The-not-ice cream

A while back, I mentioned that I always end the week with extra ripe bananas, and that I am always looking for new ways to use them. This--banana "ice cream"-- is the easiest recipe ever. Frozen bananas can be blended or whisked into a thick creamy treat (rather than an icy or more Popsicle-like texture that other fruits would yield) because of its high pectin content. Pectin is a gelling agent that is naturally found in plants.

All you need is:

2 over-ripe bananas

1/4 cup of milk

Optional toppings:

Strawberry or raspberry preserves or fresh fruit

Nutella

Or whatever ice cream topping you like best!

I froze the bananas for 2 hours so that they were soft-frozen and still able to cut with my knife. At this point you can do a rough chop and stick them in a blender or food processor with the milk, till you achieve a thick creamy mixture. My blender is currently broken, so I did a much finer chop and then whisked it into the creamy mixture. Doing this by hand was surprisingly fast--I had the texture I wanted in less than a minute! I may always choose to do this by hand and skip the food processor clean-up! You can either eat your concoction right away, but it may be a bit soft from the mixing. If you want a more solid ice cream, put it back in the freezer for a few more minutes. At this point I froze the ice cream in a ice tray, to get the cute "scoops". You could make a vegan version of this recipe by simply omitting the milk. The milk makes it a bit more creamy, but it tastes great without it too. I decorated with strawberry preserves and Nutella. We ended up adding more Nutella (melted in the microwave with a splash of milk) on top too, as there is nothing better than bananas and Nutella!