On a spur-of-the-moment whim last Sunday, my mom and I decided to attend an Oakland A’s baseball game. We purchased season tickets for the past two years, but because we skipped this season, we’ve start to go through withdrawals… We let three weeks go by since our last baseball game, and that was far too long!
We picked seats in our favorite section (just beyond the A’s dugout and even with the bag at third base), directly on the aisle to avoid climbing over other fans for bathroom and concession stand breaks. After greeting our favorite usher with big smiles and hugs, we settled in to cheer on our boys with the rest of the crowd.
As a pitchers’ duel (aka a low-scoring game, for those of you not quite as obsessed with baseball as I am!), we saw plenty of spectacular defensive plays from both teams. Diving catches, leaping grabs, speeding fastballs, line-drove comebackers… It felt like we applauded for something amazing at every other at-bat (oops… every other player’s turn, if you aren’t familiar with baseball terms!), which really worked up our appetites!
With the temperature above 80°F and not a cloud in the sky, vendors walked up and down the aisles offering plenty of cold, refreshing treats to the fans sweltering in the heat. Snow cones, iced tea, frozen lemonade, bottles of soda… But as huge chocoholics (I inherited that from my mom!), the chocolate malts, Häagen-Dazs dark chocolate ice cream bars, and Nestlé ice cream drumsticks really caught our eye!
Although the fans around us readily caved and purchased those sweets, Mom and I tried to summon the willpower to avoid the temptation. Although it felt virtually impossible…
It was a lot easier when I remembered I could make a batch of this Ultimate Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream when we returned home! It’s rich, smooth, and creamy, just like anything you’d find at an ice cream parlor. It’s also super easy and quick to make — and secretly full of protein!
I think I’ll celebrate that with another scoop! 😉
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HEALTHY CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
For the base of your healthier ice cream, you’ll use Greek yogurt and 2% milk. If you’ve been around AHB for a while, you know how much I love Greek yogurt! It’s thick and creamy, making it perfect for this ice cream, and it also adds a big protein boost. One cup of Greek yogurt contains about 21g of protein!
I highly recommend that you use 2% milk, as the recipe calls for. This is because ice cream needs a certain amount of fat in order to be smooth and creamy. Without it, your ice cream would be grainy and icy. I explain more about that (and why it’s so important!) over here.
Note: I do not recommend substituting almond milk or cashew milk. These have a high water content, so they would have the same effect on your ice cream’s texture as nonfat or 1% milk.
For the chocolate flavor, you’ll mix in cocoa powder. Yes, just regular unsweetened cocoa powder—no melted chocolate! I wanted to make this ice cream recipe as easy as possible for you to whip up. You’ll add in a full ½ cup of cocoa powder, so your ice cream will still taste very rich and decadent.
Tip: I don’t recommend substituting Dutched or special dark cocoa powder. These have a different acidity level, which can affect the flavor and consistency of your ice cream. They also tend to make this ice cream taste more muted and bland, compared to the really decadent and rich flavor of regular unsweetened cocoa powder.
To sweeten the ice cream, you’ll use another one of my favorite ingredients: liquid stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly, and it’s highly concentrated. You’ll only need 1 ½ teaspoons for this entire batch of ice cream—that’s the equivalent of ¾ cup of sugar! This is the kind that I buy because I love its sweet flavor, and I don’t notice any strange aftertastes like with some other stevia products. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, but I usually buy it online here because that’s the best price I’ve found. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
There’s one last important ingredient in this ice cream base. Eggs act as a natural “glue” that helps hold together traditional ice cream bases and therefore create that perfect smooth, creamy texture. Because we’re skipping the eggs (I’m impatient and don’t want to heat my ice cream base—I just want to eat my frozen dessert as soon as possible!), you’ll use a different “glue” called xanthan gum. You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. Do not skip the xanthan gum. Your ice cream will taste icy and hard without it. (You can read more of my nerdy explanation of that here!)
Now all that’s left is to turn on your ice cream maker (I own this one — it’s really inexpensive and I love it!), pour in that chocolaty milk mixture, wait for 20 minutes or less, and…
Serve yourself a big scoop! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your ultimate healthy chocolate ice cream!
The Ultimate Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (270mL) 2% milk (see Notes!)
- 1 cup (240g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured like this – and see Notes!)
- 1 ½ tsp liquid stevia
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- The night before you plan on making your ice cream, place the bowl of an electric ice cream maker in the freezer. Freeze for at least 12-16 hours.
- Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute or until very frothy.
