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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We’re half-way there, gang! This is Day 6 of the 12 Days of Cookies project! We’re baking our personal choices from the 2008 Bon Appétit Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection, and still going strong.

My choice today is the Pecan Lace Sandwich Cookie with Orange Buttercream. And all I can say is: Oh, My!

First the recipe, then my notes:

Pecan Lace Sandwich Cookies with Orange Buttercream

Preparation:

Notes:

Those of us who have baked this cookie, so far, all agree that it is particularly fragile and probably would not travel very far intact. But. The taste is awesome, with or without the orange buttercream – which is pretty awesome in itself, by the way. Personally, I found them a bit too sweet sandwiched with the buttercream filling, but my husband disagreed, so you make your own judgment call on that one.

And it is an exceptionally easy and quick cookie to make. No mixer required, it’s all done on the stovetop and then popped in the oven. I found that 11 minutes was a bit too long to bake these, making them a little darker than I would have liked, and so baked the second batch for 10 minutes, getting that proverbial “golden brown and delicious” appearance.

You should absolutely bake this cookie. I know I will!

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the seventh installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project