One-Ingredient Ice “Cream”

 

One day last week (I think), Elle tweets me something along the lines of “Renee! You have to check this out!!!” Seriously, there were at least 3 exclamation points. The “this” she was referring to, was a “recipe” for One-Ingredient Ice Cream on another blog, The Kitchn. Really?!? How’s that work? Every brain cell is telling you that this shouldn’t work, but it does!

Apparently, 1 cup of mashed banana contains approximately 1 gram of fat. Which ain’t much in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider the nutritional powerhouse that is the Banana. That little trace of fat is the source of the magic.

Essentially, you peel and slice some bananas, lay them out in a single layer on a plate, and freeze them for about 2 hours. Then you run the frozen bananas through your food processor. (For step-by-step instructions with photos, see the post at The Kitchn.) At first, it just looks like a crumbly mess, and doubt sets in. But you keep going, and suddenly, that crumbly mess transforms into a creamy, rich, decadent delight, exactly the consistency of ice cream! Who knew?

Well, the mind boggles, doesn’t it? If you like bananas – and it’s still the Number 1 fruit in America, so chances are that you do – how many umpteen-thousands of add-in combinations can you come up with? Our minds raced. And as we tweeted back and forth excitedly, we sucked in Kathy of A Good Appetite, Heather of He Cooks / She Cooks, and Barbara of Vino Luci Style. At some point today or tomorrow, all 5 of us (don’t forget Elle of Elle’s New England Kitchen!), are posting some of the variations we came up with that you should try at home.

All of mine are based on 2 bananas per batch, adding the other ingredients just after they begin to get creamy in the food processor. I’m going to show you three of my favorite variations:

Coconut Macadamia: 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped salted macadamia nuts.

Chocolate Hazelnut: 3 Tbs. Nutella and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts (This one’s my favorite!)

Kahlua Pecan: 2 Tbs. Kahlua liqueur and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans. (This one was MJ’s favorite)

With summer coming up (already here for some of us!), isn’t it nice to know that there’s another healthy option in the frozen treat category? Just keep in mind that the riper the bananas, the sweeter this is, so if you use some that are just ripe, you may want to add some sweetener, such as honey or agave nectar. Yes, the base-flavor is always going to be banana, but how’s that a bad thing?

 

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