These No-Bake Vegan Blueberry Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches are the ideal healthy dessert. Blueberry banana ‘ice cream’ is sandwiched between no-bake date-pecan cookies for a healthier take on the classic ice cream sandwich that we all know and love.
Remember those classic ice cream sandwiches that we all knew and loved growing up? The ones with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate wafer cookies? Weren’t they good? Yes. From a flavour standpoint, they were quite tasty. But from a nutritional standpoint, maybe not so much.
You know I love creating healthier versions of the classics, and I think you’ll totally dig what I’ve come up with here. I’ve taken liberties with the typical vanilla/chocolate flavour combination, and the result is these Raw Vegan Blueberry Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches. They remind me of a deconstructed blueberry pecan pie in raw vegan form.
What’s more, they’re extremely easy to make. If you are familiar with raw vegan desserts, you probably know how easy it is to create ‘soft serve’ out of frozen bananas. I first learned how to make banana soft serve from Gena Hamshaw, of The Full Helping blog, and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. (It tends to be that much easier on the budget than buying expensive pints of vegan ice cream, given the rate that my family and I eat ice cream, haha!) In the summer, I really love adding berries to my soft serve. The blueberry ice cream layer for these sandwiches consists simply of frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, sea salt, and vanilla.
The no-bake cookies consist of pecans, Medjool dates, oats, cinnamon, and sea salt.
In all, this dessert requires just 15 minutes of active prep, and 15 minutes of freezing!
how to make these ice cream sandwiches
Start by pulsing together pecans, pitted Medjool dates, rolled oats, cinnamon, and sea salt in your food processor. Once it has formed a ‘dough,’ divide it into 12 even balls and place them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Lightly flatten with your fingers.
Next, make the blueberry banana ice cream. Place frozen banana, frozen blueberries, a pinch of sea salt, and vanilla in your food processor and blend until a soft serve consistency is reached, adding a couple tablespoons of almond milk to help it along.
a few helpful tips and tricks
I have made this recipe a few times, and I have found that the cookies sometimes hold together perfectly, and other times, they need a little extra liquid to bind them together. It all depends on how soft/gooey the dates are! So, if your dates are not super soft and gooey, I would recommend adding 1 tbsp of coconut oil and 1-2 tbsp of almond milk to the date-pecan cookie dough. This should help the cookies hold together.
I often make the cookies and soft serve a few hours ahead of time and store them separately in the freezer. Then, once I’m ready to serve the ice cream sandwiches, I assemble them. The soft serve is that much firmer and the sandwiches are less messy, especially on a hot day!
Don’t allow the ice cream to get too soft–you want it to be ‘scoopable!’ Scoop about 1/3 cup of the ice cream onto a cookie and top with a second cookie. Repeat until all of the cookies and ice cream are used up (I ended up with 6 sandwiches, plus leftover ice cream).
You can either serve the sandwiches immediately, or freeze them in an airtight container to enjoy later.
What’s so great about this dessert? Lots! For starters, it’s:
-Refined sugar-free
-Gluten-free
-Ultra satisfying
-Passable as breakfast 😉
-Kid friendly!
I can see these Raw Vegan Blueberry Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches being a big hit at a late summer potluck gathering! Enjoy!
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Raw Vegan Blueberry Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches
Description
These Raw Vegan Blueberry Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches are the ideal healthy dessert. Blueberry banana ‘ice cream’ is sandwiched between no-bake date-pecan cookies for a healthier take on the classic ice cream sandwich that we all know and love.
Ingredients
Pecan Oat ‘Cookies’
- 3/4 cup raw pecans
- 3/4 cup pitted Medjool dates (about 10- make sure that your dates are nice and fresh for ease of blending)
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Blueberry Banana Ice Cream
- 3 large frozen bananas
- 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the pecans, dates, rolled oats, sea salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the ‘S’ blade.
- Process until everything is finely ground and the mixture can be pressed into a dough.
- Divide into 12 equal balls and place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet or other flat surface lined with parchment paper. Lightly flatten into a round cookie shape with your fingers.
- Rinse and dry the food processor. Break up the 3 bananas into the bowl of the food processor fitted with the ‘S’ blade. Add the frozen blueberries, a pinch of fine sea salt, and vanilla. It may take several minutes for the mixture to turn into a soft serve consistency, so be patient. You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of non-dairy milk to aid blending. Do not over-process, as you want to be able to scoop the ice cream onto the cookies.
- Once the ice cream is ready, scoop about 1/3 cup onto 6 cookies, and top with the remaining cookies.
- Serve immediately, or place sandwiches in an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to enjoy. Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to allow them to defrost.
I hope you love these tasty little treats! If you make them, leave a comment below to let us know how you liked them, and tag a photo #upbeetkitchen on Instagram!
Natalie
These ice cream sandwiches look so delicious and perfect for the summer! I love blueberry and pecan together – sounds amazing!
Allison
Thank you so much, Natalie!
They are so easy to make and fun to eat. 🙂
Emma
I feel like these would taste like a frozen blueberry pie. I am excited to make them next weekend 😀
★★★★★
Allison
Oh yeah, they do!
Holly
I only made the ice cream part because I didn’t have the ingredients for the cookies. But I put some granola on top! I loved it. It was better than store bought ice cream and it energized me.
★★★★★
Allison
That’s a good idea, Holly! I love granola on top of banana soft serve. 🙂
Sheila
Not hard to make and incredibly delicious. I have kept the remainder in my freezer and eat them after my gym workouts. WOW. Amazing .!
★★★★★
Allison
I can’t think of a better post-workout treat! So glad you enjoyed them!
ringtonesdump.com
ice cream sandwiches. And these raw vegan ice cream sandwiches taste way better than the fake stuff you could buy at the store. These are creamy, chewy, salty, and sweet, my all time favorite thing to eat after a yoga class, for a mid afternoon snack, or even for breakfast sometimes (Mom, hope you are not reading this!) They are full of nutrients and whole foods: coconut, bananas, cashew, avocado, dates, and oats.