An Update and… Magic Two Ingredient Ice Cream!

Ok, first things first. I’ve been away from this blog for far too long.  You see, just a couple of weeks after I posted that Tom Ka Soup recipe, I found out I was pregnant! The first three months I was so bogged down with “morning” sickness, that I stopped watching the cooking shows on TV, stopped reading food blogs, and basically checked out of the food world all together. Even when the icky stomach feeling was gone I wasn’t much interested in cooking, only eating gallons of ice cream and entire pizzas in one sitting. Just eight weeks ago, though, my whole world changed, and I welcomed this into my life:

Meet Clayton.

He’s awesome. I can’t lie. Now that he’s here, I know I will not have any more time than I did when I was pregnant (far less, in fact) but at least I have more of a desire to cook and blog about food than I did when Clayton was enjoying the pizza and ice cream womb service-style. The goal is to get back to posting here one to two times a month, at a minimum. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten us.

Now that the requisite updating is done, let me get to the magic two ingredient ice cream. People, this ice cream is so doggone easy I really feel embarrassed about calling it a recipe. I had to put it on the blog as the first recipe back, however, because it is “Why haven’t I heard of this before?” simple, it’s “Why didn’t I make at least twice the amount?” delicious, and it’s “Does this ice cream make me look skinny?” good for you. You can count on Mrs. Smith cheffing up some healthy recipes in the next year or so, because Mrs. Smith needs to be trimming down.

I got the idea for this ice cream when an infomercial for some contraption that makes ice cream out of bananas came on at about 3am when I was nursing that character in the picture up there. I was mesmerized by the idea that a.) anyone would pay fifty bucks (excuse me, $49.95 + shipping and handling) for a machine that would make “ice cream” out of bananas and b.) the thought that it would actually work.

Well, people, the joke was on me. It turns out that frozen bananas, whipped up (in a normal food processor, not some expensive one-task machine) have the exact texture and creaminess of ice cream. They don’t have the exact taste of ice cream. (Of course, it has some banana flavor) but the experience is so close to ice cream I have been whirlling this stuff up every day.

Here’s how to make it. (So. Easy.)

Magic Two Ingredient Ice Cream

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients (per serving)

1 and 1/2 bananas, cut in to 1 inch chunks and frozen for at least 6 hours
2 tablespoons of cream, half and half or milk

Procedure
Process bananas and cream together in a food processor until creamy texture is achieved (about 30 seconds)

And that. Is. It. It’s not icy, it’s not chunky,  it’s not “smoothie-esque.” It’s soft serve icecream-y. A few thoughts and pointers

• The more ripe your bananas, the sweeter and more banana flavor your ice cream is going to have. If you’re not a huge banana person, I recommend using bananas that aren’t very ripe and adding honey and whatever other flavors you would like. For me, the smooth, cold, creamy ice cream texture is just as important as the flavor, and I like bananas, so I just buy the very ripe ones.
• The possibilities for customization and fiddling with this recipe are endless. Peanut butter, chocolate chunks, nuts, dried fruit, coconut… all of these things could be added in to add flavor and texture.
• I’ve made this with half & half and milk, and I haven’t noticed much of a bump in flavor or texture from the half  & half. Use skim milk, I say! Why add more calories and fat if it’s not going to help the flavor or texture?
• I have a regular sized food processor and a small food processor attachment that came with my immersion blender. I’ve been using the small attachment because then (get this) I can just take the blade out and EAT IT RIGHT OUT OF THE PROCESSOR. Shameless, I know. But It’s so darn delicious.
• Cutting the bananas in to 1 inch chunks makes the result more uniform and smooth, at least in the smaller processor.

Bon Apetit!