Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!
Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!
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It’s time again, folks, for the Secret Recipe Club, something I’ve looked forward to all month long! If you weren’t around for the last one, the Secret Recipe Club is where we are each secretly assigned another blog to browse, choose a recipe, make it and post about it. Kudos to Amanda, who organized this great event and manages it so well every month!
I do apologize, but this is another series of pictures I took that is on a memory card in a location yet to be determined. Which stinks, because those pictures were pretty good if I remember correctly!
My assigned blog this month was Join Us Pull Up a Chair (love the name!). I did indeed pull up a chair and enjoy myself browsing through Heather‘s collection of recipes, pulled from her “stacks and stacks” of magazines (I can so relate, Heather!). Although I drooled (at least mentally) over many of her recipes, I finally decided to go with her Bananas Foster Ice Cream Recipe, which is, in fact, what got me started on Ice Cream Week this week (Thanks, Heather, for the inspiration!).
I have decided that bananas in ice cream really add such a creamy quality, even after the ice cream has been sitting in the freezer for a few days. Most homemade ice cream tends to be rock hard, but I find that ice cream with bananas can be so creamy and delicious no matter when you decide to dig into it. It’s too bad that bananas have such a distinctive flavor, or I would add them to every batch of ice cream!
The good thing about this ice cream recipe is that the bananas are the star, so you can let their flavor shine unabashedly. I stuck to Heather’s basic recipe, but I used coconut milk (because of Baby Boy’s allergy) and added some chocolate. Because as good as banana ice cream is, it’s even better with chocolate.
Banana Chocolate Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 3 medium bananas, peeled
- 1/3 cup raw sugar
- 1 TBSP butter, cut in pieces
- 1 1/2 cups milk (or coconut milk)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Slice bananas into 1/2″ pieces and stir together with sugar and butter. Bake in a casserole dish at 400F for 40 minutes, stirring once, until bananas are browned and cooked through.
- Remove from oven, and add remaining ingredients, except for chocolate chips and coconut oil. Blend well with an immersion blender until smooth, then cool for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Pour into ice cream machine according to machine’s instructions.
- When the ice cream is close to the desired consistency, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring each time. When melted, stir in the oil. Pour the melted chocolate into the ice cream mixture while the machine is continuing to churn. Once all the chocolate has been added, remove ice cream into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours before serving. Or eat it soft-serve as it is (I dare you to try to restrain yourself!).
Roasting bananas adds a little time to this recipe, so it’s not the QUICKest one in my repertoire. If you have a little extra time, however, it’s totally worth it, both for the texture and the taste.
It does have added steps of melting chocolate and roasting bananas, but it’s still pretty EASY. Roasting bananas and melting chocolate chips are not complicated tasks.
It’s pretty CHEAP, though, especially if you have some extra bananas that need eating before they go bad (which to be honest, is rarely a problem around here because the 4 people in this house go through bananas like crazy!).
It’s a pretty HEALTHY ice cream recipe: not THE healthiest, but fairly healthy. I did reduce the sugar by just a bit, but then I totally ruined that by adding chocolate chips. Chocolate has antioxidants, though, so it’s all good.
Thanks for the great review Anne! I’m so glad you liked it and I love the changes you made. It’s one of our favorite flavors of ice cream!
It’s one of my favorites now too:)
Glad to be with you on SRC! Lovely recipe.
Thanks!
I don’t even need the pictures to imagine how delicious this ice cream is! Great job!
I am still kicking myself over that missing memory card. *sigh*
Yum, banana ice cream is always delicious!
Mmm-hmm!
I keep meaning to try making ice cream with frozen banana and keep eating the bananas we buy instead. I have some that are a little beat up from camping over the weekend, I am going to go and roast those up now, maybe I can have this for dessert by tonight!
Let me know how you like it!
Bananas do add so much to ice cream!
So fun to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. This looks amazing
Yes, they do!
YAY! I was just given an ice cream maker, so I’ve been all-eyes for ice cream recipes. This sounds delicious. Heather or Anne, can I use bananas that have been frozen?
Yay for ice cream makers! It’s SO awesome. I guess it’s not that much of a savings when using regular milk and cream as compared to store-bought ice cream on sale. But when it comes to making non-dairy ice cream, I save money all over the place by making it myself. And cost factor aside, homemade ice cream is SO much healthier than even the healthiest store-bought.
And whoops! I forgot to answer your question. My guess is yes. I would think that freezing would only affect the texture, and they end up pureed anyway, so that’s not a big deal. The only other thing I would worry about is they might get a little liquidy, in which case you can just strain them I would guess.
Sounds delicious!! I HAVE to get me an ice cream maker
Yes, definitely! My new favorite appliance!
I haven’t added bananas to ice cream but it sounds as though they really contribute to the texture and have a great flavor. It is fun to be in SRC with you!
Texture, definitely. Flavor, only if you like bananas. And I think it also helped to roast them; that made them a tad sweeter imo.
Sounds wonderful. I have a recipe for Frozen Banana pie and that is a nice recipe. So quessing ice cream would be tasty also. Thanks for sharing Andi
http://thewednesdaybaker.blogspot.com/
Sounds yummy – and not too bad either for you either since there is no cream!
I agree, although generally speaking I have no problems with cream! Love it, actually:) just avoid it right now because of food allergies.
I’ve never put bananas in ice cream, but your description has me determined to give it a go! YUM. And I also love the idea of making this with coconut milk
It’s very good; definitely try it! And teh coconut milk, too, which is delicious whether or not you’re dairy-free.
Hi Anne,
I think my other comment is somewhere in your spam or moderation folder…but I was assigned your blog in the secret recipe club this month and I made flourless PB cookies that were inspired by your sunflower butter cookies.
I love the SRC, it was just my 1st month, and plan to continue!
(I hope you see this comment! )
Oops, sorry! I haven’t checked my spam filter today, so you might be right. I did see your post and I loved your variation of those cookies! One of these days I will hopefully be able to use real peanut butter again:)
Ok glad you saw the post
I would have felt HORRIBLE had you not known who “had you”…because it was me. So I was going to keep commenting til I knew you saw them
Roasted bananas. Bring it on! (And bring on the cream!) Great SRC post.
Thank you very much:)
I just bookmarked this recipe, it sounds wonderful.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Holy Guacamole.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Nice work on the Secret Recipe Club. Isn’t it fun. I love finding new blogs and reading through them.
Bummer about the card! But, I’ve been there. My friend wants to do a guest post about Blood Orange Gelato and had me over to shoot oranges that he had just picked. WE put them in bowls, cut them, etc and I deleted every photo on the card!!! UGH!!!
No worries here though, your description and recipe speak for themselves. Nicely done!!
Glad I’m not the only one who loses photos!
This sounds like a winner of a recipe. Great pick!
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Oh my goodness! I cannot wait to make this. Putting the ice cream bowl in the freezer now and headed to the store for ingredients in the morning!
You know what; I’m making more of it today, too! Great minds think alike:)
I must agree…EVERYTHING is better with chocolate.