This delicious recipe is a take on a classic chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard made healthier! It’s dairy free, gluten free, vegan, and packed with plant protein and healthy fats. The ultimate indulgence…guilt free!
The Ultimate Healthy Cookie-Dough Blizzard
Yep, you aren’t dreaming, this is for real my friends. There is such a thing as a healthier cookie dough blizzard. I shared this recipe ages ago and it definitely deserved a comeback into the spotlight as it’s so incredibly delicious and packed with protein, healthy fats, is gluten free, and plant based. With a mix of whole, healthy, unrefined, good-for-you ingredients, combined with a dash of nutrition in the kitch love, this Healthy Cookie Dough Protein ‘Blizzard’ (or wanna-be Blizzard…) can be made at home and enjoyed within 15 minutes flat.
What is a ‘Blizzard’ dessert?
If you aren’t familiar with what a ‘blizzard’ is, let me enlighten you! A blizzard is a famous ice cream dessert from a well-known fast-food chain that is made with super thick vanilla or chocolate ice cream that is loaded with popular treats like cookie dough, Oreo’s, brownies, Skor candy, Smarties etc.
The cookie, candy or chocolate bars are blended into the ice cream using a particular machine so that in every bite you get a bit of ice cream and a bit of whatever you choose to be added in. This is not a healthy dessert. It’s far from it! So, to make a healthy version at home you have to get creative! I always start by making a homemade plant-based ice cream from frozen bananas then add in homemade healthy cookies or brownies to create the same vibe as a traditional blizzard without the refined sugars or artificial ingredients.
How to Make a Healthy Blizzard
To make my healthy cookie dough blizzard you simply whip up frozen bananas (and any other ingredients you want) in a food processor to create the “ice cream” then add in your healthier homemade additions such as homemade cookie crumbles or healthy homemade brownie bits.
Ingredients for the Healthy Cookie Dough Blizzard:
To make my healthier recipe you won’t actually need that many ingredients! First of all you make a batch of my healthy edible vegan cookie dough, then you just add the cookie dough to the ice cream. For the ice cream you’ll need:
- Homemade vegan cookie dough
- Frozen bananas
- Cashew butter (or other nut butter of choice)
- Vegan vanilla protein powder of choice
- Unsweetened almond milk
Is a Blizzard Healthy?
Traditionally no, definitely not. Just take a look at the classic fast-food cookie-dough blizzard ingredients list (found on the fast-food chains website):
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: Unenriched Wheat Flour, Sugar, Margarine (palm oil, water, soybean oil, mono and diglycerides, artificial flavor {milk}, colored with annatto, calcium disodium EDTA added as a preservative, vitamin A palmitate added), Chocolate Chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin {emulsifier}, vanilla), Powdered Sugar (sugar, corn starch), Butter (cream, salt), Pasteurized Eggs, Brown Sugar, Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt. Vanilla Soft Serve: Modified milk ingredients, sugar, glucose, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, polysorbate 80, carrageenan and artificial flavour. Fudge: Glucose-fructose, concentrated skim milk, hydrogenated coconut oil, fructose, water, cocoa (processed with alkali), cocoa, algin, salt, mono and diglycerides, potassium sorbate, dextrin, sodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, soy lecithin, artificial flavour.
Luckily, you can make your own homemade healthy version to enjoy when you please. To be transparent, my healthy version isn’t “low calorie” it’s nutrient dense and also somewhat calorie dense, but calories don’t equal health, it’s all about nutrient content and balance for me! My version is also allergen friendly for those who can’t have gluten or dairy which is great!
Do you have a fast-food treat that you love and have recreated to be healthier? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! Also, be sure to pin the photo below the recipe to save this one for later and of course, share the love!
Healthy Cookie Dough Blizzard
This delicious recipe is a take on a classic chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard made healthier! It's dairy free, gluten free, vegan, and packed with plant protein and healthy fats. The ultimate indulgence...guilt free!
