Easy Banana, Chocolate and Bailey’s Ice Cream

I’ve read many times that if you have over-ripe Bananas then you should freeze them for another day. I’ve never really bothered until now, because there was always my Banana Bread to fall back on.

Here’s the link for my Banana bread if you’ve never tried it: https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/banana-bread/

 

In recent times however, I read the basics of this really easy little recipe on a page that I follow – Karon Grieve’s Larder Love – give her a look, I like her very much.

Her recipe for Banana Chocolate ice cream (which doesn’t really taste of Bananas) uses frozen banana. I had 400g of frozen Banana today, and Karon spends quite a while warning you to beat the living daylights out of the frozen banana to avoid breaking your Food Processor – I had mine in chunks, and thought I’d be grand – WRONG!! They were like bullets – or ‘as hard as the hobs of Hell’ to quote my dear Mama – and nearly reduced my expensive – it was a present, I’m way too mean to spend that kind of money – Magimix to a full stop.

Here are my thoughts: I would recommend that you mash your Banana before freezing it, then stab the slab of mashed Banana many times with a knife, to break it up as much as possible before attempting to make this Ice Cream. The rest of it comes together in nanoseconds, so you’re not wasting any time at all, and it’s well worth it.

With these wise words in mind, off we go!

EQUIPMENT:

• Food processor or liquidizer
• Freezer-suitable container
• Spatula

INGREDIENTS: This what I used:                                                

• 400g frozen banana.
• 1 slightly heaped tablespoon of coffee granules
• 1 slightly heaped  tablespoon of Cocoa powder
• 50mls Bailey’s cream
• 50mls Maple Syrup

METHOD:

• Have a swig of Baileys to give you energy. Then stab, etc. the frozen Bananas to break them up (see above) Don’t skip this bit..
• Put everything into the Food processor and blitz, until it becomes a thick smooth paste – you might need to scrape down the sides of the processor once or twice with the spatula.
• Pour into the container.

• Freeze for at least 6 hours, or until needed.
• I froze this overnight and was able to scoop it straight from the freezer next day.

NOTES:

• The food processor reduces the banana to nothing, so you’d never even know it was there.
• The end result is a delicious smooth chocolate ice cream.
• I used 100% Cacao powder, which is slightly more bitter than say,Bournville Cocoa powder. It results in quite a grown-up Chocolate flavoured Ice Cream. If you wanted to make it suitable for children’s palates, I’d suggest using Drinking Chocolate.
• I’m also not entirely sure about the need for the coffee. Next time I’m going to try it without..