*This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure policy here.
VEGAN VANILLA CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM
Guys, I just don’t even know what to say about this Vegan Vanilla Cheesecake Ice Cream right here. You only need 7 ingredients for all of it, including the ridiculously easy raw caramel. I shared this post on Facebook yesterday and everybody was excitedly ready for something other than chocolate. I am so excited when a recipe turns out even better than I think it will. I have been meaning to make a vegan vanilla ice cream for quite some time. It is my Dad’s favorite flavor and also several of you have asked for a vanilla ice cream or one that wasn’t chocolate.
Well, I couldn’t stop at just vanilla, so I made vanilla cheesecake flavored ice cream. Me, my toddler and my husband <<<<MR. Picky, all just died over it. My daughter literally was moaning, hahaha.
So incredibly luscious and creamy. I’m not kidding, it really does taste like Vanilla Cheesecake in Ice Cream form….dairy-free and oil-free is hard to believe, it’s that creamy!
With caramel sauce, it’s almost too good.
VEGAN CARAMEL
The caramel just takes it to another whole level. The ice cream isn’t overly sweet, which makes this caramel sauce balance it out nicely. Although, the ice cream is certainly totally dreamy on it’s own, let’s not kid ourselves.
Let me just say that I’m obsessed with creating vegan ice cream. The commercial vegan versions I’ve tried are okay, but what I create at home knocks them out of the park. Also, I’m not a fan of the ingredient list in the commercial ice creams. Besides, when a reader makes your Starbucks Mocha Ice Cream and says “this was an awesome recipe…for the 1st time in my whole entire life, I tasted a non dairy ice cream, and it was DELICIOUS”, how can I not keep busting out these amazing vegan ice creams that rival any dairy, truly. Especially, now that I’m discovering more and more ways to make them sooo creamy.
This one is sooooo creamy, luscious and really does taste like cheesecake in ice cream form. In fact, my husband’s first words out of his mouth were:
“Omg, this tastes just like Vanilla Bean Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!”
Now, I didn’t add vanilla bean to it, but you get the idea. It is gourmet, silky, smooth and incredibly delicious.
And, of course, I couldn’t stop there and created a caramel sauce to go over it. Several months back while making a dessert, I was combining my liquids of melted coconut butter, maple syrup, vanilla and tasted it, I was blown away by how much it tasted like caramel. So, that is my favorite way of making a vegan caramel.
OTHER VEGAN ICE CREAM RECIPES TO TRY:
- 4 Ingredient Chocolate Ice Cream (#1 recipe on my blog!)
- Vegan Peanut Butter Sweet Potato Ice Cream
- Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
- Vegan Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream
- Vegan Vanilla Birthday Cake Ice Cream (with a shocking ingredient!)
- Vegan Dark Chocolate Almond Ice Cream
- Vegan Java Crunch Ice Cream
- Raspberry Sorbet
Vegan Vanilla Cheesecake Ice Cream With Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 cups (720g) quality high fat coconut milk (Use TWO full 13.6 oz cans of FULL FAT coconut milk, I find Thai Kitchen brand to be the best and creamiest, make sure yours has the 14g fat. Or for totally raw version, you will need about 6 young coconuts and can follow this tutorial
- 3/4 cup (120g) raw whole cashews
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup or agave
- 1/4 cup (60g) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
CARAMEL SAUCE
- 1/4 cup (60g) melted coconut butter
- 4 tablespoons (80g) pure maple syrup or agave (room temperature! (I used Grade B syrup for a darker color)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Make sure your ice cream bowl has been in the freezer for several hours or overnight before making the ice cream. The liquid in the bowl must be completely frozen or it won't make the ice cream properly. If you do not have a high powered blender, you will need to soak your cashews in a bowl covered with lukewarm water and leave at room temperature for 2-4 hours (4 is best for the best creamy results) before making the ice cream. Pour out the water from the bowl and pat them dry with a paper towel and proceed with the recipe. Keep in mind a high powered blender gives the best, creamiest results just like dairy.
