Quick Banana Ice Cream = A Tropicalicious Sundae

It is an inevitable occurrence that all the apple bananas in my CSA box ripen at exactly the same time. Much as I try to eat them up, I always have some overripe ones leftover and look for good recipes to use them up; usually muffins or bread. I found a recipe for Quick Banana Ice Cream, in April's Olive Magazine. I love ice cream and especially love quick, no fuss ice cream recipes and besides I figure if I am going to splurge occasionally, homemade ice cream is a good way to go. Wanting to use what I had on hand, I replaced the heavy cream with a can of coconut milk. Topped with some bananas, toasted coconut and toasted macadamia nuts, it is the perfect tropical sundae.

Quick Banana Ice Cream

Olive Magazine, April 2009

(Serves 4)

(Cook Time: 10 minutes + 2 Hours freezing)

4 ripe bananas, chopped into chunks

juice of 1/2 lemon

400 ml (13.53 fluid ounces) double cream (or 1 can coconut milk)

75 g golden caster sugar (about 5 1/4 Tbsp)

Whiz everything together in a food processor or blender. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn, (according to the manufacturer's directions) or pour into a freezer-proof box and freeze, stirring every two hours until the mixture solidifies. 

To make the Tropicalicious Sundae, layer banana slices in a bowl, top with ice cream and garnish with more banana and toasted unsweetened coconut flakes and toasted chopped macadamia nuts. Enjoy!

Notes/Results:  Yum! It is creamy and delicious. The banana taste is there but it isn't cloying. I really like the slight coconut flavor that adding the coconut milk gives it. I wanted to try it mostly as written so I used an organic unbleached cane sugar for this batch but I am going to play around with some other sweeteners like agave and see what that and some lite coconut milk does to it. Low-cal, no--but as a splurge, the fact that it has 4 simple ingredients and no preservatives is a good thing. It is excellent on it's own but the banana slices, coconut and nuts, really took it over the top. A definite keeper recipe.