I love easy ice cream, you know the kind that's no churn? This no churn Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream is one of my new favorites…and it has a secret!
I wish I could say I have lots of secrets…but I don't. I'm a pretty open person, as you all know. I've talked at length about infertility, weight, love, and anxiety. What I don't talk about openly online I talk about with close friends, and even if I have a secret about myself I usually can't keep my mouth shut forever. I'm just an open book, really. Ask me a question about almost anything and I'll tell you anything you want to know…and you'll probably walk away thinking, "WOW…TMI Dorothy!"
The same goes for my food. I wanted to totally keep the secret ingredient in this ice cream a secret until the very end because I know it's going to freak some of you out. It shouldn't, but it will. But then I had to go and take pictures with the secret ingredient in almost all of them. I clearly was in too much of a must-finish-photos-so-I-can-eat-ice-cream frenzy.
So, look at the next photo and you'll see what the secret is. I promise you it sounds weird but it's not. PLEASE keep reading. Don't let it freak you out!
AVOCADO! Yes, that's right. I used avocado in my ice cream. **mind blown**
When I started this blog many years ago (almost 6, OMG) I wanted to expand on what a "normal" dessert was. I didn't just want to make chocolate chip cookies, I wanted to stuff them with Reese's or make them into gooey bars or cupcakes. This idea is what created some of my favorite, most popular recipes and got me to thinking about new ways to use favorite ingredients.
One of those favorite ingredients just happens to be avocado.
Now, unless you've been following me a long time, you probably don't know about my avocado fascination. Up until about 2012 I'd never even HAD an avocado. (I KNOW, RIGHT?) And then I tasted one and it was love at first bite. If the darn things weren't so many WW SmartPoints I'd eat a whole one every single day.
Back after I discovered my love of the green fruit, I also learned that you can bake with it. You can substitute it for butter in Avocado Banana Bread or for cream in Avocado Truffles. It really is a miracle food!
It also goes AMAZING in ice cream… in case you were wondering.
So how did this ice cream come about? California Avocados wanted to say thanks for being a loyal eater of their product, and they sent me a whole flat a few weeks ago. Now, do you know how many avocados is in a flat? A LOT OF THEM. Luckily, several went into guacamole, but I still had more to use up. I remembered those truffles and asked myself…could I make ice cream with them?
Now, I did some googling and found a lot of ice cream recipes using avocado. Most of them are vegan, healthy, and refined-sugar free. This ice cream is none of those things, although it isn't explicitly unhealthy (like, say this ice cream). I did use the avocado to substitute some of the unhealthy stuff (because even though they're high in calories and fat, it's a better fat than butter or regular oil). In fact, one serving of this ice cream is only 7 WW SmartPoints, so it's not as bad as a bowl of Chunky Monkey or something.
Also: it's NO CHURN. I have an ice cream machine but often I'm too lazy to use it. This way I can make ice cream without even thinking about it beforehand, and in 4 hours I have a bowl of the frozen good stuff.
No churn ice cream is made using sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream. This one is a bit different, however, and not just because of the avocado.
This ice cream recipe is full of peanut butter, so if you're afraid that you'll taste the avocado, don't worry. This tastes like peanut butter and chocolate, not guacamole. I also used that new chocolate sweetened condensed milk to give it the chocolate flavor without adding cocoa powder. I find that cocoa powder can often give things a bitter taste without adding tons of sugar, which I didn't want to do.
So, you ask, why add the avocado? I only used 1/2 cup of the sweetened condensed milk, and combined with the peanut butter and blended avocado, I got the texture I needed to freeze into the ice cream. Instead of using heavy whipping cream, I used 8 ounces of Cool Whip (fat-free). You're welcome to use 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, beaten to stiff peaks, in place of the whipped topping, but I was going for less fat and calories. The avocado adds some smoothness and creaminess, and allows the ice cream to freeze harder than it would if I was just using sweetened condensed milk and Cool Whip.
Please don't be weirded out by this secret, mmkay? It's worth a try, I promise. Plus, you can NEVER go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate!
(HEY BLOGGERS! Will anyone be at IFBC this weekend? I'll be partying hard downtown Sacramento, acting like the tourist I am since I've only been to the capital city 5 times and I've lived in the 'bugs 9 years. Come say hello!)
No Churn Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Yield: 8-10 servings
This No Churn Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream has a SECRET ingredient that keeps the ice cream super creamy! It's full of peanut butter and chocolate too.
Ingredients:
- 1 large California Avocado
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup chocolate sweetened condensed milk
- 8 ounces fat-free Cool Whip
- 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Place the avocado and peanut butter in a blender or food processor and process until smooth and no chunks of avocado remain. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in sweetened condensed milk, then fold in whipped topping.
- Stir in peanut butter and chocolate chips, then transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 4 hours, or until firm.
Notes:
7 WW SmartPoints for about 1/4 cup of ice cream not including the peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. The ice cream tastes amazing without them!
Avocado Truffles – they have NO CREAM in them!
Peanut Butter Brownie Ice Cream
Sweets from friends:
No Churn Avocado Pistacchio Ice Cream by I Wash You Dry
Vanilla Avocado Banana Ice Cream by Averie Cooks
Healthy Mint Chocolate Ice Cream by Taste and Tell
California Avocados sent me a flat of avocados to play with. This post was not sponsored, I just love putting avocado into my desserts!
Source: Crazy for Crust
