan Peanut Butter and Cookies Ice Cream
Ingredients
Ice Cream:
- 120 g (¾ cup) cashews
- 250 ml (1 cup) water
- 400 ml (14 oz) full fat coconut milk (tinned, NOT the drinking variety)
- 170 g (6 oz / scant ¾ cup) smooth creamy peanut butter
- 160 g (¾ cup + 2 tsp) caster (superfine) sugar
- ¼ tsp xanthan gum optional
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
Mix-ins:
- 20 g (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp) vegan butter softened
- 40 g (2 heaped Tbsp) smooth peanut butter
- 25 g (2 Tbsp) caster sugar
- 25 g (2 Tbsp) light brown soft sugar
- 1 tsp non-dairy milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 45 g (⅓cup) oat flour/finely ground oats*
- 30 g (1 oz) dark chocolate chopped into small chunks
- 100 g (10 cookies) Oreo type cookies roughly crushed
Instructions
- Cover the cashews in boiling water and set aside to soak for at least half an hour then drain. (You can also soak them in cold water overnight instead).
- Place the soaked cashews in a blender along with the 250ml of water and blend until very smooth.
- Add the full fat coconut milk, xanthan gum, peanut butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and continue to blend until the mixture is completely smooth. There should be no hint of grittiness if you rub some of the mixture between your fingers.
- Cover and place in the fridge until completely cold. (I leave it in there overnight).
- While the base is chilling, make the cookie dough. Mix together the vegan butter, peanut butter, light brown soft and caster sugars, oat flour, milk, vanilla and salt in a bowl until it forms a dough then stir through the chopped chocolate.
- Roll the mixture into small balls, place them spaced apart on a tray and freeze until solid. (Leave them in the freezer until the ice cream is churned.)
- Give the chilled ice cream base a good whisk then churn it in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. (See above for instructions on how to churn it without an ice cream maker).
- Once it has reached soft serve consistency, mix through the frozen cookie dough and the crushed Oreos and transfer it to a container. Place in the freezer for a couple of hours to firm up before serving.Once the ice cream is fully frozen it will be quite firm; let it sit out at room temperature for a bit before scooping.
Cflores824
Perfect! Best vegan ice cream I’ve tried making so far, nice & creamy!
Jen
Hi. I noticed that in the blog portion of the recipe, you say to add cornflour to the ice cream. But the actual recipe portion doesn't say anything about cornflour. Can you clarify for me please?
hannahhossack
Hi Jen, thanks for flagging that - no cornflour needed. Apologies for the confusion, I've edited the post.
María
Hi, could I adapt this recipe to a simple cookie dough ice cream by omitting the peanut butter? Or would that change the texture of the mix ins? I'm excited to try it out. thanks for the recipe!
hannahhossack
Hi Maria, omitting the peanut butter would definitely change the texture of the cookie dough and you would need to add more vegan butter to compensate. If you wanted to omit the peanut butter from the ice cream as well then I would probably recommend making this one instead: https://domesticgothess.com/blog/2020/04/23/vegan-vanilla-ice-cream/ as I'm not sure how omitting the peanut butter would affect the flavour and texture.
Noel
I will definitely try this out! I have been looking for a recipe for ages! Your recipe has peanut butter in the base itself, have you tried doing a vanilla base and adding peanut butter swirls like the Ben & Jerry's version? Will probably do 2 batches and try that out myself, but was wondering if you had tried it already.
hannahhossack
Hi Noel, No I haven't tried that. I do have a vanilla ice cream recipe that you could use as the base if you wanted to give it a go though: https://domesticgothess.com/blog/2020/04/23/vegan-vanilla-ice-cream/
UBinCT
This recipe is delicious! And not in an 'it's vegan and we have to make do' kind of delicious. This tastes rich and creamy and SO good! My only tweak to it would be to add less sugar, it is quite a sweet dessert! Thank you for this recipe, it's put a real smile on my face.
Antonio Iguina
Delicious smooth and silky. Best PB ice cream I ever had.
But I have a question: what is the fourth step purpose? Why can I put the mixture directly into the machine?
Thanks for the recipe and thanks in advance for the reply.
Hannah
Hi Antonio, so glad you enjoyed the ice cream! Most ice cream makers require the mixture to be cold before churning it, otherwise they won't be able to freeze it properly.