Peanut Butter Ice Cream Popsicles

Summertime is basically here in Louisiana and I get pretty serious about popsicles this time of year.  Call me crazy for inviting sticky, drippy, melty hands into my life, but it's just easier than a bowl of ice cream to cool off and run around.  

I have been really nurturing my love affair with peanut butter lately, for no particular reason except that peanut butter is tasty.  These popsicles have the texture of an ice cream pop (and you could probably just pour this mixture into an ice cream maker instead of the popsicle mold for delicious results), but they don't have any added sugar aside from what's in your peanut butter.

Ingredients

• about 1 cup peanut butter (or more, you know what you like)
• 1 can coconut milk (13 oz)
• 6-9 dates, pitted (this will depend on date size and if your peanut butter is sweetened or not)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt (if your peanut butter doesn't have salt)

Blend it all up, adding dates if needed, and then pour into popsicle mold (or ice cream maker) and freeze.  For my popsicle mold, this made 8.5 popsicles, and they are pretty standard size.  YUM-O!  You could jazz these up by melting some vegan chocolate chips with a little coconut oil and dipping your frozen popsicles in and then sprinkling with chopped peanuts, but I don't think it needs it.  The flavor reminds me of a salted caramel with the dates and peanut butter combining to flavor perfection (one of my favorite sweet snacks in simply dates dipped in peanut butter).  

If you don't do peanut butter, try it with sunbutter or almond butter, or whatever you use.  Let me know how it turns out in the comments.  I feel like the peanut butter has a special magic, but I'd love to hear how it turns out with other options.