A Facebook friend of mine posted a recipe called Single-Ingredient Ice Cream, and when I saw it, I knew I had to try it as soon as possible!
I've already been freezing bananas for years to use in my regular morning green smoothies.
It's easy: let your bananas get to that ooo-they're-a-little-too-ripe-to-eat stage (for me, it's the yellow with a few specks of brown, the stage at which my husband believes they are perfect for eating), peel them, break them into small chunks and throw them in a zip-lock freezer bag. Pop them in the freezer, and you can not only use them in smoothies like I do, but you'll have them for banana bread and other desserts, plus this yummy ice cream!
I even re-use the freezer bags. Just keep popping banana chunks in as you get over-ripe bananas, even if it's only one at a time.
I have frozen UN-peeled bananas; however, you'll need to run the frozen banana under warm water to get the peel off.
It's such a pain, that you might as well take the extra two minutes (literally, at that) to peel them before freezing, unless....
.....you're running out the door with the risk of missing your flight to Florida, and you suddenly notice too-ripe bananas sitting on the counter. THAT's when you have excuse to throw the bananas in the freezer, even sans the freezer bag ;-)
And the only time a banana is too brown for freezing is when it starts leaking juice (umm, yeah, gross.). I've frozen them when they are very brown and very soft! The only problem when you wait that long before freezing, is that they are quite dark, and I'm not sure how 'white' and creamy your ice cream will be.
They work just fine in smoothies since you don't see them, but it might be best to save your least ripe frozen bananas for the ice cream.
I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream first. Oooooooo....YUM-eee-licious!!
I didn't use a recipe, and you really can't go wrong without one, since it's so simple.
I use my Vitamix, but many people use their food processor and even prefer it to the Vitamix.
Here's a video showing how to make it in the food processor. I really like this video, as her bananas don't come together like usual, so it shows what can go wrong (although it turned out fine in the end).
My daughter's friend has a Yonana, and she said it worked great. One of the reviews on Amazon for the Yonana said they liked the texture better than a Vitamix and a food processor. If you have made banana ice cream in the Yonana AND the food processor and notice a difference, I'd love to know. Otherwise, I just can't justify buying another kitchen gadget.
Here's what I did:
I filled my Vitamix with about 3 or so frozen bananas. I added a heaping tablespoonful of Wegman's Organic Creamy P.B., plus about a tablespoon of raw cacao powder (you can use regular unsweetened baking cocoa too, if you don't do the raw cacao powder).
I didn't add any sweetener; the bananas give all the sweetness you need!
You can add more P.B. if you'd like, leave it out, or add other flavorings you'd like, such as a drop of vanilla extract.
I also made Banana-Strawberry today. I did half bananas, half frozen strawberries. I did let them sit out for a few minutes, because I found if I didn't, it would stress my Vitamix and over-heat it.
I added a packet of Stevia sweetener, plus a little agave, just cuz the strawberries aren't quite as sweet.
That container on the Vitamix is the small container, which is only 4 cups. I got not quite 3 cups of ice cream from a rather small amount of bananas and strawberries. Nice.
It was really good, but personally, I'll be making the choco P.B. more often than the strawberry.
If I try any other flavors, I'll be sure to let you know.
Even tho it was over 90 degrees on Memorial Day, it's more like soup weather again. But that Summer heat will come soon enough again, and when it does, I'm gonna make sure I have plenty of frozen bananas on hand to make me some ice cream!
