Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream Bars (Vegan)

The chocolate ice cream you’d never guess contains avocado

Have you read the back of a supermarket ice block lately? Sugar, glucose syrup, and a list of obscure numbers and colours. The dairy free ones aren’t much better, with the dairy milk simply swapped out for coconut cream.

So these are what I make instead. Chocolate hazelnut ice creams on a stick, dipped in a proper chocolate shell, with crushed hazelnuts scattered over the top while it is still setting. My kids are in for anything on a stick, and these are classic enough that they’ll like them, but bougie enough that you will too. Because we all know that when we make recipes “for the kids”, we are secretly hoping to get a look in ourselves.

The base is not coconut, and it is not soaked cashews, which is where nearly every dairy free ice cream starts. It is avocado. Two of them, blitzed with cacao, hazelnut milk, a little coconut nectar and vanilla, which is what gives this avocado ice cream its dense, fudgy, almost gelato texture without a drop of cream.

As a Registered Naturopath and Nutritionist, what I like about this one is that the ingredient doing the work is a whole food. The avocado brings the monounsaturated fat that gives the filling its cool, spoonable set, along with around 4g of fibre per bar once you count the cacao. It also means no cashews, so there is nothing to soak and nothing expensive in the trolley.

If you like this idea, my Avocado Key Lime Pie uses the same trick but with a citrus twist.

How to make these chocolate avocado ice cream bars

What makes these different to other chocolate ice cream

Most chocolate and hazelnut ice creams are built on cream, condensed milk, or a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread, which is mostly sugar and palm oil. The dairy free versions almost always run on coconut cream or soaked cashews.

Three things set these apart. The base is avocado, so the texture is dense and fudgy rather than icy, and it costs a fraction of a cashew base. There is no soaking and no ice cream maker, so it is fifteen minutes of hands-on work and then the freezer does the rest. And the chocolate shell is made from cacao butter rather than melted chocolate, so it sets hard and cracks properly when you bite it, instead of going soft the moment it leaves the freezer.

What you’ll need

• Avocados. Two ripe ones, roughly two cups of flesh. They are the whole trick. You want them properly ripe, yielding to a gentle press, with no browning or stringiness, or the flavour will come through in the finished bar. Freeze them in season and you can make these year round.
• Hazelnut milk. A cup and a quarter, unsweetened. Check the label on store-bought, because many have added sweeteners, and if yours does, drop the coconut nectar by a tablespoon. You can make your own nut milk if you’d rather, and almond milk works if you want a more neutral background.
• Cacao powder. A third of a cup in the ice cream, three tablespoons in the shell.
• Coconut nectar. A third to a half cup, to taste. Brown rice malt syrup or yacon syrup both work.
• Coconut oil. Three tablespoons, melted and then cooled to barely warm.
• Cacao butter. Three tablespoons for the shell. This is what makes it snap.
• Vanilla, sea salt, and guar gum. A tablespoon of vanilla in the base and half a teaspoon in the shell. A pinch of salt in both. The guar gum is optional, a quarter teaspoon, and it keeps the texture smooth rather than frosty. A teaspoon of lecithin does the same job.
• Hazelnuts. Dried and activated if you have them, and you can read how to activate nuts here. Otherwise roast them lightly yourself at 150°C for twelve minutes.

Kitchen notes

• Can I use almonds instead of hazelnuts? Yes. Hazelnut is the Robin to my chocolate Batman here, but if you can’t find hazelnuts or hazelnut milk, almonds work beautifully, and soy or oat milk are both fine in the base too.
• No avocados? Two bananas will do it. Reduce the coconut nectar, because bananas bring their own sweetness, and expect a lighter, more banana-forward result.
• Blend the avocado completely smooth before anything else goes in. Any lump left at that stage stays a lump.
• Melted but cool coconut oil. If it is still warm when it hits the cold avocado it will seize into little flecks and the mixture splits.
• Scatter the hazelnuts immediately. The cacao butter shell sets fast, and once it has gone hard nothing will stick to it.
• It needs the full overnight freeze. A few hours gives you something soft that slumps off the stick.
• Add cacao nibs alongside the hazelnuts if you want more crunch and less sweetness.

