Ice Cream, You Scream

… We all scream for Ice Cream!

I could hardly believe how easy ice cream was to make. How simple, yet delightful. And with 1 ingredient. That’s right, only 1. No cow’s milk, no sugar, no preservatives, no sweeteners.

The one ingredient is… frozen banana! Despite reading that bananas could offer the same texture as ice cream, I had my doubts. So, I tried it out.

I am so glad that I did, because banana ice cream is indeed rich, creamy, thick, and delicious! I like that it doesn’t make me feel like sludge after eating a bowl (or 2). And the best part about it (and what I love showing people) is the transformation you see as it goes from solid banana to crumbled banana to rich, creamy ice cream!

There are innumerable variations that can be created simply by adding raw nuts or nut butters (pb, almond butter, walnuts), cocoa, other frozen fruit (I’ve used mango and strawberries), or playing with cinnamon and vanilla extract.
There is no need for sweeteners, since ripe bananas are naturally so sweet.
Have fun making this, and try adding something new!

There are a few things I’d like to note before the ingredients:

Try using very ripe bananas. The riper the banana, the sweeter the taste. So let those babies blacken up!
Use a good food processor or high-quality blender. I learned this the hard way when I tried to make a big batch in our previous food processor. It wasn’t very strong (was an attachement on our old blender) and sadly, it broke. This is something that a Vitamix or good food processor can definitely handle.
If you do not have a heavy duty blender or you are using an ice cream maker, try adding a little bit of nut milk. May need to be put into the freezer for an hour to harden.

Additional ingredients to choose from:

Other frozen fruit- mango, strawberries, pineapple
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 TBSP Nut Butter (Almond butter or Peanut Butter)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Raw-mazing Chocolate Sauce
Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
Slivered almonds, or crushed peanuts, walnuts, or pecans

Crate of bananas just ripening up.

Ripe bananas should have lots of black spots.

This is a trick I learned a while ago after years of freezing whole, unpeeled bananas.
Take your ripe bananas and slice them into halves or fours.
Freeze them in bulk in a bag or container.