Some of my favorite moments this Summer have been making frozen desserts with my kids. Every recipe we make leaves us with great memories of getting messy in the kitchen together; and I love how it builds their self confidence and reinforces that gluten free and dairy free foods really are delicious! Today, I’m excited to share our latest cooking adventure – Salted Caramel Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream Cups!
This post and the awesome giveaway below is sponsored by perfectlyfree®. As always, all opinions are my own.
Each of our recipes starts from an ingredient that my kids love and the brainstorming continues from there. This time, I suggested we use some perfectlyfree® Frozen Bites and my kids thought it was the best idea yet! You see, I already knew that they love frozen bites so it was kind of a guarantee that I’d be the hero of the day for suggesting we use them…and let’s face it, we all need moments where we get to be the hero!
In the end, we decided that combining the salted caramel vanilla frozen bites with cinnamon flavor would be the way to go, and the result was droolworthy Salted Caramel Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream Cups! All it took was a few ingredients and 10 minutes of prep time plus freezing time.
Kitchen Tools & Ingredients
To create the recipe, you’ll need a muffin pan with paper liners, or silicon reusable liners will work well too and are sturdy enough to use on their own without the muffin pan. The first layer is made up of blended, gluten free and dairy free snickerdoodle cookies which create a cookie crust. Layer two is made up of blended up frozen bites plus coconut milk. You can totally stop there and have an amazing frozen treat, but if you want to add a third layer then I suggest topping it with caramel sauce and sprinkling some coarse sea salt as a finishing touch. A printable recipe card with all of the details is included below.
A Treat for Mom Too!
One of the things I love about this recipe is that while it’s fun to make together, it’s also simple enough for kids to make themselves and surprise their mom or family with a great looking and tasting dessert. Making them in the muffin liners really gives the end result a polished look that anyone would be proud to serve.
Perfectlyfree® frozen bites are also a treat for mom because they’re full of real, healthy ingredients. You won’t find much sugar or any artificial colors or ingredients in them, only real non-GMO and vegan ingredients. They are also certified gluten free and free of the top 8 most common allergens. All of this makes it a treat mom can be proud to eat or give to little ones and it’s also a simple way to make sure that you have a treat in your house or at school that most people will be able to eat safely! Talk about a simple time saver!
Salted Caramel Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream Cups Recipe
This recipe is gluten free, vegan, and free of the top 8 most common allergens. It makes four servings. You can use your favorite store-bought gluten free caramel sauce, or make your own. We chose to make our own caramel, so I’m including that in the recipe below as an option.
Salted Caramel Vanilla Vegan Ice Cream Cups
Ingredients
- 8 Perfectly Free Salted Caramel & Vanilla Frozen Bites 1 package
- 6 snickerdoodle cookies gluten free & dairy free
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- Caramel sauce to taste (optional)
- Sprinkle of coarse sea salt optional
Instructions
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Line a muffin pan with four paper muffin liners.
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Blend the cookies until they've made tiny, smooth cookie crumbs.
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Add the cookie crumbs to the bottom of the muffin cups and press down with your fingers to create a cookie crust. If the cookie crumbs do not have enough moisture to stick together, place them back in the blender and add a tsp of maple syrup and blend once more.
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Add the perfectlyfree salted caramel frozen bites to your blender with 1/4 cup coconut milk.
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Blend until smooth.
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Pour the ice cream mixture over the cookie crumbs until the muffin cup is 2/3 full.
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Place in the freezer for 1 hour.
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Optional: drizzle the tops with caramel sauce and add a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Place back in the freezer for 30 minutes.
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Enjoy!
Homemade Gluten Free Caramel Sauce Recipe
Homemade Gluten Free Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/8 cup coconut oil melted
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut milk full fat, canned
- 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup if vegan
Instructions
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Combine the coconut oil, sugar, milk and honey in a small sauce pan.
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Cook over medium heat until the caramel sauce starts to boil.
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Let the sauce continue to boil for 2 minutes.
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Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10-15 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
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You'll know the sauce is ready when it becomes thicker and darker in color.
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Remove from heat, and allow it to cool first if adding it to a frozen dessert.
FROZEN BITES GIVEAWAY!
Perfectlyfree® and I have teamed up to give one lucky winner 6 boxes of frozen bites! The winner will receive:
- 1 box of mint chocolate
- 1 box of salted caramel vanilla
- 1 box of cocoa vanilla
- 1 box of raspberry chocolate
- 1 box of orange creme
- Bonus box of salted caramel vanilla or your favorite flavor!
You can enter the giveaway via the link or form below. The giveaway will stay open until 8/27. Good luck!
Pin for Later:
OOh! What a tasty treat for hot summer days! I love frozen cookies, too!
Yummo! Love the way you repurposed those bits to enjoy with cookies! You can’t go wrong with cookies and frozen dessert.
I am most interested in the cocoa vanilla variety. I love white chocolate, and cocoa vanilla sound like it would be a good variety as well.
Those cups look yummy! I think getting kids involved in the kitchen is so important t, they learn a lot.
Those bites are so good to begin with, I can only image how much more awesome they would be sandwiched between a crust and caramel sauce!
These look SO good. I will have to give it a try. Looks super delicious.
❥ tanvii.com
These look like the perfect summer treat. Definite crowd pleaser!
I may ask my girls to make these for me! They look so delicious!