Recipes Archives - Page 86 of 113

Banana “ice cream” sundaes recipe

Although I recently became dairy-free, I haven’t been able to eat ice cream for quite some time. It’s a pretty hard-to-digest food even if you make it from scratch, and not one that has agreed with me in many years. But when I got married, I used to eat ice cream every day and for several years afterwards. At any given time, I think we had at least a dozen different pints in our freezer into which we would dip every night after we put the babies to sleep. My mother-in-law thinks I can’t digest ice cream anymore because I OD’d on it all those years. Perhaps.

Last week I needed a little comfort food and I craved a quick, sweet pick-me-up while I watched the television in total disbelief of all that chaos. I was really close to snagging the remains of Mr. Picky’s favorite Three Twins vanilla ice cream, but I know that I would have felt even worse afterwards, for many reasons. Because we make so many acai bowls and smoothies around here, I always have frozen bananas on hand. One thing I’ve never posted is banana “ice cream.” I’ve always figured by now most people have seen this on Foodily or Pinterest. If you haven’t, it’s just frozen pieces of banana, blended in a Vitamix or a food processor with a touch of almond milk or regular milk and maybe a little sweetener to taste. It comes out the consistency of soft serve ice cream and really hits the spot if you’re in the mood for a frozen treat. But it’s really just bananas, so it’s a million times better for you than regular ice cream or (blech) popsicles made with food coloring. I told my mother-in-law about banana ‘ice cream” and she offered to buy me a Yonana machine which basically does the exact same thing. She’s so thoughtful, but you can really do this no problem in your food processor or high powered blender.

So why am I posting this “recipe” when I assume everyone has heard of banana “ice cream?” Because apparently, not everyone has! At least Gwyenth Paltrow doesn’t think so. I am a huge Gwyneth fan and I just received her new book, It’s All Good, which looks fantastic. Low and behold, there’s a recipe in there for banana “ice cream” with roasted almonds. If Gwyneth can put it out there, so can I.

I do want to emphasize that you can’t really follow a recipe here since there are a few variables which can affect the outcome of your ice cream. First of all, you must start with ripe, well-speckled bananas. Ripe bananas are much, much sweeter than pale yellow-skinned ones and will allow you to make this with a minimum amount of added sweetener. That said, the amount of sweetener will vary according to the sweetness of your bananas. I’ve made this many times without any sweetener at all, but sometimes a smidge of raw honey adds just the right amount. So it’s best not to follow a recipe and just “sweeten to taste.” Keep in mind however, that this recipe uses 4 bananas. So don’t eat the whole thing unless eating 4 bananas is a normal thing for you. I always add stuff to it like chopped nuts, raw cacao nibs or granola to make it a little more substantial and keep it healthy. But you can have fun and put out a “sundae” bar with toppings like chocolate sauce, mini-chocolate chips, toasted coconut or honey-roasted peanuts. This is a truly guilt-free treat!

Banana "Ice Cream" Sundae

Pamela

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Servings -4

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, about 2 ½ cups (if you’re using a Vitamix or another high-powered blender, you can cut bananas into larger pieces)
¼ - ½ cup unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice you can use the smaller quantity if you’re using a Vitamix
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
sweeten to taste with a few teaspoons more or less of raw honey, Grade A maple syrup or a couple drops of stevia
Toppings: granola raw cacao nibs, mini-chocolate chips, toasted coconut, chopped walnuts, chopped toasted and salted cashews, chopped honey-roasted peanuts, chocolate sauce

Instructions

Arrange the banana pieces on a baking sheet or a plate and freeze until frozen. Click here for a step-by-step on how to freeze fruit. Place individual bowls for the ice cream in the freezer.
When the bananas are frozen, store in a container for later use or place in the bowl of a food processor or Vitamix or other high-powered blender. Add almond milk, vanilla and sweetener to taste. Process until smooth and creamy. I find that the food processor needs a little more liquid and a few more seconds to achieve the desired consistency, which is like soft serve ice cream.
Transfer the ice cream to the frozen bowls and serve immediately with toppings, if desired. You can also store the ice cream in the freezer for another time, but you’ll need to allow it to sit on the countertop to soften up for a few minutes before eating so that it’s scoopable.

