one ingredient ice cream, a healthy treat and entertainment in one

I am not the first person to fall off my chair at learning that ice cream can be made in seconds with one ingredient. Blogs galore share this fact. But if you have either read and discarded this recipe before or have no idea what I’m on about, prepare yourself for a revelation.

We now live somewhere where it is ice cream weather for 9 months of the year (I know, but not always as much fun as it sounds when you are fair-haired and red rather than bronzed like the locals). So I felt the need to find a healthier option to shop bought ice cream and lollies for myself and my children’s afternoon snacks. I remembered seeing this on Pinterest a while back so gave it a half-hearted try. I couldn’t imagine it would taste that good but I knew it would kill a few minutes one afternoon.

So, after breakfast, I chopped up 4 slightly brown bananas and put them in the freezer in a bag. Then around 3 hours later I put them in my food processor and invited my 3 year old, his little brother and assorted other toddlers we’d invited over to play to turn it into ice cream. They and their Mums didn’t expect much, but after them all having a turn at pressing the pulse button on the processor (hours of fun) they all went mad for the resulting ice cream.

It really was so good. Creamy, soft and not too strong a taste in the banana department, which I know can be off-putting to some.

I’ll be keeping a Ziploc bag in the freezer throughout the year now. Whenever I spy a banana that is on the turn to brown I will chop it in to add to my stash of slices. Then I will know we always have this treat to hand at a moments notice.

Refreezing the purée isn’t advised as it goes pretty hard.

I have heard that some people add chocolate chips or almond butter before pureeing but I’m sticking with the pure version.  I also read another recipe recently where the banana was replaced with frozen mango, giving you a mango sorbet.  It wouldn’t have the creaminess of banana but would be a good alternative.

I usually add this sweet and salty nut topping to our ice cream. It turns it into a very grown up dessert

Ingredients:

Frozen brownish bananas (see note above) – around 3 bananas to serve 4 people

Topping –

Quarter cup chopped or sliced almonds

1 tablespoon grade B maple syrup – the real stuff of course

a big pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes

To make:

1. Take the bananas out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before you want to make this so they soften ever so slightly
2. Mix the almonds, sea salt and maple syrup in a small bowl and set aside
3. Put the banana into your food processor and puree until the mixture is the texture of soft ice cream. Scrape the sides down in between pulses to make sure it is evenly mushed. At first it will look lumpy so be patient and blend it for around 5 minutes and after about 4 minutes the starch in the banana will do magical things and it will turn the texture of soft scoop.
4. Serve the ice cream in bowls with the salty nuts on top and eat straight away…if you aren’t too exhausted by the length of this laborious process.

Equipment

You can now buy the equipment I use in this recipe through my shop. I’ve spent years testing my favourite bits of equipment so rest-assured that whatever I recommend is the best tool for the job and will give you great results without cluttering your kitchen with unused tools. I receive a small affiliate fee from Amazon if you buy via my link. The products don’t cost you any more. These small fees help me keep creating all the free content I share.

Get more recipes like this

Find more recipes for bananas, pudding and 5 ingredient or fewer here.