Recipe for a vegan & gluten-free Minty Cotton Candy Ice Cream which is made with Aquafaba (Chickpea Liquid). It’s super sweet and yummy!
Yeah guys!! This happened! It’s Minty Cotton Candy Ice Cream! Vegan & gluten-free and made with Aquafaba (Chickpea Water). I would be lying if I told you that I wanted to make a Cotton Candy Ice Cream on purpose- it just happened and it’s amazing. It’s sweet and airy and the consistency is so fluffy – just like cotton candy (or at least how I remember it).
What is Aquafaba?
Aquafaba is the liquid from canned chickpeas (or other beans/legumes). I know, I know… If this is the first time you hear about Aquafaba or if you haven’t worked with Aquafaba before or you must think that’s gross as hell. I promise, this ice cream tastes nothing like chickpeas. Aquafaba is pure magic. You can whip the liquid with an electrical hand mixer or with a stand mixer and it will get stiff and airy. If you want to read more about Aquafaba, you can do that here.
I haven’t had much luck with Aquafaba in the past – if you follow me on instagram (this was my try of making vegan meringues) you know what I mean – but now with this ice cream everything changed.
I’ve let my KitchenAid whisk the Aquafaba until it reached a stiff peak (this took about 5 minutes), then added in the rest of the ingredients, whisked again and froze it. Actually that’s super easy, right?!
The consistency is crazy! So airy and fluffy and weird, but awesome. Like cotton candy! It practically melts in your mouth.
Vegan Minty Cotton Candy Ice Cream made with Aquafaba
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Aquafaba* (liquid from canned chickpeas)
- 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar (or more to your personal preference)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder (ground vanilla beans)
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint liqueur (or extract**)
Instructions
- Drain the chickpeas and fill the liquid of the canned chickpeas in a mixing bowl.
- Whisk it with a stand mixer until it reaches a stiff peak (about 5-10 minutes).
- Slowly add in the confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract and powder and peppermint liqueur and whisk it again for a few minutes. At this point, it's a good idea to taste it and to add more sugar or peppermint liquor to your preference.
- Then fill it in a freezer-safe dish*** and put it in the freezer for at least 6 hours or overnight. (You don't have to give it a mix every x hours, I didn't and it turned out great.)
- After that it's good to go! Serve and enjoy immediately. The ice cream melts a bit faster than regular ice cream.
Notes
*Aquafaba is the fancy term for the cooking liquid of beans and legumes, discovered by Goose Wohlt. You can read all about aquafaba on aquafaba.com.
**If you're using peppermint extract or essence, start with less and add more to taste.
***The container I used is 10 inches long, 4 inches wide and 2 inches high (25x11x5cm)
Nutrition
If you give this vegan Minty Cotton Candy Ice Cream recipe a try I’d love to hear how it turned out for you! Leave a comment or post a picture on instagram, use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^ I love to see all your lovely creations! Thanks! <3
chipsy
Thursday 2nd of April 2020
i just tried something inspired by this recipe......i think it should be noted somewhere that a lot of canned chickpeas are also salted...i ended up with just the most incredibly salty mixture no matter how much sugar i added. i leaned into it with some peanut butter but i don't know that i would recommend it.
Alicia
Friday 7th of December 2018
Tried it!
My 12 yr old daughter said the flavour was bang on mint chip icecream but she wasn’t a fan of the texture. My other daughter and I on the other hand quite enjoyed the texture, I think it’s quite close to icecream though very soft! And I personally found 1 tsp to be too bold.
Worked first time for me. It did seem to flop after I added the extract, but it came back. (I should note as well that I didn’t add any vanilla powder or extract, only peppermint).
Ultimately I give it 4 stars and am super excited to try it again with other flavours!!!
Thanks 🙂
Cheryl
Saturday 28th of October 2017
Hi Biance,
Finally a promising recipe. This sounds fantastic... :)
But I have one question, is Vanilla Powder necessary? Can we substitute with something else because I can't find it where I live? Maybe something like rose essence or coconut shavings or desiccated coconut?
Thanks :)
Bianca
Monday 30th of October 2017
Hi Cheryl, the vanilla powder is not necessary at all (I just wanted to have those speckles of vanilla in there). ohh, coconut in form of shavings or desiccated sounds so good!
Lee Mason
Saturday 5th of August 2017
Hi. Looking for a dairy-free, sugar-free ice cream. Regret, also no cashew or chemical sweetener; prefer no soy. Hoping for unsweetened or with stevia. Have you heard of any such product? . Many thanks.
Bianca
Sunday 6th of August 2017
I think you'll love this 1-ingredient ice cream recipe! I've included lots of variations at the end of the post. :)
Michelle
Saturday 8th of July 2017
Liquid sweeteners can be used in aquafaba. But anything with oil will not work. Meringue only works with real sugar. Not sweeteners. I love the chocolate mousse with aquafaba. Gonna make this in a minite. Ive wondered about ice cream. Wish me luck lol
Bianca
Saturday 8th of July 2017
Aquafaba can be tricky, but at the same time, the results can be amazing. :) So it's always worth giving it a shot. Oh, I've seen the aquafaba chocolate mousse, it looks amazing, I haven't tried it yet though :( I hope the ice cream turned out fine!