Ice-Cream and Giggles

Lately I have become OBSESSED with the chocolate and peanut butter combo. How I have ever missed it, I have no idea. It all started when my boyfriend got me a packet of Cleo's Peanut Butter cups for Valentine's Day, and the rest is history.

This slice is easy, delicious, and reminiscent of a snickers bar. Plus, most importantly, it involves that ever amazing peanut butter and chocolate combo. It features:

A crumby cashew cookie base,

a smooth and oozy peanut butter caramel,

and most importantly,

chocolate.

Vegan Snickers Slice

Serves 10.

Prep: 30 minutes, freezing: 1 hour. Total Time: 1 h 30 minutes

You will need:

For the base:

1/2 cup cashew butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp coconut flour

For the peanut butter caramel:

10 medjool dates, soaked and pitted
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of salt

For the topping:

1/4 cup roasted peanuts
50 g dark vegan chocolate

Method:

1. In a food processor combine the ingredients for the base. Once combined pressed into a small square tin that is lined with baking paper.
2. Combine all ingredients for the caramel until smooth, then smooth over the base. Sprinkle with peanuts, and if desired, drizzle with chocolate now or later, once it has been cut up. Freeze for 1 hour.
3. Cut into bars before serving.

Sundaes. A girl's dream dessert. Ice-cream with multiple sauces, flavourings and toppings, a mix of sweet and savoury, a melted sweet drip with vanilla bean, a crunch of peanut butter, a dash of salted pretzel, and a smooth chocolate sauce to tie it all together *drools*. Have I convinced you that you need to try this combo? However, if you are like "hmm" and "ahh" and aren't entirely convinced, please at least take away the fact you NEED to try fresh vanilla bean in your nice-cream. It may only be a small amount, but trust me, it takes it up few notches, without really even trying. To here's to summer and spending those hot days slurping and drinking our nice-cream!

Serves 1-2, Total time: 10 minutes.

You will need:

3 frozen bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 scraped out vanilla bean
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp du chocolat drinking cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp boiling water
handful of vegan pretzels (I used vegan GF pretzels as they were what I had in my cupboard, but use what you have)

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the du chocolat with the boiling water and stir until you get a sauce.
2. In a food processor/high-speed blender, combine the bananas, almond milk and vanilla bean until a smooth nice-cream is made.
3. Roughly mix in the peanut butter and combine with the chocolate sauce and pretzels. Eat!

This is something I have been wanting to do for ages. The ice-cream sandwich, but vegan. But what cookie do you use? And what ice-cream? After much deliberation, I decided on peanut butter ice-cream and choc-chip cookies. Oh, what a combination! It was extremely delicious. As for the choc-chip cookie recipe, I searched high and low for a healthy vegan recipe, but to no avail. Eventually I found one that used coconut oil instead of butter, but unfortunately brown sugar was also a large part of the recipe. I still made it though (which is what I used in this post), though in the future I think I will experiment with making a refined sugar free and gluten free choc-chip cookie, but bear with me here! The cookies used in this post are by far one of the best choc-chip cookies I have ever had (vegan and non-vegan!), so I suggest you try making it.

For the cookies. I got the recipe from here, but I halved it. It should make 6 cookies, enough for three ice-cream sandwiches.

You will need:
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp almond milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/2 cup vegan choc chips (I used a block of vegan chocolate which I cut up into chunks).

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Cream the coconut oil with brown sugar, add almond milk and vanilla.
3. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder over mixture, mix in. Add salt, and mix in the chocolate.
4. Divide mixture into 6 cookies, place on a tray with greased baking paper, press down slightly.
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until brown.

For the ice-cream:
2 frozen bananas
5-6 tbsp of vegan peanut butter (try and get one that is 100% peanuts)
1/4 cup almond milk


1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor.
2. Pour into a metal tray and cover with glad wrap.
3. If you used frozen bananas, the ice-cream should be hard enough to use a with an ice-cream scoop after around 30-45 minutes in freezer. Don't forget to whisk every 30 minutes until ready.

Making the sandwiches:

You will need 2 cookies and one scoop of ice-cream per sandwich. Simply place a cookie upside down on a place, put a scoop of ice-cream on the cookie, and put another cookie on top. Voila! I hope you like it!