Banana not-icecream

[rydra_wong]

Con: requires use of a food-processor or blender, which can be hard for those of us with noise sensitivity.

Pro: minimal prep, lasts indefinitely in the freezer, takes only a few minutes to make, no cooking required, compatible with a very wide range of special dietary requirements, is mysterious food alchemy.

Taken from Instructables: 1-Ingredient Ice Cream:

Take a banana or bananas, peel, chop into chunks, then put in a bag in the freezer.

When desired, take out your frozen banana chunks, put them in a food processor, and blend them.

The result is amazingly creamy in texture, and way sweeter than regular banana, for reasons I cannot fathom.

I don't eat a lot of sugar, and I actually find the result too sweet; I'm going to be experimenting with blending in extra ingredients, including other fruits or cocoa powder.

ETA: If you need/want to take a supplement that's in powder form, blending it in seems to work very well (I tried this with a scoop of whey protein).

ETA2: If you are okay with dairy, blending in some Greek yoghurt is amazingly delicious.

Comments

[waywardcats]

Maybe a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice on the pieces before they go into the freezer would add just enough tartness to offset the sweetness?

[pinesandmaples]

How important is the chopping? I mean, what would happen if we just froze a banana then blended it?

Added: Also, I bet blueberries would work well blended into the bananas because blueberries freeze so well.

[moizissimo]

My suggestion is almond butter, or perhaps bittersweet chocolate, if you can do either. :) Banana-nut-butter-chocolate is my favourite smoothie.

[pinesandmaples]

THIS WORKS WITH WATERMELON!

I am yelling because I want the whole world to know how delicious it is.

[hopefulnebula]

a) This sounds nummy and I must try it at once.
b) The reason it's sweeter is because fruits and vegetables convert starches to sugar with cold, as a form of antifreeze. It's why root vegetables are sweeter after the first freeze. Alton Brown said it, so it must be true.

[vilakins]

I'll have to try that!

I make banana ice-blocks (banana onna stick!) in summer by peeling a ripe banana, cutting it in two, sticking am ice-block stick in each half (I use wooden ones), and wrapping each one in cling film and freezing it. You still get the lovely ice-creamy texture and banany-y sweetness and it's so easy to eat. If a bit suggestive. :-P

[0jack]

I've made this for ages. It's fantastic with frozen raspberries and cocoa powder or just with the straight cocoa--but mix the cocoa powder with some milk or water and let it sit for about 15+ minutes. I can't remember all of the blargle about the charge on cocoa powder but, long story short, it's how you get rid of any powdery taste from the cocoa powder. It's the same thing you do when you're making chocolate whipped cream. :)