Banana 'Nice Cream'

If you spend any amount of time on the internet looking for recipe ideas, you've probably come across more than one way to make this yummy taste treat using frozen bananas.  Push come to shove, I'd probably put this in my top 10 new favorite foods. For breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert, it's healthy enough to eat at any time of day.  And I do.

Here's the long and short of it. Buy a whole bunch of bananas and make sure they ripen before you cut them for freezing.  The more brown spots on your banana peels, the sweeter the fruit.  After you've done this, the hard part is over.  

Check out the recipe and variations below:

Banana ‘Nice Cream’

Serves: 2

Do Ahead Tip: 

3 ripe bananas, broken into chunks and frozen

Directions: Put frozen bananas in a blender or food processor and turn the machine on to blend them. At first they will want to spin around and stay icy, but keep at it, stopping the machine and using spatula or wooden spoon to scrape the sides and push toward the bottom. Then, walk away and do something else for 10-20 minutes – Email, vacuum, wash some dishes, do some yoga poses). At some point, your bananas will suddenly go creamy and custardy, like soft-serve ice cream. Serve immediately and enjoy.  Freeze any leftovers. I usually eat 1/2 for breakfast and leave the other half for a nighttime dessert.

**Variations and Optional additions: Add other frozen fruit and ingredients to custom tailor your nice cream. You might try the follow combinations:

Bananas + 1 cup frozen strawberries, raspberries or frozen cherries

Bananas + 1 cup frozen blueberries, blackberries or frozen mangoes

Bananas + 1 Tablespoon peanut butter or almond butter

Bananas + 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Bananas + 1 cup frozen peaches + 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Bananas + 1 teaspoon maple extract + 1 Tablespoon maple syrup + 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts

Maple Walnut Nice Cream

**I recommend you try the simple One-Ingredient nice cream first.  Then throw a party for your taste buds by adding some of your personal favorites. 

Notes:  The beauty of this recipe is the flexibility and realizing how simple it is to make.  Remember.  The riper the bananas the sweeter the nice cream.