Best Caramel Nice Cream (Soft Serve Texture)

This caramel nice cream is not only frozen bananas blended into ice cream topped with a swirl of vegan caramel sauce. It is much more than that since the caramel flavor is actually blended in the nice cream. It is easy to make, and absolutely delicious. And its texture is creamy and smooth just like a perfect vegan soft serve. It is also scoopable right out of the freezer.

If you are looking for more vegan treats, try our 3-ingredient peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies.

What can you expect from this recipe?

Have you tried making nice cream yet? You may know about the rave that frozen sliced banana is blended in a high-power blender until it reaches a smooth creamy consistency. It is incredible that ripe or better overripe bananas can be turned into an ice cream texture.

It feels colder though when you eat it and it melts easier than regular dairy-free ice creams. It will be more like a vegan soft serve than hard scoopable ice cream. However, you cannot beat the fact that nice cream is the healthiest, only one ingredient, truly whole foods plant-based ice cream you can ever try.

Obviously, it tastes like a banana. But there are tons of flavor combinations you can do to keep things interesting.

While others only added a swirl of caramel flavor on top, we wanted to make a truly caramel-flavored vegan ice cream bowl. So we made a dark luscious vegan caramel sauce from coconut sugar and coconut cream and blended them together with the frozen banana slices. It turned out to be absolutely delicious. Let me show you how to make it at home!

Ingredients

To make the best caramel banana ice cream ever, you need only 4 ingredients. It is an easy dessert recipe albeit not quick since you need some overnight prep work to freeze the bananas.

• overripe frozen banana slices -> You know the ones with brown spots that you may not want to eat but are perfect for baking. They are the sweetest and softest possible.
• coconut sugar aka coconut palm sugar (we use this one) -> Since coconut sugar already has a caramel flavor it is the best type of sugar to make a vegan caramel sauce. I know most people would choose cane sugar and brown sugar over it, due to price or availability. But if you can, try coconut sugar to have a truly dark, luscious caramel.
• coconut cream -> It is the thick, fat, cream part of the canned full-fat coconut milk (we use this one).
• dairy-free butter -> You just need a tiny bit. There is not a huge difference between skipping it or not, but it just tastes better with it.
• optional add-in: sea salt flakes -> We know that salted caramel is pure heaven. So if you want to add a bit of sea salt flakes to turn this recipe into a salted caramel nice cream, be my guest. Let us know in the comments how did it go.

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

Overnight preparation

While this is a pretty simple vegan ice recipe with only 4 ingredients, there is one crucial step you need to take the night before or if you have a quick freeze shelf in your freezer at least 1-2 hours before you want to make your nice cream.

• Peel and slice bananas into 0.5-inch thick. Use a freezer-friendly ziplock bag and place the slices in one layer if possible. Spread it around and make it flat.
• Freeze them until they are hard and completely frozen. It may depend on your freezer, but overnight is always the safest bet.
• Place your canned coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. Try to avoid shaking while doing so. You don’t want to mix the inside up.

Making vegan caramel sauce

There are many ways to make a vegan caramel sauce. The easiest one would be to use full-fat coconut cream since that is the closest to heavy cream which is normally used in classic caramel sauce recipes.

1. Take a saucepan and heat it over medium heat.
2. Add dairy-free butter and let it melt.
3. Once it is melted, turn your stove to low heat and add the coconut cream part of the can (the white fatty part and not the opaque liquid part) and coconut sugar. Mix them well.
4. Simmer on low heat until 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. It only needs to bubble up not boil. See the below photo for reference.
5. If you see it thicken a bit and the caramel sauce sticks to the spoon, then you are probably ready. It will thicken some more after cooling down, so don’t worry.

Making nice cream

You need a food processor or a high-power blender like Vitamix* to make a smooth nice cream base. Hand blenders and regular blenders may not be able to deal with it.

1. Add all frozen banana slices to your blender.
2. Start on low speed then increase it to maximum within 2-3 seconds.
3. Use a tamper to make sure all frozen banana chunks reach the blades properly.

