This banana ice cream recipe came about when I was scouring the internet for something other than just a regular banana ice cream, which honestly sometimes lack in that banana taste that I LOVE!!  And I also wanted a banana ice cream that I could make without waiting for the bananas to become extremely ripe, which normally doesn’t happen at my house because we eat them before that happens.  So, I came across a “roasted banana” ice cream recipe, but I didn’t like the idea of roasting the bananas in the oven for 40 minutes.  So I “tweaked” the recipe idea so the bananas could be done on the stove in a matter of minutes using any type of banana you have on hand.  It’s sort of a bananas foster, but without the rum, although for those of you who like experimenting, you can add the rum while cooking the bananas. I’m sure it would be amazing!  Rum is just not an ingredient that I have on hand at home.  And the base of this banana ice cream is exactly the same as the homemade vanilla ice cream recipe, which is very simple to make.   In our opinion, this is the BEST banana ice cream we’ve EVER had!!!!

The ingredients for Helen’s AWESOME Banana Ice Cream are as follows:

3 large bananas (or 3 1/2 medium bananas)

2 Tbs. unsalted butter (if using salted butter, adjust the salt by only adding 1/8 tsp. of salt to the bananas)

1/3 Cup Palm Sugar (or Turbinado)

1/4 Tsp. Redmond Real Salt

A sprinkle of Cinnamon

(This mixture should yield approximately 1 cup when finished)

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3 egg yolks

1 cup raw milk

3 cups raw cream

3/4 cup of Palm sugar

3/4 cup Turbinado sugar

1/2 Tsp. Redmond Real Salt

1 1/2 Tbs. Madagascar vanilla

To complete this AWESOME Banana Ice Cream recipe follow these directions:

In a small pan, heat the butter on medium heat.  Once the butter melts slice all the bananas into the pan, add the sugar, salt, and cinnamon to the pan, stir and simmer until the bananas become more translucent and “mushy”.  This should take about 8 minutes.  Make sure you stir the bananas as they simmer to ensure that they don’t stick to the pan.  Once the bananas are done, place them in a bowl big enough to fit a “potato” masher (which we’ll use after the banana mixture has cooled) and put them in the refrigerator.

Next, in a large bowl whisk 3 large egg yolks, then whisk in a cup of raw milk.  Add the Palm and Turbinado sugars and whisk a bit more.  Add the raw cream, the sea salt and the Madagascar Vanilla Extract.  After this mixture is complete, place it in a pitcher and (we use a plastic one with a removable top) for easy pouring into the ice cream maker later on.  At this point, remove the bananas from the refrigerator and using a potato masher, or whatever you like to use for mashing, mash up the banana mixture until it’s mushy but still lumpy.  Now stir together the banana mixture into the ice cream mixture in the pitcher and chill for 40 minutes in the freezer.  When your mixture is finished chilling, remove it from the freezer and give it a good stir before pouring it into the ice cream maker (never pour your mixture before you turn the ice cream maker on or the ice cream mixture will stick to the frozen sides and jam the machine!!)  Pour your AWESOME banana ice cream mixture into the machine and set your timer for 30 minutes.  The next thing that I like to do as soon as I set the timer for the banana ice cream, is to put two 1.75 Qt. (7 cups) glass storage containers in the freezer so that when the banana ice cream is ready to be transferred it can go directly into a cold container so the ice cream doesn’t melt as quickly while doing the transfer.

Buen Provecho!!