Wrap your hands around something wonderful with this vegan cherry almond ice cream between two delicious almond chocolate cookies.

Can you imagine Summer without ice cream? Hmmm… I can’t, even though I wasn’t always a huge fan of ice cream. I think I talked about it in one of my old posts.

Now, I can’t imagine how I’d survive the Summer heat without ice cream at least once a week.

Since I don’t have an ice cream machine I always make a no-churn version and I even have a little trick to make a no-churn ice cream creamy with no lumps of ice.

How do I make my no-churn ice cream smooth?

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way is to blend the mixture again after it has frozen halfway through. I mix with a spoon once after an hour. Then, after another hour I take the ice cream out and mix it again in my blender. This mixed the ice crystals that form at the edge of the container and make it nice and smooth again. Then I return it back to the freezer and leave to freeze until done. Honestly, I think the consistency is super similar to the machine made ice cream. I’m all about gadgets, but who’s got the place?!

I created this recipe in collaboration with Tereza from Teresamisu. If you missed the last recipe we created together, here is our delicious Vegan Pea And Asparagus Pie.

We decided to use sweet cherries as the base for the recipe and start from there. Tereza is known for creating healthy dishes and a lot of them are vegan. So I was totally on board with trying to make vegan ice cream but my first thought was NO COCONUT. I love coconut, don’t get me wrong, but I hate to see sooooo many vegan ice cream recipes based on coconut milk. I was thinking there’s a way to make delicious ice cream without it, for sure. So cherries got me thinking. Almonds are the first thing that came to mind and man I’m glad I went that way!

Oh and btw, I have a coconut ice cream recipe in store for one of the next posts 😉 but that one is meant to have a coconut flavor!

This is basically a marzipan ice cream. I like marzipan and if you love it too, you are going to love this cherry almond ice cream sandwiches!

Tereza created the recipe for the cookies and guess what? She also used almond butter without us even discussing the recipe. Talk about soul sisters 🤣

You know what, I’m not gonna blab for much longer. Let’s just get to the recipe. Happy beginning of the Summer, everyone!

Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream

Servings 5 ice cream sandwiches

Author Anja Burgar & Tereza Poljanič

Ingredients

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

1 cup medjool dates (about 10 medjool dates), pitted
2 cups almond milk (500ml)
1 cup almond butter (250ml)
2 cups cherries (350g), pitted
2 1/2 TBSP cane sugar

Almond Cookie

1/2 cup maple syrup or honey for non-vegan version
1/4 cup almond butter, peanut butter or tahini (90ml)
3/4 cup walnuts (or any other nuts), blended into a flour (90g)
1 1/2 cup cup buckwheat flour (150g)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 TBSP cocoa powder

Instructions

Almond Cookie

In a bowl, mix up maple syrup and almond butter until fully combined. Mix in ground walnuts until fully combined. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and raw cacao. Add it to the almond mixture. The mixture will be thick and sticky so it’s best to use your hands.
Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to get the desired shape. Make small dents on the surface of the formed cookies for decoration if you wish.
Place the tray in the fridge for 30 min while you pre-heat the oven to 175°C.
Bake for 10-12 mins. Remove the biscuits from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool down completely before assembling the sandwiches.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

First, make the cherry jam. Place pitted cherries and cane sugar to a blender and mix until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve and discard the solids that remain on the sieve. Place the cherry juice in a small pot and bring to a simmer, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool at room temperature.
Then prepare the ice cream base. Add dates and half of the almond milk to a blender and mix until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.
Transfer the ice cream mixture to a loaf pan or small baking tray with high sides. Freeze for two hours, mixing once after an hour. After two hours scoop out the half-frozen mixture to a blender and mix until smooth. This way you get rid of big lumps of ice.
Transfer half of the mixture back to the same pan, then add half of the cherry jam and use the
backside of a spoon to make some swirls. Place the rest of the ice cream mixture on top and add the rest of the cherry jam. Repeat the swirling and freeze until scoopable.

Assembling The Sandwiches

When the ice cream is frozen enough to form scoops make large scoops and place them over cookies. Cover with another cookie. Place ice cream sandwiches on a tray and save in the freezer.
Leave them at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Vegan Cherry Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches

How do I make my no-churn ice cream smooth?