Talk to someone who makes artisanal ice cream, and they'll tell you that ice cream, at its best, is a simple product made with just milk, cream, eggs, salt, and sugar. When the chefs in our test kitchen developed this recipe for plant-based ice cream, they wanted it to have that same beautiful simplicity, so it’s made with just cashews, oatmilk, white chocolate, pure vanilla bean paste, salt, and agave syrup — plus the scrumptious add-ins, of course!

If you’ve ever made cashew milk or cream, you know that the nuts generally have to soak for eight hours. Here, we’ve shortened the time to one hour by pouring boiling water over them. (Because who wants to wait a day and a half for ice cream?) On its own, the nut milk is not as rich as we’d like, so we whirl it up with oatmilk for creaminess and white chocolate for fat. The result is positively luxe!

Once the base has churned to a soft-serve consistency, we stir the Newman-O’s through it. (Hey-oh, they’re also vegan!) At that point, the ice cream just needs an hour in the freezer, and it’s ready. And that’s a big reason to love this recipe — homemade plant-based ice cream in about four hours, during which you’ve done nothing more taxing than turning on the blender.

In the test kitchen, we like to scoop our plant-based cookies and cream ice cream into a classic glass sundae bowl, and it looks just like the real dairy deal. But more importantly, it tastes simply wonderful — so rich and creamy and positively chunky with chocolate cookies. The vanilla bean and white chocolate in the base give it a lush mouthfeel, but they also bring out the Newman O’s cream flavor in a way that is deeply, quart-crushingly satisfying for the cookies and cream fans in the house.

Yield: 1 quart