Serving and storage

These keep in the freezer for up to two months, though they do get icier the longer they sit, so the first fortnight is the best of them. Store them in a sealed container once the shell has set hard.

Let them sit at room temperature for two or three minutes before eating. Straight from the freezer the flavour is muted and the shell is brittle, and those few minutes let the texture come back to that gelato softness.

If your mould is on the small side, pour any leftover mixture into ramekins and refrigerate instead of freezing, and you have a chocolate mousse.

Make this next: my Avocado Key Lime Pie for another dessert nobody guesses, or browse the rest of the Desserts.

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Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream Bars (Vegan)

5 from 1 vote

AuthorBuffy Ellen Gill

Servings 8 Ice Creams

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Set Time 10 hours hrs

Total Time 10 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Ingredients

Ice Cream

• 2 ripe avocados ~2 cups
• 1 ¼ c hazelnut or almond milk unsweetened
• ⅓ c cacao powder
• 1/3-1/2 c coconut nectar
• 3 tbsp coconut oil melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp guar gum optional
• pinch sea salt

Chocolate Topping

• 3 tbsp cacao butter melted
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut nectar
• pinch sea salt

To Sprinkle

• Crushed hazelnuts dried activated

Instructions

• Blend all ice cream ingredients in a high speed blender until super creamy and smooth.
• Pour into ice block moulds, pat down to remove any air bubbles, place an ice cream stick in the centre of each and pop in the freezer over night.
• Run warm water over the ice cream moulds to loosen, then lay the ice creams down on a tray.
• Whisk together the chocolate topping ingredients and drizzle over the ice creams, sprinkling straight after with crushed hazelnuts and more drizzle until it’s all used up.
• Pop back in the freezer for at least half an hour or until completely firm again before serving. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

• You can also use 1 tsp lecithin instead of the guar gum, to help prevent the ice creams from becoming frosty and ice crystal-y in the freezer.
• If you don’t have dried and activated hazelnuts you can alternatively use lightly roasted hazelnuts (150 °C for 12 minutes).
• If you don’t have homemade hazelnut milk, you can use store bought, just check whether it has any sweetener added (look in the ingredients list on the back). If so, reduce your coconut nectar by 1 tbsp. 
• You can replace hazelnut milk with almond milk also, this just will give a slightly more neutral flavour to the ice creams. 
• Coconut nectar can be substituted with any other sweetener of your choice – I recommend as my next top two choices brown rice syrup, or yacon syrup for diabetics/blood sugar management. 
• If avocados aren’t in season, swap them out for two bananas. I’ve also done a delish combo with one avo and one banana when I didn’t have two on hand. If you use bananas, lower the coconut nectar as they will add some sweetness already. 
• Top tip – when avos are in season, stock up! Simply remove from the skin and freeze so you can make ice cream all year round. 
• These ice creams can be stored for up to two months in the freezer. Any longer and they start to get icy. 
• They are also super yum topped with cacao nibs as well as hazelnuts. 

Nutrition Disclaimer

As a Registered Naturopath and Nutritionist, I create nutritionally-balanced recipes using whole food ingredients designed to support optimal health and wellbeing. While I encourage an intuitive approach to eating, I also recognise the value of understanding calories and macronutrients as tools to build awareness around your intake. This awareness can be helpful in aligning your nutrition with your personal health goals.

Please note: all nutritional information provided is an estimate only. Variations will occur depending on the specific brands used, recipe adjustments, and portion sizes consumed. If you have individual dietary needs or health conditions, I recommend booking a personalised consultation for tailored advice.

Nutrition

Calories: 215kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 2gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gSodium: 70mgPotassium: 329mgFiber: 6gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 73IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 60mgIron: 1mg

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