- Working quickly, remove the ice cream maker bowl from the freezer. Place it on the ice cream maker, attach the paddle and the lid, and turn it on. With the ice cream maker turning, pour in the milk mixture. Let the ice cream maker churn for 15-20 minutes or until the ice cream is frozen and has reached your desired consistency. For the best texture and taste, serve immediately.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Vanilla Ice Cream
♡ Healthier Cookies ‘n Cream Ice Cream
♡ Healthy Chai Spice Ice Cream
♡ Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream
♡ Healthier Brownie Bark Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches
♡ Skinny Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Greek Yogurt Sandwiches
♡ Healthy Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt
♡ Lightened Up Mini Hula Pie Ice Cream Desserts
♡ Lightened Up Blueberry & Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches
♡ Healthy Fudgy Triple Chocolate Cookies
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
This was amazing! I am on a low fodmap diet and no sugar so I used Fairlife Whole Milk instead of 2% and yogurt, and it turned out fantastic! I have been missing ice cream so much and this was wonderful.
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this ice cream, Meaghan! Thanks for taking the time to let us know and share your modifications, too. We always love to hear about which recipe tweaks work out! 😉
Just a note:
Xanthan gum is typically used for hot recipes. You should use Guar Gum for frozen recipes.
I prefer guar gum because it is more natural and less risk to your health. Can use either guar or xanthan. Do not use xanthan if you have corn or soy allergies.
Quick and easy to make. I used the recommended sugar substitution amounts instead of liquid stevia so the kids would eat it. 🙂 Tasted like soft serve chocolate fro-yo.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe, Cat! We’d love to hear if you try anything different next time to see if you like it even better! Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know, it really means a lot! 🙂
Amy, will you please write me an email and not publish this as I am working on some new recipes and ingredients I want to share with you. If I get them perfected, you might want to add them to your website. I will send you the details privately while I work on them. My purpose is to get some recipes based on yours down to around 50 calories per 2/3 cup serving or the same as Arctic Zero which seems to have some nasty diarrhea causing ingredients in it.
Tom A.
How much is each serving approximately? Thanks for the recipe! I look forward to trying it!
I’m honored that you’re looking forward to trying this chocolate ice cream, DG! The full nutrition information includes the serving size, and you can find that nutrition information directly underneath the recipe box. I know it can be really easy to miss that though! 😉 I’m excited to hear what you think of this ice cream whenever you get a chance to make it!
When you say you can substitute coconut milk, will coconut cream work or only coconut milk?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Sally! I haven’t tried coconut cream, so I’m not personally sure and don’t want to lead you astray. If you decide to experiment, I’d love to hear how your ice cream turns out! 🙂
This is such an easy recipe for ice cream! I have made it four times and I just found it last week! I did use cashew milk though. I needed to keep it as low calorie as possible. It turned out delicious! I have the kitchen aide ice cream maker so it worked perfectly! Thank you for sharing this. It’s greatly appreciated!
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this chocolate ice cream, Phyllis! That’s such a huge compliment for us to hear that you’ve already made it a few times! Thank you so much for taking the time to share and rate this recipe, it really means a lot! We appreciate you sharing about using cashew milk, too. We love to hear about recipe tweaks that work well! 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly. The texture was great but the flavor was just so-so.
It means a lot that you tried our recipe, Karren! We’re really glad you enjoyed this ice cream’s texture, and we’d love to help troubleshoot what you experienced with its flavor. In order to do so, it’d be really helpful to know what made it so-so! Would you mind describing that a bit more? For example, was your ice cream bitter, tangy, not sweet enough, not chocolaty enough, etc? Once we know more about its flavor, we’ll have a better idea of how to fix it! 🙂
Your recipe turned out great! I have the Dash my mug ice cream maker so I used less quantity since it’s only 1/2 pint. I also added 1 tsp Jello Cheesecake instant pudding. Thank you for your recipe, I’ll check out more of your website!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this ice cream, Joanne! That sounds like a really fun idea to add the cheesecake instant pudding. I just might have to borrow it and try that myself sometime! 😉 It means a lot that you’d consider checking out more of my recipes too. I’m excited to hear which ones you end up making in the future!
Amy or Stacy,
Can you use honey or maple syrup in this recipe?
Annette
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Annette! We would recommend either solid sweeteners (granular, powdered, that sort of thing!) or really concentrated ones, as opposed to honey or maple syrup. If you use one of the latter two, it will add too much liquid volume so the ice cream won’t actually set properly. I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try making this ice cream!