spoon

Peanut Butter-Banana-Chocolate "Ice Cream"

Posted on Monday, June 24, 2013 12:53 PM | By: Lauren

Category: ,



I know a woman who follows a very unusual diet.  From what I understand, she developed it after years of research and trial and error.  She invited my aunt and uncle over to her house and promptly fed them day lilies and a frozen banana, which my aunt described as being like ice cream but the only ingredient was this frozen banana that she put into one end of the machine, and out the other end came this ice cream like substance, and it was delicious.



Fast forward a few years, and I find this recipe on Pinterest, using nothing but bananas, peanut butter, and cocoa powder to make an ice cream like treat that uses no dairy and no added sugar.  We had some aging bananas and we decided to use some of them to make this "ice cream" and we loved it!  There is still a place in my heart for other ice creams, but this one is so tasty, and hits all the flavor notes I care to hit.  

I used Trader Joe's Cocoa Powder for this; Hershey's Special Dark would also work!


If you have a food processor and are looking for a new treat that just happens to be a lower fat/lower sugar/no dairy option, this is it.  It's creamy, full of flavor, and takes all of 5 mins or less (minus banana freezing time).

From the Use Real Butter Blog

4 bananas, just slightly overripe (brown spots good, completely black not so good)
2 tbsps creamy peanut butter (optional – thus 2 ingredient ice cream)
2 tsps cocoa powder (Dutch process preferred), (optional – thus 2 or 3 ingredient ice cream 
depending on peanut butter)

Peel the bananas and slice them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick disks. Place the banana 
slices in the freezer for about an hour or until they are frozen solid. 

Put the frozen slices in a food processor and pulse. First they will start to resemble gravel, but keep going. 
The bananas will soon turn into a frozen mush – at this point, start scraping the sides 
down (you will do this a lot). Or you could add a dash of milk since the liquid will help 
the blending. When the bananas look like whipped ice cream, you can add your mix-ins like peanut butter and/or cocoa powder, chocolate chips, toffee, raspberries, anything goes! Straight out of the food 
processor, the ice cream is like soft serve. You can also freeze it for a firmer texture. I 
find it’s pretty hard (and therefore, brittle) when I scoop it immediately after removing it 
from the freezer. Just give it a minute or two to soften up. Makes a pint.

Notes
  • Just passing this along from the original author- do not freeze the banana whole; doing so will make it almost impossible to get the banana broken down without it melting entirely
  • The Kitchn is the originator of this recipe (I think), and here's a link to the blog post where they made this little treat, as well as other variation ideas: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-creamy-ice-cream-w-93414

Comments (0)

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)