- Add all of the ingredients (except the caramel sauce) to a high powered blender and blend on high until very smooth and creamy, about a minute or two. Taste and add any more sweetener or vanilla, if desired. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it do it's magic. Mine took about 30 minutes churning. It will be a soft serve consistency once done. Add to a container and smooth the ice cream out and put a tight fitting lid on. Place in the freezer to firm up for a couple of hours or so. If it completely freezes overnight, just take it out a few minutes before to soften some before serving.
- To make the caramel sauce, melt some coconut butter and make sure to measure out 1/4 cup. Add the syrup and vanilla mix with a fork. Add any water if desired, to reach consistency. Pour over the ice cream once you are ready to serve. Keep the ice cream stored covered in an airtight container and store the caramel sauce at room temperature. You may need to slightly reheat the caramel sauce when using again.
- Note: Homemade ice cream is best eaten within the first couple of days. Each time you take the ice cream out and it slightly thaws and then refreeze it, it becomes more icy and hard each time, which is why it's best to eat it the first couple of days. Otherwise, you can store the ice cream right after it's made into individual serving portions, so it doesn't keep getting taken in and out of the freezer.
Notes
I’m wondering about the coconut butter caramel and your experience with coconut butter in general. I don’t know if this is the right place to post my curiosities but I didn’t find another way to contact you. I see you use coconut butter quite a bit and I am in awe! I have had hit and miss luck with the stuff and can’t figure out the secret. How do you keep it from seizing when adding maple syrup? I have tried different temperatures, adding ingredients in different order, electric blending, gentle blending by hand. Would you be willing to share your secrets? Thank you so much and thanks for sharing your hard work and delicious recipes!
It really does taste like cheesecake! Delicious!!
So wonderful to hear Christina!!
This is a great ice cream recipe, and I love this site! It definitely gives cheesecake vibes, but I’d personally reduce the lemon juice by at least a tablespoon. I realize this is personal preference though. This is a great accompaniment to the coconut butter brownies on this site- Delicious!
What can I use if I don’t have an ice cream maker??
Jenny
I don’t recommend making this without one, as the recipe is based off of using an ice cream maker. If you don’t use one, the ice cream will turn out very hard/icy.
Can you freeze it immediately and serve it months later without the quality degrading much?
No, months? It would be so hard by then. Ice cream, even storebought is best eaten within the first week. All ice creams start to lose their quality of texture and even taste fairly soon. They create lots of ice crystals. Homemade really needs to be eaten the first few days, since there is no added gums, it will just keep getting harder.
My husband raved about this ice cream. It’s truly spectacular! I licked the ice cream maker 😁 And you were right it did not need the additional coconut sugar.
Yay! So so happy to hear this Fuchi!! Thrilled you both loved it!
Any way to make this without an ice cream maker? (:
Hi Mallory, you can try the method on this chocolate ice cream post, but honestly, it just will simply not get as creamy as an ice cream maker. It will freeze rather hard, so you can do the stirring method and make sure to eat it the same day so you really get a taste of it’s delicious creamy flavor and then with any leftovers, let them thaw a bit at room temperature before eating. It will not be as creamy though and likely have mini ice crystals. https://thevegan8.com/4-ingredient-vegan-chocolate-ice-cream/
Help!! I bought the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker that you recommend but didn’t realize they have 2 sizes. Will this 1.5 quart work for your recipes or are they geared towards the 2 quart one??
Hi Linda, yes, I think you should be fine! My ice cream recipes don’t typically ever fill up to the top when I make them in my 2 quart, so I think you should be fine!
I’d love to try this recipe, but it’s not on the post anymore.
Hi Amanda, so sorry about that, I just switched recipe card plugins this week and several got lost in the transfer, it has been fixed, so refresh your browser and you should see it now 🙂
Wow this turned out great!! So surprising it does not have a very coconutty taste either. Sometimes I find my vitamix is so powerful it warms what is being blended a little so I added the liquid to the ice cream maker bowl and put it in the freezer for about half an hour before I started churning, worked like a dream.
So glad you enjoyed it JD! Thank you so much for making it!!
