Vegan Peanut Butter And Vanilla Nana Ice Cream

It's no secret that I go nanas for bananas. A good 20% of my recipes on this blog include bananas, like my favorite post-workout green smoothie, my peanut butter covered banana snack or these vegan banana blueberry pancakes.

With the scorching temperatures in Australia at the moment, it's about time that I come up with my first nana ice cream recipe for this blog. I always have frozen bananas in the freezer for smoothies anyways, so whipping up this recipe is fairly simple.

I’m sure most of you already know the basic concept of blending frozen bananas in a blender/food processor until the results have the exact texture of soft serve ice cream. The banana tastes surprisingly neutral,making it a great refined sugar free/dairy free base for other flavors. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it tastes exactly like the real deal, but it certainly can satisfy your ice cream cravings! Whilst most other frozen fruits make for an icy texture, banana makes it creamy and rich thanks to its high pectin content.

Here's how to guarantee the perfect banana icecream

Let the bananas ripen really well before peeling. You want them to start forming brown patches. The more ripe they are, the more of a sweet, caramelized flavor they develop.
Once ripe, peel the bananas, cut into pieces, and freeze them.
Make sure they don't all freeze together, because your blender/food processor will have a hard time processing them otherwise. I have a KitchenAid Pro Line Series blender, which has absolutely no trouble processing it, but if you do have issues, add a tiny bit more liquid or use a wooden spoon to get the frozen pieces out from under the blade.
While blending, once the soft-serve texture is reached, you can eat it immediately or scoop it into a container and freeze an additional 30 minutes or so, then scoop out with an ice cream scoop. This will give you a firmer banana ice cream texture.

Mix-in Ideas

You can keep this recipe as simple as two ingredients, or spice it up with some delicious additions! Here are a few favorite mix-ins to make it even more awesome.

Handful of chocolate chips
Chopped up almonds, pistachios or other nuts
A sprinkle of coconut flakes
A teaspoon of cinnamon or cardamon
A drop of vanilla essence

The options are endless!

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 very ripe bananas (much sweeter this way), peeled and roughly chopped

1/3 cup coconut milk

50g salted, crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp cinnamon

2 drops vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Place chopped bananas into a container to freeze, for a minimum of 2 hours.

2. Combine all the ingredients in your blender. Secure the lid, and slowly turn up the dial to your max. My KitchenAid blender can go all the way up to 11, so it processes the frozen bananas really well. If your blender is struggling, make sure to turn it off every now and then, use a wooden spoon to get the frozen bits out from under the blade and then turn on again. Just make sure to not over-blend or the ice-cream will begin to melt.