Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Bananas.Peanut butter. Chocolate. I mean c’mon. If you love bananas, you can’t go wrong with banana ice cream. SO easy. SO delicious. SO nutritious. SO cheap. And pretty fast to make. One of my very first posts was a banana ice cream. I’ve been making this ice cream for years, and although I have upped my skill in the kitchen and purchased an ice cream maker to make more fancy frozen things, I still love the simple and easy dessert that a frozen banana offers. I am sure most of you reading this have tried a version of the banana ice cream. What is your favorite combo?

Ingredients:

• 4 large frozen bananas
• 3 TBS natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)
• 7 TBS chocolate sauce

Steps:

• if you don’t have any, make chocolate sauce
• in a food processor put all the bananas and blend. You will have to turn off the machine every now and then to scrape down the sides. Eventually it will catch and a beautiful creamy mixture will start forming
• At this point, add the peanut butter and 3 TBS of the chocolate sauce
• resume blending
• spoon into bowls and top with 1 TBS of chocolate sauce. This will harden at the contact of the frozen banana and create a nice crunchy chocolate layer. MMMMMM goodness….

This made just enough for my little family of 5. We all could’ve had a little more 😉

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Vegan Cherry Ice Cream with Pistachio Chocolate Chunks

I wasn’t always an ice cream lover. There was actually a time in my life where I just didn’t eat ice cream. Weird, I know. Thank goodness those days are over. And now that I have my own ice cream maker, I get to have fun creating all kinds of flavors!!

Here is one that I made a while ago and just never got around to sharing with you.

You do not need an ice ream maker to make this. It’s just more convenient and faster with one.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dairy free milk (I used almond)
• 1 cup cashews soaked in warm water for at least 30 minutes
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 2 cups frozen cherries
• 1 banana
• 2 TBS lucuma powder
• 3 TBS honey
• 1/4 cup chocolate chunks. I added 1oz or 20 g of pistachios to the chocolate before freezing it for this recipe.

Steps:

• put everything but chocolate in the blender and blend until smooth
• if using an ice cream maker, follow those directions, adding chocolate towards the end

If not,

• then either freeze in ice cube trays and run them through a champion juicer with the blank attachment, fold in chocolate before serving, or put them in the blender with a little bit of milk to get it going, add chocolate before serving
• or in a shallow dish that you will then have to take out at least 30 minutes before eating to let if get somewhat soft. Add chocolate before freezing
• Top with pistachios and extra chocolate chunks

Vegan Raspberry Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Chocolate

Happy Valentines Day!!! This treat is more delicious than the title suggests. “More” because it is soooo creamy and dreamy that you wouldn’t guess it’s vegan.

I bought some out of season, over priced, still pretty tasty, raspberries earlier this week because I really wanted to make this Valentines Day treat for my kids. Every now and then I go out of my habitual seasonal produce shopping because what I have in mind sounds so delicious that I must make it, like really soon. And I am so glad I did not wait for spring to make this!!

This guilt free silky smooth indulgence paired with the amazingly deliciously simple crunchy peanut butter chocolate hearts made for a perfect Valentines for my family last night (although I will not wait a whole year to make it again 😉 )

Ingredients for raspberry ice cream:

• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 cup soaked cashews (30 minutes in hot water, or 4 hours in cold water)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 TBS lucuma (optional but it adds to the creamy texture)
• 1 cup coconut milk cream (the full fat cream that comes in cans)

Steps:

• put first 5 ingredients in the blender and blend on high until super creamy and nuts completely broken down
• add the coconut cream and finish blending
• if using an ice cream maker, follow directions for that
• if you don’t have an ice cream maker you can freeze these in ice cube trays and once frozen put them in a food processor or blender to create a nice cold mixture. (You might need to add a little liquid if doing it in the blender.)

This is so tasty that you don’t have to make it into ice cream! You can just eat it straight out of the blender as a yogurt substitute!

While waiting for ice cream, make your chocolate hearts.

Ingredients for chocolate hearts:

• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup cacao powder
• 2 TBS natural crunchy peanut butter
• 2 TBS honey or other liquid sweetener (adjust according to desired sweetness).

Steps:

• in a saucepan, put the coconut oil and barely heat it up. Just enough to get it to starts melting.
• Turn off the heat and add all ingredients except for honey.
• Mix well until uniform
• add the honey and mix until honey is very well incorporated in the mixture
• pour in little heart shaped molds if you have them, if not you can pour this in anything (Ice cube trays, small containers, large containers), and set in the freezer to set
• the small molds I have only take about 10-15 minutes to set

Carob Banana Ice Cream

Rich, creamy, smooth and decadent, this ice cream was a total hit. The coconut nectar gives it this nice depth of flavor, almost like molasses but not so intense. I normally would have used honey but didn’t have any and I am so glad I had to use this instead as it really adds to the richness of this dessert. I used carob because again, that is what I had on hand, but you can use cacao just the same. I will for sure be making this again.

