This cashew ice cream is rich and creamy and made with homemade cashew milk for the creamiest, most perfectly textured ice cream ever!
This cashew ice cream is absolutely divine.
I got some great tips for making vegan ice cream from a book called Artisan Ice Cream and incorporated them into this recipe.
The main takeaway I got from the book was to use cacao butter in vegan ice cream, and this, along with homemade cashew milk, creates a really great ‘chew’ to vegan ice creams.
Well… let’s just say I didn’t know I had been missing the ‘chew’ but yeah, this has some chew!
It is creamy to the max with amazing texture and it has all the cashew flavor you can dream of. And before you say, but…aren’t cashews quite neutral in flavor? Well, yes.
But this cashew ice cream uses cashew butter made from roasted cashews and that really makes that cashew flavor pop.
How To Make Cashew Ice Cream
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Homemade Cashew Milk:
First, you need to make some homemade cashew milk.
Start off by soaking cashews in hot water for one hour. Place the cashews into a bowl, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle and then leave them to soak for one hour.
Then drain the cashews and add them to a blender with fresh water. Blend until super smooth and creamy. The cashews blend into the water perfectly and you don’t even need to strain it like you do with other nut milks.
Ice Cream Mix:
Add your prepared cashew milk to a big bowl along with canned coconut cream. Set aside.
Add white granulated sugar and water to a saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted.
You’ll know it’s melted when your wooden spoon is no longer making a scratchy sound along the bottom of your saucepan.
When the sugar is melted, add chopped cacao butter, coconut oil, cashew butter, salt and coconut sugar and whisk it in until it’s all melted together.
Pour that out into your bowl with the cashew milk and coconut cream.
Blend with an immersion blender until well mixed.
If you don’t have an immersion blender then you can transfer all of it to your regular blender and blend.
Churn:
Place the whole mixing bowl into the freezer to chill for 15-20 minutes so that your ice cream mix is nice and cold before churning. If it hardens along the sides then just whisk it up again.
Pour the ice cream mix into your ice cream machine and churn it until it reaches a soft serve consistency.
Then smooth it down into a loaf pan, cover and place into the freezer until set.
It can take several hours to set completely.
Ingredient Notes
Homemade cashew milk – is crucial because the version you’re going to make is really more like a cashew cream than cashew milk. It’s extremely rich and creamy. The cashew milk you buy from the store will never be as thick and creamy as the one you’ll make.
Coconut sugar – really provides a wonderful depth of flavor to this, but you can switch for brown sugar in a pinch.
Cashew butter – should ideally be made from roasted cashews to really get that cashew flavor going. You can also make your own homemade cashew butter.
Recipe Tips
Soak your cashews. This is a crucial step in getting the right consistency to your homemade cashew milk.
Have all your ingredients measured and weighed. It’s ideal to have everything prepared before you start, because once that sugar is melted, you need to move fast adding in your cacao butter, coconut oil, cashew butter, coconut sugar and salt to the saucepan and melting it all together.
Freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker. Don’t forget to freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker in advance (at least overnight).
Ice cream maker. We have a Cuisinart ice cream maker and I highly recommend it. It churns the ice cream into the perfect soft serve consistency in record time (usually around 25 minutes).
Storing Instructions
Even though it’s ice cream it’s still best eaten within the 1-2 weeks after making it. Any longer than that and ice crystals may start to develop.
More Vegan Ice Cream Recipes
- Vegan Peppermint Ice Cream
- The Best Vegan Ice Cream
- Vegan Banana Ice Cream
- Vegan Coffee Ice Cream
- Vegan Pistachio Ice Cream
- Vegan Avocado Ice Cream
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Cashew Ice Cream
Ingredients
For the Homemade Cashew Milk:
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g) Soaked in hot water for one hour
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Water (270ml)
For the Cashew Ice Cream:
- 2 cups Homemade Cashew Milk (480ml)
- 1 cup Coconut Cream (240ml) Canned, Unsweetened
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- ¼ cup Water (60ml)
- ¾ cup Cacao Butter (100g) Finely Chopped
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (55g)
- ½ cup Cashew Butter (120g)
- ⅓ cup Coconut Sugar (50g)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- At least the day before you want to make ice cream, make sure the bowl for your ice cream machine is placed into the freezer so that it’s ready to go the next day.
