This Pumpkin Nice Cream is easy to make without an ice cream maker with frozen bananas, coconut cream, real pumpkin and optional pumpkin spice cookie dough balls. A vegan pumpkin ice cream that is sweet, creamy and is a healthy and delicious way to get your pumpkin pie fix. Gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free and paleo-friendly.
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Vegan Pumpkin Nice Cream recipe
Looking for a cool and creamy treat for fall? This easy Pumpkin Nice Cream tastes just like pumpkin pie and is easy to make without an ice cream maker. It’s sweet, creamy and the perfect dessert for pumpkin season!
All you need are some frozen bananas, coconut cream and some pumpkin puree. We even added some edible pumpkin cookie dough to take it up a notch but you can certainly leave that out if you prefer. Everything blends up in less than 5 minutes and you can either enjoy it right away like soft serve or store in your freezer until ready to enjoy.
What is Nice Cream?
If you haven’t already heard of the banana ice cream trend, you are definitely going to love how simple it is to make! Nice cream really calls for one main ingredient. All you need to make a vegan ice cream recipe are some frozen bananas. Once you have your sliced frozen bananas, blend them up in a food processor or a high-speed blender. What you’ll get is a creamy soft serve ice cream that is totally guilt-free!
Plus, it’s completely dairy-free, paleo-friendly, vegan, low carb, refined sugar-free and can be customized into a ton of different flavors with add-ins you have in your kitchen.
What you’ll need
This pumpkin pie ice cream comes together easily with just four main ingredients in your blender or food processor. You can make a batch of this any time you have any extra ripe bananas sitting on the counter. You can choose to add the pumpkin cookie dough or leave that out.
Nice cream ingredients:
- Frozen Bananas: to create optimal rich flavors. We like to use ripened spotty bananas for this frozen banana ice cream recipe. Do not try to use green or yellow bananas for any nice cream recipes as you will be pretty disappointed.
- Pumpkin puree: be sure to use pure sugar free canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) or homemade pumpkin puree. Be sure not to use canned pumpkin pie filling though since it’s packed with other sweeteners and fillers.
- Canned coconut cream (only use brands (like Trader Joe’s, Aroy-D) containing coconut milk & water – no Guar gum or other fillers or the ice cream will not turn out properly). If you don’t have coconut cream, you can also spoon out the thick part of a chilled can of full-fat coconut milk.
- Pumpkin spice: you can use our homemade pumpkin pie spice blend or you can grab a jar from any grocery store.
Optional
- Vanilla extract – optional, but used for additional flavoring
- Liquid sweetener of your choice – we don’t typically add any sweeteners or sugars since we find this sweet enough but you can definitely add some to suite your taste. A few options: Maple syrup, honey (if not vegan), liquid monk fruit, sugar-free maple syrup or other liquid sweetener of your choice.
For the optional cookie dough
- Unsalted Drippy Cashew Butter – You could also use almond butter, sunflower seed butter or any nut butter or seed butter, if preferred. If not paleo, peanut butter would be delicious too.
- Maple syrup – to sweeten things up without any refined sugars. You can use organic agave syrup, yacon syrup, date syrup or any liquid syrup or liquid sweetener you like. Use sugar-free maple syrup, liquid monkfruit or stevia for low carb or keto.
- Unsweetened almond milk: or sub with any plant-based milk.
- Vanilla extract – just a splash is all you need to add flavor.
- Super fine blanched almond flour – our favorite paleo and low carb flour to use in place of all purpose flour.
- Coconut flour: just 1 tablespoon to add structure to the cookie dough.
- Pumpkin spice: you can use our homemade pumpkin pie spice blend or you can grab a jar from any grocery store.
- Fine sea salt: just a pinch to balance out the sweetness.
- Dairy-free chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. We like Lily’s Sweets, Paschas or Hu’s Kitchen Gems.
How to make Pumpkin Nice Cream
To make this creamy vegan pumpkin cookie dough ice cream recipe without an ice cream maker:
Make the cookie dough:
- Combine the ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cookie dough ingredients together. Use a fork followed by your hands to knead into a cookie-dough texture. Add more liquid sweetener, milk or cashew butter if the dough seems too dry and alternatively, add more almond flour if the dough seems too wet.
- Scoop into balls: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out ½ teaspoon-size of the mixture and roll into balls. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Freeze: Place the pan in the freezer while you make the ice cream.
