With chopped up Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cups and toasted hazelnuts for good measure. 
I have loved ice cream for the majority of my almost-27-years on this planet. Growing up in a vacation hotspot meant there was ice cream around every corner. My dad used to joke that I couldn’t make a decision to save my life unless someone offered to take me out for ice cream. To be honest, he was right. Decision making often resulted in tears for me as a kid, but ice cream was always a no-brainer.
I loved going out for soft serve at Par-Tee-Freeze with my dad and sisters as a kid, or better yet with my uncle Chris, who would willingly tote us around anywhere our hearts desired. Sometimes, my best friend and I would convince her mom to stop by Four Seas for a sundae, always opting for a scoop of coconut topped with homemade hot fudge. We’d even walk into town to get a pint of Ben & Jerry’s from Cumberland Farms; anything for ice cream.
The one thing I couldn’t stand as a kid was stuff in my ice cream. A ripple of fudge or peanut butter was perfectly acceptable, but CHUNKS of anything? Good god, no. Hard bits of chocolate, chunks of icy cookie dough, and every other evil nugget of ice cream nightmares was very much unwelcome; walnuts were taken as a personal attack on my well-being. I was in it for the cool, creamy, unadulterated bliss of ice cream. Chocolate, coffee, black raspberry, coconut, peppermint, really any flavor could suffice, lest there be hidden bombs inside.
These days, I’m more willing to put stuff in my ice cream, but I’m still a purist at heart. I still want the ice cream to be excellent enough to be eaten on its own; chunky bits won’t distract me from the lackluster flavor or mystery-ingredient list on the back of a tub of ice cream.
Even as an adult with a fully functioning ice cream maker in the house and a brain full of recipes, I’m a sucker for a trip to get an ice cream cone. Kevin and I have a favorite spot in Hadley where the ice cream is made right on the dairy farm (and I get to pet the cows!!), and we’ve gotten in the habit of bringing home a pint of ice cream from our neighborhood farm store every time we go. Which, honestly, is all the time. If I run down the street to grab a few extra veggies for dinner, it’s expected that there will be ice cream in tow. When they stock flavors like PEANUT BUTTER PARADISE, how can I resist?
So today, I’m sharing my go-to chocolate ice cream recipe with you. It has only 6 ingredients, and the smooth, silky, chocolatey flavor shines in every bite. It can be made with either canned coconut milk or heavy cream, depending on what you’ve got, and induces the same sense of euphoria that the chunk-less ice creams of childhood held. Since I’m more flexible as an adult, I chopped up leftover hazelnut butter cups and stirred them in to this ice cream with a handful of toasted hazelnuts. The chunky, crunchy contrast to this creamy chocolate ice cream was much appreciated, despite the misgivings of my younger self. 
If you’re an ice cream lover like me, you have to give this recipe a try. Canned coconut milk, dates, cocoa powder, vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon and salt get blended together until thick and creamy. At this point I wanted to warm a mug of it in the microwave and call it hot chocolate, but I resisted the urge, knowing thick, fluffy ice cream was only a 20-minute trip in the ice cream maker away. You can stop there and dig in to perfectly sweetened, soft-serve style chocolate ice cream, or do like I did and fold in the chocolatey chunks of doom and wait for it to firm up in the freezer to scoop into a cone. Either way, you’re looking at perfect, easy homemade ice cream. 
This ice cream is naturally sweetened, completely vegan, gluten free, and paleo friendly. It’s also made with minimal ingredients, and despite being dessert, is full of nutrients to make your body feel great. If you make yourself a vat of ice cream this week, let me know! Leave a comment below or tag me #bakedgreens on Instagram so I can gaze longingly at your creamy smooth bowls of ice cream.
Date-Sweetened Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 14- ounce cans full-fat coconut milk*
- 10 large soft Medjool dates (pitted)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of salt
Optional Mix-ins
- 4-6 Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cups chopped
- a handful of toasted hazelnuts chopped
Instructions
- 1. Make sure the bowl of your ice cream maker has been frozen for at least 12 hours before making this recipe. Alternately, you can make it without an ice cream maker, but should plan to eat the ice cream on the same day it's made. No-churn ice cream tends to freeze into a solid brick when frozen for more than a few hours.
- 2. Combine all ingredients, except mix-ins, in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Pour ice cream base into your ice cream maker, and churn according to manufacturer instructions (mine usually takes 20-30 minutes in my Cuisinart).
- 3. When ice cream is finished churning, add in chopped hazelnut butter cups and chopped hazelnuts, if using. Eat immediately as soft serve, or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 week, for hard serve. Let ice cream soften for 10-15 minutes at room temperature before scooping.
Notes
To make this without an ice cream maker, pour ice cream base into a shallow freezer-safe dish. Freeze for 1-3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. This version will not be as fluffy and creamy, but should still taste great if eaten on the same day it's made.