Banana Ice Cream

I have something SO awesome to share with you, I can hardly stand it!

I can take NO credit whatsoever for this delicious concoction.

Most of my recipes are my own creations, or such a major overhaul of someone else’s idea that I can still claim it as my own.

This, however, is strictly the brilliance of Use Real Butter.  And even then, credit is given to  Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn.  And THAT author gives credit to her sister!

So, to Apartment Therapy’s Sister, I humbly bow and give great thanks and Squee’s!  (And terrific thanks to the other site’s for sharing this amazingness-in-a-bowl!)

WHAT is so worthy of such lavish praise, you wonder?

BANANA ICE CREAM.

Not banana flavored  ice cream, but actual ice cream made out of bananas!  I know, right?!

What are you to do for ice cream when your child can have NO milk, NO eggs, and NO coconut?? (Because coconut milk ice cream was my answer to the ice cream question until we learned about his Fructose Malabsorption.)  Oh, and how are you to sweeten it when your child can’t have Fructose?

I basically had decided my poor sweetie would just have to do without ice cream from here on out.  Sad, but necessary.

No more!  I will feed him this ice cream for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, too, if he wants it.  It could NOT be healthier or better for him.  And it’s dairy-free, egg-free, and SUGAR-FREE!!!

So here’s what you do:

Grab 4 bananas, peel them and slice them up. Lay the slices on a cookie sheet and put it in your freezer for at least an hour.

 

Take the frozen banana slices and toss them in your food processor.

Put the lid on and let ‘er rip!  At first, the bananas turn sort of sand or grain-like…they look sort of like pellets, actually.

At this point, you have to start the process of taking off the lid, scraping down the sides, processing a little more, repeat un-til…it looks like this:

By this point, both the Geek and Mr. Charm were severely invading my personal space to see what I was making, so I took pity and gave them each a lick off the spoon.  They both got wide eyes, went “Yum!” and begged for more.

But I held firm: I knew we weren’t done yet!

Into the food processor went two additional ingredients: peanut butter and cocoa powder!  (Though, you could just eat it without adding a single thing to it – it’s that good!  And without the peanut butter, it would be top 8 allergy-free.)

I let it blend some more, scraped the sides once for good measure, and dumped it all into a glass dish.  The blogs I read for this recipe said it could actually be scooped  if you put it back into the freezer, and I was SO looking forward to making a pretty, scooped bowl of ice cream for my boys that I wasn’t willing to let them eat it soft-serve – though, of course, that is a viable option!

(Those of you who have experimented with alternative ice cream recipes can verify: it’s hard to make pretty scoops out of most ice creams made in non-traditional ways.  So this was exciting for me!)

Alas, we sat down to dinner not long after this picture was taken, and at the promise of banana ice cream for dinner both the Geek and Mr. Charm freaking inhaled  their dinner!  We’re talking “clean-your-plate” wolfing, here (which isn’t so strange for the Geek, but is mind-blowing for Mr. Charm!).

So, ready for dessert, I went to scoop their bowls and…yep.  It hadn’t frozen up yet.  Soft serve ice cream it was!

Both boys loved their ice cream.  They ate their entire bowls and probably would have eaten more, if I wasn’t being mean and hiding it in the freezer to see if it really DOES scoop once frozen.  (He he he.)

The Geek’s valued opinion of this dessert:  He liked the plain banana better than the peanut butter and cocoa version, though he thinks he will love it with just cocoa added.  He said the texture was just as good as traditional, store-bought (full of poison) ice cream – and even liked it better than the coconut milk ice creams I had made for Mr. Charm that *I* thought were better than any store bought ice cream I had ever tried!

So, banana has been moved up the list on Mr. Happy’s food trial list.  Mama would sure  like to have a dessert, these days!

Later on, I went back to the ice cream to see if it scooped.

It DID!

So, knowing that it does really well in the freezer, I plan to make up multiple batches of this at once and store it in the freezer so we can finally be like normal people and just have ice cream on hand whenever one of us gets a yen for it.  <happy dance!>

By the way, you could add anything you want to this: chocolate chips, nuts, fruit puree’s, you name it.  Get creative and make something delicious!

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BANANA ICE CREAM (one, two or three ingredients)

– 4 bananas, very ripe
– 1 TBS peanut butter (optional)
– 1 TBS cocoa powder (optional)
– any other add-ins: chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, etc.

1. Peel and slice the bananas, and freeze the slices on a cookie sheet for one hour minimum.
2. Toss the frozen slices into a food processor, and process until creamy.  (That’s it, if you want plain banana ice cream!  If you want other flavors, continue:)
3. Add your optional ingredients to the food processor, and process until well mixed.
4. Serve it up soft serve, or place back into the freezer to make pretty scoops.
5. Enjoy the healthiest dessert you’ll ever eat!

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Would you ever imagine bananas would cream up like this?  What would you add-in to your banana ice cream?

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This post was shared with Allergy Free Wednesdays, Whole Foods Wednesdays, and Real Food Wednesdays.