Make the nice cream:
- Blend: Add the frozen banana slices, coconut cream, and vanilla in a food processor or a high-powered blender. Blend the ingredients together until the mixture resembles soft serve ice cream. Scrape the sides of the processor and add additional coconut cream or 1-2 tablespoons plant-based milk as needed. After a few minutes, the ice cream should have the correct creamy texture.
- Stir in cookie dough: Take the pan of the cookie dough bites from the freezer and add ⅓ of the cookie dough bites and pulse for 30 seconds to break them up. Stir in the remaining cookie dough bites, reserving some for topping on the ice cream. Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or transfer to a resealable airtight container or a loaf pan and freeze until solid, approximately 2 hours.
- Eat right away or freeze: Serve with reserved cookie dough bites and enjoy immediately or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 1 hour or until desired consistency.
A Few Tips For This Nice Cream
Here are a few tips to make the perfect pumpkin pie ice cream every time:
- Slice and freeze ripe bananas – Slicing bananas into smaller chunks helps the bananas blend easier once they are frozen. When you place the sliced bananas into the freezer, be sure to line the plate or tray with parchment paper or they might get stuck.
- For a sweeter ice cream, use bananas that are very ripe. If you use unripe bananas, you may need to add a preferred sweetener, such as monk fruit sweetener, coconut sugar, or maple syrup.
- Once frozen, toss into a food processor or a high powered blender (Vitamix, Blendtec etc.) – At first, the frozen bananas will turn into a crumbly texture and then all of a sudden, will transform into a dreamy-licious soft, and fluffy soft-serve ice cream texture.
Ice Cream Variations
Play around with flavor combinations!
- Use frozen strawberries to make Strawberry Nice Cream
- Swap frozen mango chunks for a delicious Mango Nice Cream
- Stir in some peanut butter for a yummy Peanut Butter Nice Cream (or any other nut butter you like)
- Add some crumbles of Edible Cookie Dough to make a delicious Cookie Dough Ice Cream
- Some cacao powder for a delicious Chocolate Nice Cream
Storage Info
Store this healthy pumpkin ice cream in an airtight freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to three months. When ready to enjoy, just allow the nice cream to thaw on the counter for about 15 minutes prior to eating.
This Pumpkin Nice Cream is easy to make without an ice cream maker with frozen bananas, coconut cream, real pumpkin and optional pumpkin spice cookie dough balls. A vegan pumpkin ice cream that is sweet, creamy and is a healthy and delicious way to get your pumpkin pie fix. Gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free and paleo-friendly.
- 2 tablespoons creamy cashew butter , or any nut or seed butter
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup , sub with Lakanto sugar-free maple syrup or preferred liquid sweetener for a low sugar / lower carb option
- 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups superfine blanched almond flour , add more as needed
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour
- 1/8 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dairy-free chocolate chips OR chopped chocolate, we like Lily's Sweets, Paschas or Hu's Kitchen Gems
- 3-4 medium ripe banana , cut into rounds and frozen
- 1/2 cup canned coconut cream , we usually use the ones with no gums or fillers - either Trader Joe’s, Aroy-D or Earth’s Choice - if you don’t have coconut cream, you can also spoon the thick part from full-fat canned coconut milk that has been chilled for at least 6 hours
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree , not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the cookie dough ingredients together in the order they appear (starting with the cashew butter) using a fork followed by your hands to knead into a cookie-dough texture.
Add more liquid sweetener, milk or cashew butter if the dough seems too dry and alternatively, add more almond flour if the dough seems too wet.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out ½ teaspoon-size of the mixture and roll into balls. Repeat with remaining dough.
Place the pan in the freezer while you make the ice cream.
Add the frozen banana slices, coconut cream, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice and vanilla in a food processor or a high-powered blender.
Blend the ingredients together until the mixture resembles soft serve ice cream. Scrape the sides of the processor and add additional coconut cream or 1-2 tablespoons plant-based milk as needed. After a few minutes, the ice cream should have the correct creamy texture.
- Take the pan of the cookie dough bites from the freezer and add ⅓ of the cookie dough bites and pulse for 30 seconds to break them up. Stir in the remaining cookie dough bites, reserving some for topping on the ice cream. Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or transfer to a resealable airtight container or a loaf pan and freeze until solid, approximately 2 hours.
- Serve with reserved cookie dough bites and enjoy.
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