ICE CREAM made from bananas???
I thought, "No way. Too good to be true." You see, I have a confession to make: I'm an ice-cream-aholic. And I'm not prepared to kick the habit any time soon.
Could this be my miracle? Low in calories, full of healthy banana benefits, but still delicious?
I had to try it.
Pins and recipes abound for this. You really only need a few bananas and a blender (or food processor). I started my thought process with a basic recipe from Whole Living. There are dozens of versions available, you need only look.
The process was simple, except for one fact. With the recent overseas move, my kitchen appliances don't exactly work the way they used to in the States. More to come on this later, but I bet some of you can guess what happened...
To get started, slice up 4 ripe bananas. Tip: This is a good way to use up any bananas you may have going bad.
Freeze the slices of banana. You can do this any number of ways, but I separated mine with bits of wax paper inside a tupperware container. If you decide you love this recipe, you could keep banana slices in a ziploc in your freezer for spur of the moment ice cream.
Once frozen, you simply add the bananas to your blender and whirl away! OR, if you're me, you add a bunch of stuff to your bananas. Into my blender went the bananas, along with 4 tablespoons of Nutella, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 4 tablespoons of low fat milk.
And then I whirled away.
For about 3 minutes. Until my blender made a sound like a dying cat, and the motor died.
Um….
Not my best moment.
Luckily, I had an immersion blender which I used to finish the banana ice cream process. But my regular blender is toast. Despite the fact we have both American and German electric in our home, some items simply don't take well to the transition. The American electric isn't exactly 110V all the time.
I don't understand it. But, I do know that my blender is in appliance heaven. So now I own a German one.
Back to the ice cream.
After blending, with several different appliances, the "ice cream" was quite runny and melting quickly. Instead of eating right away, I spooned it into a freezer-safe container and left it to chill overnight. The next day, the ice cream was frozen solid and completely scoopable:
HOWEVER…
It really doesn't taste like ice cream. Sure, it's cold. And frozen. And it looks like ice cream. But it still mostly tastes like blended bananas.
This isn't a bad thing, if you like bananas. I had to warn you, because most of the pins I've seen leave out this detail. Even with the addition of Nutella, the banana flavor was pretty overwhelming. I'm curious to try this recipe with other add-ins. Now that I'm aware, I think this would make a good Strawberry Banana, or Peanut Butter Banana.
We'll see.
But don't expect a miracle from this recipe. It briefly quenched my ice cream craving, but so far I haven't found anything that compares to the real thing.
I'll be back soon with more Pinterest Tested, peeps! Are there any pins you'd like to see me test? Add them in the comments below!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
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