Notes

Sweeten to taste with raw honey, Grade A maple syrup or stevia according to how ripe your bananas are. You may not need to add any sweetener at all!

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Mixed berry cobbler recipe (slow cooker version, too!)

Do you know the difference between a crisp, a cobbler, a slump, a grunt and a brown betty? I hear the terms used interchangeably, when of course, they’re not the same at all. A cobbler has a biscuit topping, a crisp has a crunchy oat and sugar topping, a slump/grunt is like a cobbler, but it is finished on the stovetop so that the biscuits are steamed, rather than browned, and a brown betty is topped with buttered bread crumbs. Just so we’re all on the same page. And just so you don’t go ordering a cobbler at a restaurant thinking you are getting something with a buttery, crunchy, oat topping only to be served a bowl of cooked fruit with a biscuit on top. I hate when that happens.

Not that a cobbler is bad. Oh no, friends. Cobblers are very, very good. Especially when strawberries are in season and they are about as luscious as can be. When strawberries debut at our local farmer’s markets, I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation, like I’m taking a breath of fresh air. It’s spring! Weeeee! I can finally tell Mr. Picky, “Yes, it’s finally strawberry season!” I swear I have been buying strawberries lately like they’re never coming back. They’re in the kids’ lunches several times a week, in breakfast smoothies and acai bowls and chopped into pancakes. I even did a crazy thing and added a little bit of chia seed and water to some mashed up strawberries and let it thicken into a raw jam/spread. I thought it was really good. Then I smeared some in between two slices of whole grain bread and made a stuffed strawberry French toast, if you will. Really tasty!

I was feeling spunky last weekend and thought I would surprise everyone with a special dessert, which I knew had to have strawberries in it. So I started pulling together my favorite cobbler with strawberries as well as whatever berries I had in the freezer. I had this moment of genius when I thought, I bet I could do this in a slow cooker! I bet no one in the world has ever done a cobbler in a slow cooker. I am going to revolutionize the food world with this brilliant idea! Of course, one quick search on Foodily and I saw that 20 other people/websites already came up with that same idea. I hate when that happens. Grumpy face. Although one of the recipes called for a can of apple pie filling and a box of yellow cake mix. I mean, is that even a recipe? That is such a gross idea. Don’t even think about trying it.

Why would you when you can have this wholesome, fresh, clean and YUMMY cobbler for just a little more effort? I have two versions here, one baked in the oven and the other in the slow cooker. The oven cobbler has a much prettier presentation, with the classic, nicely browned “cobbled” texture on top and baked in a dish you can actually bring to the table. But it’s nice to know you can can use your slow cooker for more than just shredded meat. I was thinking it would be great for the summer so you don’t have to turn your oven on to make a fruit dessert. The look wasn’t quite as lovely since I spread the dough on the bottom of the insert and laid the fruit on top. I wanted the fruit to stay intact and not get cooked into a pot of mush. Which it did not.

Either way, the ingredients stay the same for both. I have used whole spelt flour, whole wheat pastry and white whole wheat all with success. I know that you can use gluten-free flour like Kind Arthur with a little added xanthan gum and achieve an equally tasty result. If you’ve made cobbler before, you might think my recipe doesn’t have enough sweetener. But I promise, give this a go and you’ll be surprised how much you enjoy tasting the actual fruit and not just sugar. Of course, a little ice cream on top doesn’t taste bad. Or, I look forward to leftovers the next morning with a dollop of sheep’s yogurt. Unless someone ate it all and left me none when I couldn’t stop dreaming about it all night. Ooooh, I hate when that happens!