First off though I just want to say, my ice cream maker is a pain in the ass. I am not a huge fan of the machine, but I am a huge fan of the end result, so for now I will stick with it. If anyone has an ice cream maker they love, please do tell!!! I have the kitchenaid brand and it just doesn’t work the way it promised. Anyways, I still use it because I love deserts, and I allow myself to complain about it too.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soaked cashews (at least 4 hours in cold water, or 30 minutes in hot water)
• 1 cup coconut milk (from a can, the thick and rich kind)
• 1/2 cup carob powder
• 1 banana
• dash of salt
• 1 TBS soy lecithin
• 1/8 cup coconut nectar (because the carob is already a little naturally sweet I didn’t have to add too much sweetener, I suggest you taste your mixture before moving on to make sure it is sweet enough for you).

Steps for making with an ice cream maker:

• blend everything together until nice and creamy
• follow your ice cream maker’s instructions

Steps for making it in the blender:

• blend everything together until nice and creamy
• put in ice cube trays and freeze several hours
• put back in blender and blend, turning off the machine frequently to scrape down sides and push down mixture
• You can add a little bit of milk to aid the process, keeping in mind that the end result will be a little more soft

Steps for among it in the freezer:

• Blend everything together until nice and creamy
• put in a dish in the freezer
• mix every 30 minutes to allow a creamy texture to form and not a frozen block
• do this until desired consistency, I would say at least 2 hours. I know its long, but it is SO worth it.

Steps for making it in the Champion juicer:

• blend all ingredients until nice and creamy
• freeze in ice cube trays several hours
• run ice cubes in the juicer with the blank attachment
• this will give more a soft serve consistency, for a firmer one, follow up with the freezer steps, but it will only take you about 30 minutes

I topped our ice cream with some jalapeño salted almonds and a drizzle of coconut nectar. I absolutely loved this combo, but of course you can get as creative as you want here 🙂

This makes enough for 4. My husband and I split it in two as it didn’t look like that much, but in all honesty, and this doesn’t happen often, we had a really hard time finishing our bowls and this is so rich, in a really good way. We were dedicated though 😉

Mango Sorbet with Strawberry Coulis

We just had a fun day in the sun and it seemed like the perfect way to end a great day was with ice cream. Although I do love ice cream and frozen yogurt, I try to limit the frequency of which I have them. Thankfully I had a bunch of frozen mangoes in my freezer ready to be made into sorbet!! This sorbet is so creamy and rich you wouldn’t believe it’s just mangoes!! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did 🙂 

 

Ingredients for sorbet:

• Frozen MANGOES!!! I had three small ziploc bags filled. That’s what I used. If it were all chopped up I would say maybe 2 or 3 cups? 

Ingredients for coulis:

• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1/8 cup coconut oil
• 1 TBS raw honey

Steps:

• make coulis first by blending all the ingredients on high until very well incorporated. Set aside.
• run mangoes through champion juicer with the blank attachment. 
• Put in bowls and enjoy!!!

This made barely enough for 4 of us. Next time I will add another ziploc bag of mangoes (or two 😉 )

I haven’t tried making this in the food processor like I do my banana ice cream, if anyone tries it, let me know how it turns out!!

Banana Chocolate Crunch Ice Cream

MMmmmm, there’s nothing like guilt free ice cream. This banana ice cream is so easy and delicious. And versatile too. I did this batch with chocolate but you can get as creative as you want, adding nuts, berries, anything really! My daughter wasn’t a fan of the crunch of the chocolate, which came mainly from the cacao nibs, and partly from the hardening of the chocolate once it hits the ice cream (one of my favorite parts of this treat) If you have kids who don’t like crunch, or yourself like a creamier texture, just skip the nibs!

Ingredients:

Chocolate crunch

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 6 TBS cacao powder
• 3 TBS cacao nibs
• dash of salt

Put all ingredients in a double boiler or in a jar in boiling hot water and mix until well combined. Set aside. The benefit of doing this step in a jar is that if you don’t use all the chocolate mixture (I didn’t), it’s conveniently stored in a jar that you can put a lid on and save for later use (which I did).

Banana Ice Cream

• 4 frozen bananas

Put bananas in food processor and blend until creamy texture is achieved. This step can take a little bit of time and work, depending on your food processor. It takes me under 10 minutes but I have to constantly open the lid, scrape the sides down with a butter knife, to get things moving. At first it will seem like it’ll never become ice cream, but after sufficient scrapping, the bananas will catch and you will witness a deliciously creamy mound form right before your eyes. So satisfying.

Once that happens, add a few tablespoons (3 or 4) of the chocolate mixture into the food processor and pulse a few times to combine.

Dish out in small bowls, top with more chocolate sauce and enjoy!