Wow what a condescending comment that was not in any way asked for. Hope you enjoyed the pat on the back you gave yourself because everyone else just thinks your an a**
Well, I don’t know if maybe I did something wrong, or if it was the ingredient brands not being the same, but the first round with this didn’t turn out—just stayed liquid. I managed to fix it by mixing in 3 egg yolks and 2 tsp gelatin and cooking all the ingredients until it starts to thicken and then covered and let cool in the fridge over night. Repeating this recipe, I would probably leave out the cashews too; there was a grittiness to the texture that I personally just didn’t really like. My dark chocolate chunk recipe had these additional ingredients and instructions and turned out really well.
Hi Lauren! Did you use your ice cream maker and was the bowl placed in the freezer for at least 24 hours before you added the ice cream base? There is no reason why it would stay liquid unless your bowl wasn’t frozen or you didn’t let it churn long enough. I’ve made this recipe and so have many readers a lot of times and it does turn into ice cream. Are you sure you used full-fat coconut milk? Also, if your cashews are gritty that is because you didn’t use a high-powered blender I’m assuming? You need a strong blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec and it turns the cashews into 100% creamy smooth texture, absolutely no grit. I make cashew ice cream this way all the time. You definitely don’t want to leave out the cashew because that is what contributes to the smooth and thick creamy texture. It will not work the same without them. So, I hope all these questions help to troubleshoot for you! It definitely turns to ice cream with these ingredients! Just like you see in the photos. 🙂
You’re probably right about the blender being behind the gritty texture. I always thought my ninja was high powered, but if you know that’d the reason for the texture issue then it must not be. My best guess on the reason it didn’t freeze is that I grabbed the wrong freezer bowl—one was in there 24 hours and the other only 3 hours…..but there may also be an issue with my freezer bowls or the machine? I churned my custard mix this morning and after 30 minutes, the liquid was sloshing around in the bowl again like it wasn’t frozen long enough.
Oh, ok I’ve heard from many people that the Ninja does not get their cashews creamy. I would soak the cashew overnight in hot water (8 hours minimum) drain and then it should work in your Ninja. Let it run for several minutes if necessary. The longer soaking helps tremendously. Ok, yeah, if your bowl was frozen, it definitely works!! I’ve made it multiple times but it definitely does not work if the bowl is not solid frozen. Yeah, if the liquid is sloshing around, that was the issue. You should have better luck next time! 🙂
Thanks so much! I’ll try that next time.
I’m confused by your comment. I don’t believe anywhere in my post I stated that this was a healthy “cholesterol benefits and cancer prevention” recipe. It is an ice cream recipe! A large amount of vegans use coconut milk to achieve the creamy results that dairy provides. Since ice cream is not something I eat daily multiple times a day, I’m not concerned one bit about the fat content. If you are wanting something cancer preventing or with cholesterol benefits, ice cream is probably not the way to go. Maybe just stick with banana nice cream if that’s what you are after. I share my recipes for free on the internet, nobody has to make them if they don’t want to.
After putting the mixture in my ice cream maker, it never thickened? Any thoughts on what could have been done wrong?
Hi Chrys, was your ice cream bowl frozen? That’s the only reason it wouldn’t thicken, because it thickens and turns into ice cream because the ice cream bowl is cold and as it churns, it becomes ice cream.
Wow Brandi I never knew the vast amount of delicious recipies you have here?
Thank you so much!
Aww thank you so much Nancy!! This is a yummy one for sure, let me know if you try it, I’d love to hear!
Ice cream in the winter? You bet! 🙂 I got my daughter an ice cream maker for Christmas and couldn’t wait to try it out. Your cheesecake ice cream recipe christened our machine and it was a huge hit! I made your dark chocolate ice cream last night, and plan to try making your cinnamon ice cream recipe next. Knowing each delicious recipe consists of just a few healthy whole food ingredients WITHOUT preservatives or synthetic ingredients makes me SO incredibly happy. I can’t wait to try them all!
Oh Colleen, I loved this feedback, so amazing to read! Everytime I receive one of your feedbacks, I grin from ear to ear! I’m honored you chose my recipe to break in your new ice cream maker! Thank you so much for always letting me know how you enjoy the recipes!!
So if I have a high power blender do I still need to soak the cashews?
No, you don’t need to soak them. I never do. Just make sure to blend them up until they are completely smooth. Let me know how you like the ice cream!