One Ingredient Ice Cream. Only Made With Bananas.

One Ingredient Ice Cream Made With Bananas and a Blender / Food Processor Simple, Easy

Around this time last year I opted into an "adventure" to craft up some One-Ingredient-Ice-Cream. It is a crazy-healthy ice cream treat made with one ingredient: Bananas. Not all of my experiments in the kitchen go so smoothly the first time around. Making the banana ice cream worked my nerves that afternoon as you will soon read about.

By the look of the recipe, there was no need for me to follow elaborate instructions. I figured I would peel and freeze some bananas and then throw them into the blender or food processor and that would be the end of it.
 
Q: Why are bananas never lonely?
A: Because they hang around in bunches!

Bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, C, manganese potassium and fiber. They are commonly noted for their benefits to heart-health, gastrointestinal and kidney functions.

So here we go! Last year I bought a bunch of bananas from the grocery store while they were very green. The weight of them was 2½ lbs. It took them five days to yellow up and get close enough to the peak of ripe as shown in the photograph. Even after nearly a week in my fruit basket they were still a little bit green at the top!


They were peeled and broken into mostly ⅓ chunks, and then placed into a plastic storage container. They made their way into the freezer next. I had other things come up and they ended up hanging out in the freezer for a good 7 days before I could return to this project.


My food processor was not loving the idea of these frozen bananas at all. The texture made it weird for the blades to cut through them. The blades would go through but the bananas weren't so dense that the processor could continue to "puree" them.


AHAHAHAA!!!!! The food is looking scary. I was having such a hard time with these, I was starting to get really aggro. I was totally afraid I was going to burn the motor on my appliance trying to get it to cut through bananas of all things. LOL. *snort*


So, eventually I got enough of the banana spun around in the processor and scooped out. They looked like mashed potatoes. Nowhere did I recall any of the recipe photos online showing that the bananas were supposed to look like this.

I went upstairs to my computer to find the recipe on the website and read everything over again. There is a small section I had missed that said step-by-step instructions. When I clicked on that, I found a different way of doing it. I went back downstairs to my kitchen to give that technique a try.


I should have cut the bananas into bits like this before starting as it turns out. And also, the recipe page said that the banana only needed to be frozen for 1-2 hours. I had frozen them for seven days. LOL.

So here is where I also give you all my excuse: I didn’t know the "rules" of using a food processor. I rarely used it, and for that matter, I had only really used my blender to make smoothies at the time. There are a lot of ways for me to mess up in the kitchen with this specific appliance. I just don't have enough experience with it.

Anyway, between letting the bananas thaw and trying to scoop and stir and everything, I was getting banana all over the kitchen counter and it was dropping all over the food processor and everything. The melting banana bits were getting very slimy and runny. (ACK!) *sigh*



The tips that I read from the website for making the banana bits smaller did help a lot. The texture of the processed bananas ended up looking like frozen yogurt or like a sorbet.


Actually it was fascinating because in the processor container, it looked soft and very mushy like baby food. Once I poured it out into a different container, it was very icy and creamy. The look of it was so deceiving!


I put a lid on the container and put it back into the freezer for a while to firm up a bit more. It took about 2 hours to get it frozen where it was icy and not just mushy. I didn't add anything this time around. It was 100% banana.


I took he final photo in the early evening when the sun was setting so the photo came out darker than I wanted to. The texture and consistency of it was much like a sorbet. The flavor was really super delicious. The banana-banana flavor and the banana sweetness couldn't have been balanced any better.

There you have it! Ice cream made from one ingredient. All silliness aside, I am not the biggest fan of bananas and somehow the flavor of this treat was one of the best icy treats I think I have ever had! I never imagined it would taste that good.

I made this on another occasion and had to show off to everyone at home how interesting it was. I terrorized friends and family to eat my creation!

I believe this bunch of bananas was $2.50. For the price, the flavor, and it being natural with options for me to add other things, (nuts, other fruit topping etc.)  it is definitely worth trying all sorts of different ways! And now that I know how to put them through the food processor and for how long to freeze them, it will be really easy the next time around. :)

I wish the end result photo turned out better! Have you tried this one yet?


Violet