- Prepare your homemade cashew milk. Add 1 cup of cashews to a bowl and then pour over boiling water and let it sit for 1 hour. Then drain the cashews and add them to the blender jug along with 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons fresh cold water and blend very well until completely blended in. You should not have to strain this milk at all. It should be totally smooth. Use all of the milk in your ice cream.*
- Add the homemade cashew milk to a big bowl along with the coconut cream and set aside.
- Then get all your other ingredients ready before proceeding.
- Add the sugar to a saucepan along with the quarter cup of water. Stir constantly until the sugar is melted. You’ll know it’s melted when the wooden spoon is no longer making a scratching sound along the bottom of the saucepan.
- Add in the cacao butter, coconut oil, cashew butter, coconut sugar and salt and whisk in until everything is melted together.
- Then pour this out into the bowl with the cashew milk and coconut cream.
- Use an immersion blender to blend everything together. If you don’t have an immersion blender, then transfer everything to your blender jug and blend it and then return it to the bowl.
- Place the bowl into the freezer for 15-20 minutes so that the mixture gets chilled. When the mixture is chilled you might find that the mixture has started to harden along the sides, just stir it up well.
- Pour it into the ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer directions until you reach a soft serve consistency. Depending on the ice cream machine you have this could be anything from 25-45 minutes.
- When it’s reached soft serve consistency, pour it out into a loaf pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon, cover and place into the freezer to set completely.
- When it’s set, scoop into bowls and enjoy.
Notes
- Cashew milk. If your batch of cashew milk makes slightly more or slightly less than 2 cups, don’t worry about it. It should be close, and if so, then just use it all in the ice cream. The difference would come about from the amount of water your cashews absorbed while soaking and if it’s a little more or less, you may end up with a little more or less volume. If it was a big difference (like ½ cup short) then you could use a little extra coconut cream to compensate. If it’s a little over, then just use it all and don’t worry about it.
- Coconut cream. You can also use canned, full fat, unsweetened coconut milk.
- Cashew butter. It’s ideal to use a cashew butter made from roasted cashew nuts. You can also make your own cashew nut butter.
- Prep time excludes time spent soaking (for the cashews) and time spent chilling or setting. It is for the hands on time, including the time spent churning.
- Method inspired by the book Artisan Ice Cream.
I made this with store bought oat milk instead of homemade cashew milk. Everyone loved it and it was gone quickly. Thanks for the great recipe.
Awesome Nancy! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, I have a thing with coconut cream, I have tried it previously and I find it a bit too much for me, so when I saw your recipe with cashews instead, I was really glad. However, I read that you still use coconut cream in your recipe, the very ingredient I need to avoid. Is there a way to replace that coconut cream with something softer for my taste?
Hi Morgan, if you can do coconut milk (not as rich as coconut cream) then that will also work great, otherwise you could just switch it for any creamy non-dairy milk of your choice.
Had anyone tried this with the Ninja Creami?
I think the big thing is fat content. So maybe more cashew or almond milk. I would stay away from oat. I’m making dairy free ice-cream for the first time as I type… So there is a possibility I’m wrong. But from what I read, too much water will make it ice-y not creamy. But since it’s mostly cashews, maybe a heavy cream oat would be OK. 🤔
This is my first decent vegan ice cream, I made it exactly as you suggested, wonderful mouth feel. For others making it, I might reduce the salt slightly, but it is so good. Next time I’ll make it coffee flavored. Thank you!
So happy you enjoyed it Naomi! Thanks so much for the great review.
Hello. I made your cashew ice cream recipe but I didn’t have cashew butter so I left it out. It had a great taste but after 10 minutes of churning it became lumpy. I think it was the cacao butter that became hardened. Can you provide any insights. Thank you!