If you use a food processor, you probably need to stop and scrape the sides several times until you reach the desired ice cream texture. You need to work quickly to avoid melting. Please also note the size of your container since you need a minimal amount for each piece of equipment to get it to work properly.

Making caramel nice cream

You just need to put the two together.

1. First things first, you need to make sure your vegan caramel sauce is completely cooled down before you start making the nice cream. As it needs at least an hour to be cold and the nice cream will melt until then. Even better if you store the caramel in the fridge and only take it out once you have your nice cream.
2. Add ¼ cup of vegan caramel sauce to your blender and blend them until they are combined. You will get a lovely caramel-colored and flavored nice cream.
3. Use the leftover sauce to drizzle the scoops after serving.

Top tips to make it perfectly

• Why overripe bananas? – Not to get too scientifical, but the unripe bananas have 70-80% starch content. As the fruit ripens the starch turns to sugar. This means overripe bananas are the sweetest and softest. If it is not ripe enough, the starch content is much higher, so they are not as sweet. If you use the sweetest overripe ones, you will have a truly sweet banana nice cream even without the caramel sauce.
• Food processor or high-speed blender – Most probably immersion blenders as well as regular blenders may not be able to do a proper ice cream texture. If your manual says that your blender can crush ice cubes, then you are probably good to go and it would be worth a try. Otherwise, use your food processor. You need to scrape the sides several times but it will be all right in the end.
• All ingredients must be cold – I cannot emphasize enough that all nice cream recipes, not just this one, will melt quicker than regular dairy-free ice creams. You need to make sure the caramel is as cold as possible and the bananas are completely frozen. You also need to work quickly so you can enjoy it before it melts.
• Nice cream is only ONE ingredient – You don’t need to add any other liquid ingredient. I saw recipes calling for maple syrup or almond milk. They are not necessary at all. You will have the perfect texture with just bananas. And the caramel sauce is sweet enough to make it a real treat.
• It is a super dark vegan caramel sauce – Coconut sugar is dark sugar. Therefore, the sauce will be quite dark as well. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean burnt. It means that the sauce has a rich, intense caramel aroma.

How to serve it?

The nice cream base is the perfect start to come up with different flavor variations. You can serve this caramel nice cream recipe in bowls right out of the blender container and drizzle it with the leftover caramel sauce. Then add one or more of the below toppings:

• Dark chocolate chips
• Chocolate sauce
• Carob chips for an even healthier WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) option.
• Raisins or dried cranberries
• Chopped nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans)
• Seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds)
• Shredded coconut (or even better toasted coconuts)
• Pretzels
• Sprinkles
• Cinnamon – Everything is better with cinnamon. This is one of my favorite spices to add to dessert recipes. It doesn’t only just perfectly with bananas, but with most fruits. You will find it in our apple crumble, in our blueberry crisp, in our cranberry jelly, in our strawberry puree, in our vegan pumpkin cheesecake, as well as in our mixed berries sauce drizzled on top of vegan panna cotta and vegan rice pudding.

FAQs and substitutions

How to store leftovers?

Take a freezer-safe container and scoop the caramel nice cream in it. Store it in the freezer for up to 1-2 months. Nice creams usually freeze up to a pretty hard consistency, and you’ll need 15-20 minutes at room temperature to get it scoopable. However, since we added a nice gooey caramel right into the base, it is scoopable right out of the freezer.

Can you substitute coconut milk?

To make a luscious dark vegan caramel sauce you need something that is similar to heavy cream. The closest substitutes are coconut cream and vegan condensed milk.

Can you substitute coconut sugar?

Coconut sugar is dark sugar. Therefore, the sauce will be quite dark as well. It is not burnt but has a rich, intense caramel aroma. You can probably substitute it with cane sugar or brown sugar. I haven’t tested this recipe with any other types.

Allergen info

• Vegan – All ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – Coconut is not a tree nut, but please check if it is safe for you to eat coconut products.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – Since coconut cream is high in fat, this is only allowed in moderation on a WFPB diet. If you need to avoid high-fat plant-based recipes, you need to use date caramel instead of a coconut cream-based one.
• Gluten-free – All ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free but always check for certified products if possible.
• Soy-free – All ingredients are supposed to be soy-free.

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