BANANA ICE CREAM

Last week I did a post about the 5:2 diet / the fast diet and some of my low calorie recipes. One thing I find very tough on my "2" days is not having any sweets or chocolate as I have to stick to foods that are really low in calories…..like salad, soup, fish and fruit. One of my lovely friends Caroline recently sent me this recipe for banana ice-cream - basically if you freeze a banana and then whizz it in a blender it becomes ice-cream like - I thought this sounded too good to be true so I had to give it a go.

Ingredients for 1 person:

1 ripe banana

Cut it into coin sized pieces - you dont have to be accurate but try to keep them as even as possible.

Put the bananas in an air tight container like this Tupperware or a freezer bag.

Freeze the banana pieces for at least 2 hours but ideally overnight if you can.

Put the frozen banana pieces in a food processor and start to blend.

Keep blending and the banana will look crumbly or smashed. If necessary scrape down the food processor so it is all at the bottom by the blades.

Keep blending and the banana will become gooey, mushy, porridge-like and then suddenly the magic will happen!! It will become creamy and soft. Keep blending for another minute so completely lump free.

If you are saving it til later, put it back in an air tight container in the freezer and freeze until you are ready to eat. If you are an impatient piglet like myself, just pop it back in the freezer in a bowl for 15 minutes or so….you want it solid like traditional ice cream. Enjoy!

I had this on a 2 day and it definitely hit the spot when I was craving something sweet. My banana was about 80 calories. If you are not counting calories, you can add several mix-ins to make it even sweeter such as a spoonful of nutella, a drizzle of honey or maple syrup, a handful of chocolate chips or a dollop of nutella, a tablespoon of cocoa powder or half a teaspoon of cinnamon or ginger….the list is endless! You would add these after the banana has become smooth and creamy and before you refreeze. 

This is no Ben & Jerrys but I have to say it was better than I thought - I will definitely be making it for my vegan sister when she next comes round….without nutella obviously!

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CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

Arabella has been nagging me for ages to bake a banana bread - it is not something I would normally ever eat but I figured I should give it a go as its basically fruit, right? This is a recipe from Fay Ripleys second cook book and it took about 20 minutes to prepare and an hour to cook.

Ingredients for 8 slices:

130g butter, softened
150g light brown soft sugar
3 ripe bananas (about 300g), peeled and mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large free-range eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g dark or milk chocolate, broken into chunks (I used milk)
3 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C fan / gas mark 4. Butter or line the loaf tin with baking parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. I used my whisk for this as my butter wasnt really soft enough.

Add the mashed bananas, vanilla and eggs and whisk together. I obviously wasnt reading the recipe properly as I didnt mash the bananas before I put them in the bowl which made things more difficult….but not impossible!

Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix in well.

Fold in the chocolate chunks and milk until combined.

Pour the lot into the lined tine and bake for 50-60 minutes, until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Cool slightly in the tin and then serve warm if possible (although it tastes absolutely delicious cold as well).

As I said I have never been a fan of banana bread however I am now fully converted - this was amazing, so moist and tasty and I adored the soft chunks of chocolate. Arabella decided it was too "banana-ey" and so I polished the whole lot off with glee. A real success and perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea and all the time in between!

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