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 batch Homemade Vegan Cookie Dough
Banana Ice Cream
- 2 bananas, cut into chunks and frozen
- 1 scoop natural vegan vanilla protein powder of your choice
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon natural cashew butter
Instructions
- Peel bananas and cut into quarters and freeze. (You will need to use frozen banana chunks for this recipe)
- Prepare the cookie dough according to instructions here - Vegan Cookie Dough
- Make 20 cookie dough balls total.
- Place the balls in the fridge.
- Once the banana chunks are frozen you can make the 'ice cream'.
- In a blender or food processor combine the frozen banana, almond milk, protein powder, and cashew butter. Blend until smooth.
- Divide ice cream between 2 glasses.
- Add/stir in two cookie dough balls to each glass, and enjoy!*
Notes
*I recommend chopping up one cookie dough ball into small pieces and mixed it into the blizzard and topped with another cookie dough ball to get pieces of the cookie dough bits in every bite!
Cookie Dough Recipe makes 20 cookie dough balls, use two-three maximum per blizzard.
Recipe for 'Ice Cream' makes 2 servings.
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Just picked up dates and cashews – so excited to try this out! I did somehow skip over that I need almond milk. Could I use skim milk instead or would that just throw it way off?
No you totally could!! π Just a milk of choice! π
Hello! I’m making this right now and I’m excited. The only protein powder I have is my bf’s (chocolate), so we’ll see how the flavor turns out. Question- how much is in your scoop? Are they generally all the same size or is yours about 42g too? Grr I just read it has an artificial sweetener which gives me nasty migraines. Do you have any recommendations for a substitution?
Hi Alanna! My scoop is 1/4 cup – not sure the gram amount off hand – I love North Coast Naturals protein powder – it has no artificial sweeteners or flavors! It’s the North Coast Naturals 100% Iso Protein! You can buy it in stores in Canada or online at vitamart.ca
Thanks for the info! I used half of that protein powder and half whole wheat flour. It came out really yummy! And no migraines π The only problem is that when I wet my hands to form the balls, it mixed with the flour and got pasty, so I wouldn’t recommend doing what I did. Otherwise, the bf, mother, and bff (and I) all liked it very much. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Alanna! So glad you liked it, yes it’s a fine line on how much you want to wet your hands lol, so it doesn’t stick but also doesn’t get pasty, I had to play around a little bit!
Absolutely amazing… actually life-changing- thank you!!
lol! Awesome!! π
This is so creative! I love your blog – I linked to you here. Have a great day!
Thanks Jordan! π
I love looking over your recipes and trying them out. I live in the U.S. and sometimes your metric measures throw me. Can you tell me what the equivalent of 30g is in cups. Thanks so much!
Hi Stephanie, it depends on what you are measuring but about 1/4 cup! π
is there anything you can substitute for the bananas?
Hmmmm… they play a pretty important part but you could make ice cream using cashews or coconut milk instead! Check out my latest ice cream recipe and see how I used coconut milk rather than frozen bananas – https://nutritioninthekitch.com/2013/07/19/vegan-strawberry-dark-chocolate-chunk-ice-cream-and-fave-five-friday-vegan-ice-cream
Saw this pinned on Pinterest and laughed when I read the description. A “healthy” cookie dough shake? Yeah right. I tend to lean towards the Paleo style of eating, with a few exceptions, and I’m excited to see that this is pretty darn Paleo friendly minus the oats (which I still eat on occasion!) I can’t wait until I REALLY need my cookie dough fix now!
Lol! I know – I don’t fool when I say “healthy”!! π
What if I used roasted cashews instead of raw?
It would probably have a different taste, and more fat, as there is added oils in the roasted cashews – but still taste yummy!
Holy crap this looks epic.
Lol, it sure is!!! π
Oh my gosh this looks amazing!!!!! I am definitely going to try this. I tried a recipe for vegan cookie dough balls, and they were amazing, but definitely not healthy. This look fab. Thanks for sharing!
Lol not all cookie dough balls are created equal π