‘Secret ingredient’ Dark chocolate ice cream

Ok so I made you wait…and wait!

You first saw it melting into the choc-chunk cookie pie, but now here we have it in its own right. My super healthy dark chocolate ice cream. Top it with nuts, sprinkles, coconut flakes or a chocolate drizzle, this ice cream is light and refreshing whilst packing a substantial punch…all due to its secret ingredient…

Black beans!

Yup, another spin on the worlds healthiest fudge, further fuelled by the success with this chocolate frosting, it was only a matter of time before the worlds healthiest chocolate ice cream was born!

Perfect teamed with a warm dessert, served soft with layers of fruit or spooned into a cone to enjoy drippy ice cream in the sun shine. The sunshine actually came out today…whoooo!

I call this dark chocolate ice cream as it has a richly intense slightly ‘bitter’ dark chocolate flavour (bitter is not the best word to use- but I hope you know what I mean!) Using coconut milk may give a creamier result (not I have not tried it that way). You could easily jazz up this recipe with mix-ins of coconut, cookie chunks, chocolate drops…..

I topped this cone with a simple chocolate drizzle made with agave syrup, cocoa and melted coconut oil. I mixed approx. 1 teaspoon of each together to create a thickish runny chocolate sauce which froze upon contact with the cold ice cream.
                                                                                                                                                                            

Recipe: Dark chocolate ice cream

Makes approx. 600ml

Ingredients

1 batch fudge- see below

1 ½ cup ‘milk’

3 tbs agave

30ml rum (I used Malibu)

Fudge ingredients:

½  can black beans- rinsed and drained

1 mashed banana

½ cup cocoa powder (or raw cacoa powder)

1/3 cup dates

2 tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp cinnamon

½ tsp stevia

½ cup ground oats**

2 tbs ground flax

2 tbs ground chia seeds

Method

Mix up the fudge by combining all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients to the fudge dough and blend until you have a thick smooth liquid of yoghurt like consistency. Pour into a freezer container with easily removable lid. Place in the freezer for a few hours until solid, stirring twice every hour or two as it begins to solidify.

You can either serve in a semi-frozen state as a ‘soft serve’ dessert, or wait until fully set.

Note: once frozen it will freeze hard due to low fat and sugar content. Taking the ice cream out of the freezer and placing in the fridge 30 mins before serving will help soften it up a little. The alcohol content helps to make a more uniform softness, without it the softening process takes longer and is less consistent (although the resultant ice cream still tastes good!)

Note: I do not have an ice cream maker so have not tried using that method.

* This cone is not vegan or gluten free. I made this particular ice cream for my sister who isn’t vegan and this was the only option available to me. I know vegan and gluten free cones are available- Barkat and Escal are two such brands that are available in the UK.

** for further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.