Fork and Beans

Making food fun for the family

Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches

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It’s beginning to look a lot like SUMMER, despite it being only January (that is what you get when you live in Southern California). So to celebrate, I’m making everyone these gluten, egg, dairy, flour, and refined sugar-free (and everything else!) frozen treats. I shall call them Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches! Can you believe that this tower of goodness actually is good for you? I know…look again.

RELATED: Easy Chipwiches

White bean cookies and banana ice cream create these ultra tasty and easy-to-assemble Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches.

They look so decadent and sinful but are full of good-for-you ingredients, you won’t even believe it. And the best part is neither will your kids. I know mom and dad, you’re so welcome. You can pay me back by sending me a check. No seriously, you can send me a check…

RELATED: Frozen Banana Chocolate Pops

White bean cookies and banana ice cream create these ultra tasty and easy-to-assemble Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Chickpea peanut butter cookies and banana ice cream create these ultra tasty and easy-to-assemble Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches. 

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Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

For the Banana Ice Cream:

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 1 Tbsp. non-dairy milk
  • 2 tsp. maple syrup (optional, the bananas provide a lot of sweetness as is)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Peanut Butter Cookies:

  • 1/2 c. peanut butter, smooth or chunky (almond or sun butter works too)
  • 1/2 c. white beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 c. gluten-free old-fashioned oats
  • 2 Tbsp. applesauce
  • 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/3 c. non-dairy chocolate chips (plus more for rolling) – optional

Instructions

To make the banana ice cream

  1. Line a small rectangular dish (I used a 6×4 sized dish) with parchment paper. Feel free to use whatever size or dish you have (you can even use a round pan). Just know that the bigger you use, the thinner the ice cream filling is vs. the small the pan, the thicker the slices.
  2. Blend everything up in a high-speed blender until smooth. Place into the dish and freeze until set (approximately 2+ hours).

To make the cookies

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In food processor blend everything (except the chocolate chips) together smooth, yet thick enough to form into a dough. Fold in chocolate chips.
  3. Roll about 1 Tbsp. of dough into a ball between hands and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Shape with your hands by gently flattening dough down into 2″ diameter circles. These will not spread while baking so it’s important to shape them prior to.
  4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly brown along the edges and allow to cool on the baking sheet. Transfer to the freezer until ready to assemble.

To assemble

  1. Take a 2″ circle biscuit cutter and make cut-outs in the dish holding the banana ice cream. Place in between 2 frozen cookies (optional: coat with non-dairy chocolate chips) and freeze again until fully set.

 

RELATED: Chewy Bar Ice Cream Sandwiche Bites

White bean cookies and banana ice cream create these ultra tasty and easy-to-assemble Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches.

 

About Cara

Based in Chicago with her husband and son, Cara is the creator behind the site Fork and Beans: A place where kids can have fun with their food.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Audra

    This may be a really, REALLY dumb question but are the beans raw or cooked? I assumed cooked but looking at the photos it looks like there may be chunks of bean?

  3. Tamara

    Hi, I truly can not eat anything with banana in it. Is there another healthy way to make the ice cream without having banana in the recipe? I have noticed there are so many tasty healthy recipes that have banana in them and so I am unable to make them and it limits my options…I would love to know what I could substitute the bananas. Thank you!

    • Cara

      Sorry Tamara, but this is specifically for banana ice cream 🙁 You can always try other frozen fruits that are similar in texture when blended or use a coconut based ice cream. If you search strawberry semifreddo on my site, you will find a banana free option. Good luck!

  4. Jade

    These look so good! I’m a relative new vegan, and seeing recipes like this gives me a lot of confidence I can sustain it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
    -Jade x

    ★★★★★

  6. Samantha

    Hi,

    I just made these and while they taste pretty good… they turned kindof well, green! The only thing I changed was I used sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter. Any idea why this would happen? Were your cookies crunchy or soft? I can’t tell from the photos.

    Mine were quite fluffy and not sure they’d hold up in an ice cream sandwich, do you know what I might have done wrong?

    Thank you!

    • Cara

      You have been greened, Samantha! 😛 I should have mentioned that in the recipe that when you bake sunflower butter, the chemical reaction creates a greenish hue. Weird huh? So you did nothing wrong! Sounds like these can be the perfect St. Patrick’s Day cookie 😉 Mine were a little fluffy too that is why I made sure to flatten them down prior to baking and them placed them in the freezer afterwards to firm up. Does that help with your questions or did you do that too? If so, let me know and we can brainstorm more possibilities of what happened. Glad they tasted good though. Yay for silver linings 🙂 xo

      • Tiffany Mooney

        I made these yesterday and it seemed like I made a lot more cookies than ice cream (banana part… ie. I don’t have enough of the ice cream to fill all of my sandwiches). I know I could easily make more of the banana ice cream by doubling this part of the recipe but was wondering if I had done something wrong?

        Also my cookies seemed fairly crumbly and didn’t fluff up like yours did in the pictures. Any tips??
        Xoxo.

    • Cara

      Unfortunately I have only tried oats so I’m not really 100% sure that anything else will be a good substitute. I think if you added a light flour like almond meal, or any flour really, that could work.

  8. Brooke @ glutenfreeanonymous.com

    These look to die for! I miss ice cream sandwiches so much but they ARE bad for you so I guess it’s a good thing I have to stay away! I seriously can’t wait to make these! Thank you for such a fabulous, healthy alternative! LOVE your website, btw!

    • Cara

      WHAT??! No way. I used live off of the store-bought kind (shocker). You must make these now! You are the cookie fairy after all 😉 xo

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  3. […] dessert. These gluten-, dairy-, flour-, and refined sugar-free Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches from Fork and Beans are made with banana ice cream and peanut butter […]