This ice cream. It’s healthy!! Its actually good for you. It’s the equivalent of eating a banana…because that’s basically all that’s in it. I originally found this blended banana ice cream recipe on www.userealbutter.com and decided to create my own spin on it (link to her original recipe can be found at the bottom).
This ice cream literally takes five minutes to make. It’s awesome. And it can kill your chocolate cravings…I get some pretty intense chocolate cravings. The other cool thing about this recipe is that you can change it up and make it your own so easily. Add strawberries as you are blending it and make strawberry banana ice cream! Add caramel, white chocolate, peanut butter, whatever! It’s very customizable. I personally prefer my simple three ingredients :) The vanilla really makes a huge difference.
So you start with four bananas. They look something like this when they are perfectly ripe:
And then you slice them into little banana disks.
Then you freeze those babies for a while. Your safest bet is to just freeze them overnight, because the bananas really need to be frozen completely or this won’t work as well.
So freeze your bananas until they are rock hard, and then pop them into a food processor.
And then just turn on your food processor and wait! When I first made this years ago, I had a little mini food processor that wasn’t very nice, so it took several minutes for the bananas to come together and make ice cream. However, I got married recently and someone gave us a BANGIN’ new food processor, so this time it literally took 30 seconds for the bananas to turn into creamy deliciousness.
After a little bit the bananas will look like this:
This is a good thing. This is when you take off the lid and scrape down the edges.
Then turn your food processor back on and let it go.
At some point your food processor blade might be spinning but it looks like nothing is moving or happening. At that point, you want to remove the lid and pack the bananas down into the bowl. Like so…
You’ll probably need to do this a couple times, but this means you are really close to the mixture coming together to form your ice cream.
When it looks like this, you are done!
Now take out your blade, and scoop all that banana goodness into a mixing bowl.
Add your coco powder and vanilla! I really think the vanilla takes this to a whole new level. It brings depth and makes the ice cream taste like it has way more than just three simple ingredients.
And then stir it all together with your spatula! This helps the ice cream melt a little and come together even more…you’ll see what I mean in a few pictures :).
Keep stirring!
Yum. Does that look healthy to you? It looks like creamy chocolate goodness to me. This is definitely the way I prefer to eat my bananas. It hasn’t come together all the way yet though, keep stirring until it’s uniform. Or not…it’s good this way too.
And there ya go. Chocolate banana ice cream.
You can absolutely eat it right away like this, or you can pop it in the freezer for a few hours to let it firm up a little more. Both ways are equally acceptable and tasty.
Close up glamor shot.
No one will believe you when you tell them this is basically just blended bananas.
Just three little ingredients.
Here is the recipe:
PrintThree Ingredient Chocolate Banana “Ice Cream”
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 4 small servings 1x
Ingredients
- Four ripe bananas
- 1 tablespoon coco powder
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Slice up your bananas into 1/2 inch disks and freeze them overnight or until they are rock hard
- Put your bananas into a food processor and blend until they come together into a puree, scraping down the sides periodically
- If your food processor blades are spinning but nothing is happening, press the banana mixture down into the blades with a rubber spatula. You may need to repeat this process a few times
- Once the bananas have come together into a puree and there aren’t any sizable chunks, scoop the banana mixture into a mixing bowl
- Add the coco powder and vanilla and, using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture together until it is mixed, smooth, and one uniform color
- You can either eat the “ice cream” right away or put it in the freezer to firm up a little bit
This recipe is adapted from http://userealbutter.com/2010/08/12/single-ingredient-ice-cream-recipe/
I know it’s going to be a good recipe when my mouth starts watering half way through! It’s also so simple, no need for a run to the grocery store – I usually have some bananas lying around. Have you ever experimented with adding some sweetener like monk fruit to it? Or is it sweet enough with just the fructose from the banana?
Hey Jennifer! I think it’s perfectly sweet as is, but I tend to like things a little less super sweet. Try it like this and then if you want it a little extra sweet, stir some monk fruit in!!
Can I skip the vanilla extract so it’s whole 30 compliant? Is there a substitute?
★★★★★
I think skipping the vanilla would be totally fine!