Hi Norine, did you blend it well into the ice cream mixture before churning?
This was very VERY cacao flavor forward for me. Could be that I’m just overly sensitive to the taste of it maybe. My daughter liked it.
Hi Jenn, I definitely didn’t notice the same, but you could make it without the cacao butter next time if you’d prefer it that way. 🙂
What would replace the Cacao butter? Can I use bought cashew milk or must I make my own. Also, I’m planning to try this with erythritol. Have you tried it instead of sugar?
Hi Janice, I have not made this with a sugar substitute and don’t know how well it will work. You can leave out the cacao butter, there is no substitute.
Hi Alison,
I have just discovered your amazing website while searching for a recipe to make vegan maple walnut ice cream with cashew cream and an ice cream machine. Like you, I have the Cuisinart ice cream maker. I love the idea of using Cacao Butter to improve the texture but would prefer not to use coconut cream because it will change the flavour. Can you tell me how to make this ice cream without using coconut cream?
I can hardly wait to explore your hundreds of delicious recipes!
Thanks,
Steven
Victoria, Canada
Hi Steven, you could do it with cashew milk only if you like! But just letting you know though that the mix of the two (cashew and coconut) is wonderfully neutral in flavor while being ultra creamy so very closely matches ‘regular’ ice cream. 🙂
Excellent recipe, worked a treat! I used soya milk instead of water to make the cashew cream, and added some powdered coconut milk because I only had coconut milk not cream. Minor switches in the scheme of things. Many thanks for sharing this!.
So glad it worked great! Thanks for sharing Caroline!
What can I use to replace coconut cream? I’m allergic. thanks!
Hi Autumn, you could just make more cashew milk and make it entirely from homemade cashew milk. 🙂
Thanks for this great looking recipe! I will make it soon.
Question: Is coconut sugar the same as coconut palm sugar? I have the latter of the two.
Thank you.
Yes they are the same thing. 🙂
Thinking about making this soon and am wondering — do you have any ideas for what to replace 1 cup sugar with that’s unrefined sugar? I typically use maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar but see coconut sugar is already in the recipe later on and am not sure how a liquid sugar would factor in …
Hi Bre, you could use coconut sugar for everything, the color will be different and the flavor will change slightly but it should work great.
This is one of the best recipes for vegan ice cream ever! I utilized the beautiful base and concocted my own flavour…I added half a vanilla bean along with some sea salt instead of the regular….and instead of the cashew butter, I used my favourite nut butter, a blend of pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts….I also included some xanthan gum (1/2 tsp) as I had it on hand, and added it as an extra stabilizer into the mixture that I was heating up…and infused the whole creation with some cardamom, nutmeg and saffron I then topped it with some of my homemade caramel made with coconut cream, sea salt, date paste and maple syrup…it was the most wondrous ice cream ever….thank you! I’ll be trying orange creamsicle and then mixed berry after that!
Thanks so much! Your version sounds totally divine! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
In the 50s my favorite flavour was Butter Cashew.
They made it weekly.
I doubt that they used as much cocoa and coconut products.
We were the dairy capital.
I wonder what recipe they used.
Thank you for yours
This is the creamiest vegan ice cream I’ve ever had. Just two switches I did: 1 I separated the fat of the coconut milk, and used the remaining liquid to replace some of the water to blend the cashews. And 2 I added some crushed walnuts.
Also I had to use the no-ice-cream-machine method. It turned out really good. Thanks a lot.
That’s awesome Sergio! Thanks so much for the wonderful review!
Hello, could coconut milk be used in place of the cashew milk?
Yes, but that would of course lend more of a coconut flavor. 🙂
Hi! I don’t have an ice cream machine.. is there another way to churn it?
You can beat the ice cream mixture with an electric mixer instead. Then put it in the freezer but just before it’s frozen bring it out and beat it again. Do this a couple more times and it will approximate what an ice cream machine does.