One-Ingredient Banana "Ice Cream"

We’re in a real celebratory mood here in the Circle B Kitchen… we just found out over the weekend that grandbaby #5 will be joining our family early next spring!  Weehoo!!  This one will belong to our son and daughter-in-law and is their first.  So they’re really excited, mainly because they have no idea what’s about to happen to them.  Just kidding you guys.  We couldn’t be more happy and excited so we thought we'd serve up some ice cream!

OK, so it’s not really ice cream.  But maybe if you’re pregnant and craving all kinds of strange things, it could be a perfect little indulgence.

This is a recipe that’s been doing the rounds of food blogs out there.  Perhaps you’ve come across it already, but in case you haven’t, you’re in for a treat.

Here, people, is a “recipe” for ice cream that contains no cream, no dairy, no sugar and no artificial ingredients.  In fact, all you need are a few bananas, preferably just past their prime, a freezer and a blender.  You can add a few other things, but we’ll get to that later.

There really is no recipe involved here.  Just slice up your bananas and stick them in a Ziploc bag and stash em in the freezer until they’re good and frozen. 

When you’re ready for some "ice cream", just thrown them in your blender and process them until they’re smooth and creamy, scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

And then I found out it’s really not quite as simple as that.  First of all, I have a pretty sturdy, powerful Waring blender and it wasn’t at all happy about trying to puree these frozen banana chunks.  I had to stop a few times while the motor cooled off, but eventually we got there.  The last couple of times I’ve made this, I placed my bag of frozen banana chunks on my cutting board and pounded them with a meat tenderizer until they were broken up and just starting to look a little smashy.  Then I let them sit on the sink for about 3 minutes or so and they were ever so much easier and quicker to process.

Some people did not have great results with this and have complained about an “off” or bitter flavor, but I think you might get that if your bananas are not quite ripe enough when you freeze them.  We didn’t experience that, and in fact, we really like the flavor.  And the texture is amazingly creamy.

So you can just eat this as is and smugly enjoy your fat-free, sugar-free, dairy-free “ice cream”, or you can do as I do and add some fat and calories to it…

My favorite way to eat my banana ice cream these days is to add a teaspoon or two of vanilla to the bananas in the blender and after it’s all blended, I stick it in the freezer for a few minutes until it's firmed up just a little.  Then I serve it topped with a drizzle of warmed nutella and toasted walnuts.  This is just ever so good whether you’re pregnant or not.  Here’s the recipe…

One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

Click here for a printable recipe

Makes about 2 cups of ice cream

You will need 4 or 5 ripe bananas.  Just slice them up and stick them in a ziploc bag and freeze overnight.  Remove from the freezer and bash them with a meat tenderizer for a minute until they're just starting to break down.  Place them in your blender with a teaspoon or two of good vanilla and process until they're the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.

You can eat this immediately or place in a container and freeze until firm.  At this point you can add your favorite toppings.  I like to top mine with some slightly warmed Nutella and toasted chopped nuts.