Easy Chocolate Dipped Nutty Ice Cream Bars – Better Than Store Bought!!

Michael and I went camping on the North Shore of Oahu a few weeks ago. On the final day of our adventure, we stopped by one of our favorite little health food stores in Haleiwa. We always bring plenty of food when we camp, but we were a bit famished, looking for something that would satiate our adventure stimulated appetites.

We’re pretty picky when it comes to packaged foods, because even health food stores sell some sketchy crap. The cleanest thing we could find was a rice milk based chocolate nutty bar. It definitely isn’t a product we would eat regularly, but adventures make us a bit more adventurous after all. We don’t often eat ice cream, even some of the non-dairy brands don’t hit our preferred level of quality with their refined oils and sugars.

So, we shared one and enjoyed the heck out of it (because we believe that if you’re going to eat something, it’s best to enjoy it to the max). We were acutely aware that it seemed way more delicious than it actually was, because we were so famished. This inspired us to make an upgraded version back at the homestead.

The rice milk ice cream bar had brown rice (partially milled), expeller pressed high oleic safflower oil, cocoa processed with alkali, tapioca starch, guar gum, sea salt, carrageenan, peanuts, coconut oil, evaporated cane syrup, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, vanilla.

This is certainly not terrible, especially when eating half of one, but this is not a refined sugar free, organic or GMO-free product, so I wouldn’t make it a regular staple in my treat arsenal.

We ended up making a way better version, for the sheer enjoyment of it, and it’s my duty to share it with humanity. These Chocolate Dipped Nutty Ice Cream Bars have elevated our dessert experience to new heights, and the best part is that they are actual food. In fact, they are quite nourishing as desserts go with their good fats, minerals, anti-oxidants and grass fed gelatin protein (optional), which slow the absorption of the unrefined sweeteners, so your blood sugar doesn’t go crazy then crash. Oh, and they are super easy to make.

If you can make a smoothie, melt chocolate and chop nuts, then you can make these amazing ice cream bars. I used to love making ice cream with one of those freezer pack ice cream makers, but, if you don’t do it exactly right,  the ice cream ends up freezing into a rock hard ice chunk. I bet you didn’t know that commercial ice cream companies cheat to get their smooth texture by using all kinds of anti-freeze chemicals that they don’t even have to put on the label. Yikes.

I prefer to know what I’m eating, and I prefer that it tastes better and makes me feel better than the lower quality ice cream products that are available at the supermarket, or health food store. Sometimes we really try to find good ones, but they all seem to rely so heavily on sugar to make them taste good, and, to me, that’s a sign of a lazy chef (or food engineer in the case of commercial products). I prefer depth of flavor and texture. I also like to avoid the mucus, bloating and inflammation associated with traditional ice cream.

The main cream ingredient we use is full fat organic coconut milk. Real coconut milk, not the beverage stuff, which is actually watered down coconut milk with extra thickening agents and fake toxic vitamins. We also added some grass fed organic gelatin for a soft, smooth and creamy (as opposed to icy) texture. This is, of course, optional for vegetarians as it is an animal food, but it will turn out icier. I like to balance my sweeteners between stevia, dates, honey, coconut sugar and maple syrup. I find that a little of each gives a well rounded balanced flavor and feeling. You can certainly adjust this to your taste, especially if you have blood sugar issues and need to consume less sugar. They would still taste incredible with less sweetener. For the chocolate coating, you can either use the magic shell recipe below (our preference for best texture) or use our super simple chocolate recipe from our chocolate blog post. It’s also a great article if you want to learn more about the psychology and biology of chocolate (and ditch the guilt around it). Guilt sucks, so read it if you need it.

Here is the process in pictures: