Thursday, March 08, 2012

Scraps and Snippets ~ Banana Ice Cream...

One of the recipes in Minnesota taught me a sweet skill. The recipe itself ended up being one of the least favorites. But that was because of the flavor pairings. But our minds went crazy trying to pair the parfait idea with this delicious soft serve consistency ice cream. There will be parfaits in our kitchen, as soon as we can stop ourselves from making and immediately eating the...Banana ice cream.

Now onto the sweet skill. You need a food processor. The girl who posted the original deets said she'd tried a Vitamix to less than stellar results.

Here's the recipe.

You take as many "happy" bananas as you want. Make sure they are "just right bananas," not the black and slimy banana bread bananas. Peel them. Chop the bananas up into bite sized chunks. Put them in a freezer bag. Put them in your freezer and freeze for a minimum of an hour. 

Dump as many bananas as you have people to serve (approximate size of a banana because they will be in chunks  so estimate or you could put each banana into a separate container if you are picky about stuff like that) into the food processor. Example: Use two or three for a two or three person serving. One banana per person...but stick to two or three in each batch. Run the food processor on high. 

You will think there is no way an ice cream substance is going to happen. No way. They break into tiny grainy looking bits and look less and less like creamy goodness. But magic is coming. Stop and scrape it now and again so all the pieces get fluffed. You will have a creamy, deliciousness in three or four minutes.

In our experiments at home, & and I have made banana ice cream with a blob of peanut butter and a splash of non-dairy milk (about a TBSP of each) and the  cinnamon banana version with a few sprinkles of Vietnamese Cinnamon 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per banana. (BTW, there is a difference in cinnamons. Veitnamese is delicious and sweet. Highly recommended.) The results are yummy, slightly softer in consistency, but delicious. And the additions soften the banana taste. Uhh. Chocolate chips tossed in....yum. However, the banana taste is pleasant and not overwhelming because you are using the not overripe bananas.

Try it but be warned, it's addictive.