QUICK Banana Ice-Cream!

I was craving ice-cream the other day... but we didn't have any at home, and we were too lazy to go get some. My parents-in-law gave me an ice-cream maker a couple of years ago and I love making my own ice-cream - so much better than store-bought ones! I make pretty good ice-cream if I do say so myself, and I can't cook lol.

I like using recipe from Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz. I don't make ice-cream too often, because the recipes call for heavy cream and milk... trying to lose weight here, you see...

I also didn't have any ingredients that day when I craved, but I did have 5 bananas! I read somewhere online that you can make a quick banana ice-cream with just... BANANAS! Yep, nothing else! Well, you can add some honey if you want for some added sweetness, it said.

So, all you have to do, is just peel the bananas (preferably ripe ones), cut them into thin slices. Spread them out on a plate, and freeze for 1- 2 hours. Then, put them into a blender or a food processor, until creamy.

Sounds way too easy?! It is that easy! It turns out really well too!

I tried it with:

• just bananas - it really does turn creamy like ice-cream! Maybe not as rich as normal ice-cream (also depends on how ripe your bananas are). But it satisfies the craving if you don't have any on hand. And much healthier too! This one is my favorite - plain and simple!
  
• banana + honey - I think I may have added a bit too much honey, so it gets a bit too liquidy and not as creamy as the just-bananas ones. It may be a tad too sweet for me too. So I think I will skip in the future
  
• banana + chocolate chips - I have some big semi-sweet Trader Joe's chocolate chips, so I thought I'd give it a try (see, I don't necessary have to follow recipes all the time!). I just added them into the blender. I probably should have broken the chips into smaller pieces first to reduce blending time. It turns out quite well, if you like having chocolate chips in ice cream! This one is the husband's favorite.

I have read other people adding peanut butter too, but we didn't have any peanut butter. Plus I am not a big fan (I like it okay, just do not love it, though the husband does.)

I used 5 medium bananas, and it made about 6 scopes (1 favor each for us). So I guess roughly 1 banana per scope?

Next time when I see bananas on sale, I am going to get a big bunch and free some! Since the recipe calls for freezing it 1-2 hours only, so that the bananas are cold and a little hard, but not overly hard. I suppose if I freeze them longer than that, I may need to thaw them a little bit first. We have a really good blender (Vitamix) so it can handle ice, but check your blender to see if it is okay with crushing ice. I don't have a big enough food process, so don't know if it is better to use a blender or food processor.



If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

Note - our stove/oven died last week... so can't make ice-cream for the time being anyway... sigh... the dishwasher seems to be dying too... double sigh.