Homemade Banana Ice Cream Recipes – single ingredient!

You really can’t get any simpler than this. Homemade banana ice cream recipes are everywhere, but here you get to learn how you can make it with a single ingredient (which is banana, of course!), and from there, explore adding other favourite ingredients to give variety to your ice cream recipes.

In this article, I also get into all the nitty-gritty details, from how to freeze the bananas to how to blend them up, in order to make the perfect ice cream. Trust me on this, in the last 6 months, I have made this ice cream more than 50 times, due to my promise to my son, J.

As he is on a gluten free diet, and on top of that, grain free in the last month, I kept to my promise of weekly homemade ice cream for the first five months, and DAILY ice cream in the sixth month. He does not have much variety for sinful snacks on these very restrictive diets, and this weekly, then daily ice cream is something he looks forward to, and it satisfies his craving (in the most healthy way) so that he does not cheat on the diets.

So if you have tried a few recipes, and found that they failed miserably (I had my fair share of failures at the start), then you are at the right place. Read on right to the end of this article, you won’t regret it.

Why banana in your homemade banana ice cream recipes

Almost any ingredient can be used in homemade ice cream, since it is really up to you. But if you want to replicate the gooey, sticky, rich and creamy texture of real ice cream, it has to be banana. This has to be the base in any homemade banana ice cream recipes. With any other fruit as the ice cream base, the chances are that it will break the deal, as there tend to be too much water content in most other fruits.

Benefits of banana

Some people avoid banana, or even too many fruits in general, due to the high sugar content. But the sugar in fruits is so totally different from cane sugar and other processed sugars and sweeteners. The natural sugar in fruits are bounded to antioxidants, trace minerals and other life-supporting substances. They do not feed viruses, bacteria, fungi and cancer like processed sugars do.

In the case of banana, it is chock-full of many trace minerals, as well as the mineral potassium, which is paramount to our neurotransmitter function. It also regulates other critical body functions, like water balance, blood pH level, blood pressure, heart rhythm, muscular function, etc. Read more about the proven health benefits of bananas at this website: www.healthline.com

Banana is also an excellent food to take before or after exercise (read more about banana as a great pre-workout food at this website: www.myprotein.com), as it can replenish us more than any other food. It is also such a convenient food, easy to pack with skin and all, for the road or a day out.

I used to hate bananas as a child, as I couldn’t stand any soft and mushy fruit. I’m glad my taste buds have changed their preferences as I grew up.

Choosing bananas

When I buy bananas, I like to get at least two bunches, one yellow and one green. These can last me a few days to a week. As I am just finishing up the yellow bunch, the green one would usually start to yellow and ripen. So that saves me one trip to the market!

Eat a banana when its skin is yellow with some brown spots. Green bananas are unripe, and contain enzymes that may hinder the absorption of its nutrients. Brown and mushy ones are obviously over ripe, and are likely not safe to consume. Read more about choosing bananas at this website: www.berkeleywellness.com

We hang up our bananas to avoid bruising. If we want to hasten its ripening, we simply wrap a plastic bag around the whole bunch. Ethylene given off by the bananas will build up in the plastic bag, which causes them to ripen fast.

Homemade banana ice cream recipe using a single ingredient

All you will ever need is a bunch of bananas and a blender. There is no need for even an ice cream maker.

Freezing the bananas

Timing is critical – pick a time when the bananas are fully ripened: yellow skin with some brown spots. This is when they are the sweetest, and the nutritional goodness is best absorbed by the body.

Peel off and discard the skin

Break up the banana (I just use my hands) into small chunks.

Pop them into the freezer, preferably overnight. If not, I would think 4-5 hours should produce the same.

Blending the bananas

The frozen bananas go straight into the blender. I let them sit for 4 to 5 minutes to thaw ever so slightly, as I worry about my tired blender, with the daily green breakfast smoothies, and now daily ice cream.

Blend. Depending on how crazy your bananas are, they may fly out of the blender. So make sure you have the cover on. Or be like me, stare in disbelief at the flying bananas, while my two sons who were lucky enough to witness the epic moment stared wide-eyed, open-mouthed.

Within seconds, you may find the blender blades cutting into nothing, as the bananas are solid chunks, they tend to sit above the blades after the initial cutting.

Stop the blender. Remove the cover of the blender. Using a fork, churn up the banana chunks manually, and try to press them into the way of the blender blades.

Make sure the coast is clear (fork and your hands!), replace the cover of the blender, and blend.

Repeat (Stop to manually churn things up. Blend. Stop to manually churn up. Blend.)

 

You may have to do this close to ten times. You know you’re there, when the colour of the bananas turn into a lighter yellow, as it means air has been mixed up inside, and what you have is your homemade banana ice cream!

Serve immediately, or transfer into a container to be stored in the freezer compartment until your guests arrive!

Pure goodness

I promise you this will be good, as the kids have declared that I can open up an ice cream parlour with this fail proof recipe.

To top it off, this suits ANY kind of diet that anyone may be on: vegetarian, vegan, whole food plant based, gluten free, dairy free, paleo, etc. You name it, I don’t believe there is any diet that excludes bananas. Unless you are allergic to them, of course.

Time to add in other ingredients!

From here on, it’s really up to your own preference, mood, and creativity. The banana ice cream is totally delicious and satisfying to eat on its own, but here are some ideas that can add variety to it.

These are fruits that we have added to the bananas before, not everything at one go, but individually each time we make ice cream. Just make sure you freeze them ahead of time as well, otherwise they will cause the mixture to become too runny. But even so, you can solve it by simply popping everything into the freezer for 2 to 3 hours before serving.

• mango (remove skin, cut it up into small pieces before freezing)
• strawberry
• blueberry
• avocado (remove skin and seed, mash it up with a fork, and separate into small chunks before freezing)

For the berries, soak them in vinegar water, salt water or baking soda water for 4 to 5 minutes, and rinse off before freezing. This will remove the pesticides, especially on strawberries, which have been found with high pesticide residues content.

 

At times, we have also just scooped in 2 to 3 teaspoons of 100% cocoa powder (non-sweetened) to the bananas in the blender, without adding any other fruits. Pure. Heavenly. Bliss.

Nature can be so delicious

Give it a go right now, with these homemade banana ice cream recipes. You won’t regret it, as you enjoy your healthiest version of a usually sinful food. And you will be totally amazed at how simple it can be, and how nature, in its purest unadulterated form, can taste like bliss.