Chocolate and Banana Ice Cream

By pknaub

This is the world’s easiest ice cream. It takes literally a minute to put together—since it’s winter, I simply set the bowl of chocolate and milk on the radiator, and while I leisurely and lovingly take the time to peel the banana, the chocolate melts and is soon ready to use.

You can easily increase this recipe to make more than it calls for. I haven’t tried it with any other liquor, but for those of you who want to experiment, you do need to include a similar amount and percentage of alcohol to prevent the ice cream from freezing too hard. The banana gives the ice cream a smooth, creamy consistency and provides the sweetness, so use a nice, ripe one.

I found that this keeps for weeks in the freezer and maintains it’s absolutely perfect consistency. Cheers!

Ingredients

• 2 ounces (55 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 6 tablespoons (80 ml) milk, whole or low-fat
• 6 tablespoons (80 ml) Baileys liquor
• 1 medium-sized ripe banana, peeled*, and cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) dark rum

Preparation

Step 1

1. In a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water (or in the microwave), melt the chocolate with the milk.

2. Blend the melted chocolate the Baileys, the banana, and rum until smooth.

3. Pour into a plastic or metal container, cover, and freeze for at least 4 hours.
*To Peel the Banana: Hold the banana in one hand near the base. With your other hand, grab the top stem, and pull it firmly downward. If it gives you trouble, rock it back-and-forth, trying to break the area between the stem and the skin just beneath. If that doesn’t work, take a sharp paring knife, being careful not to cut yourself, hold the blade facing away from you and make a small incision on the side of the skin near the tip. Set the knife aside the tear the skin of the banana using your hands, which should make the skin peel away nicely.

Pull each side of skin down from the banana, exposing the fleshy fruit beneath. Once the banana is almost completely visible, firmly yank the skin down as far as possible and extract the banana from the skin. Discard the skin (it can be frozen, well-wrapped, for up to six month and saved for another use, if desired.) The banana should be used immediately. If not, it can be pureed then stored in a container with a sheet of plastic film pressed against the top, and refrigerated for up to 48 hours.

(Disclosure: The International Association of Banana Peelers, Slicers and Blenders, nor any liquor companies, are sponsors of the site. The instructions for peeling bananas and the recipe are a direct result of my trial-and-error methods, which I developed exclusively for readers.)