Updated 4.29.21.
Here’s what I said about this back in 2015:
I’ve seen recipes for vegan banana “ice cream” floating around Pinterest for a while now. I’m big into real ice cream (have my own ice cream maker and cardboard pints for storing in the freezer) so I thought I would try out the substitute and see how it compares. This particular recipe was found at detoxinista.com.
I’m not going to tell y’all how many servings this recipe yields because I don’t want y’all to judge what I think is a serving.
Note: OK, OK. The original recipe called for a ratio of one tablespoon of peanut butter for every one banana used. I tried that. I swear to God I did. But the result was a hint of peanut butter bland low-sugar soft serve. (No, offense, Detoxonista.) So I upped the peanut butter quotient (a lot) and, man, I could have eaten straight through a pint of that stuff! It is blissful peanut-buttery goodness. If you are health conscious, worried about calories/fat, etc. I guess I would either stick to the original recipe or go with an amount of peanut butter somewhere in between my amount and the Detoxinista’s. Now if you try my amount of peanut butter, I promise you won’t be sorry.
This recipe yielded 3 pints of peanut butter banana ice cream, but two of my pints had peanut butter cups in them so I don’t think the recipe would quite yield three pints of the no-peanut-butter-cup variety. I don’t really think I have to pint this out to anyone but clearly the version that contains peanut butter cups is not vegan.
I must also tell you that the soft serve version is hands down better than the frozen version. The frozen version isn’t very creamy (unless you let it sit out a bit) and, honestly, crystallized within 24 hours. I’m sure this is because I added water to the mixture while whirling it in my food processor. Don’t get me wrong; freezing it won’t be a total loss. Just let it sit out a bit before diving back in.
I hadn’t had this “ice cream” in years when I started eating it again recently. Sis seems to always have frozen bananas in her freezer. Now that I’m living in the Pacific Northwest again, I get to her place a lot more frequently. She likes to make this as a quick dessert. One time she forced me to make it, claiming that she didn’t think her last batch had turned out very good. Begrudgingly, I made the dessert for us but did not use a recipe. I honestly believe my batch turned out kind of gross.
The last time I made this of my own volition, I used a ration of 4 bananas to 1 cup of peanut butter. That’s right. One cup of peanut butter. To update this blog, I decided to take a more conservative approach to the amount of peanut butter and I was totally satisfied with the end result.
ingredients.
- 3 bananas, sliced into chunks and frozen
- ⅓ c. organic peanut butter
- water, if needed to facilitate blending (I did not add any water)
directions.
- Allow bananas to sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes. Put the frozen banana slices and peanut butter in a food processor and blend until the bananas break down into a soft-serve consistency. Add water, as necessary, to facilitate the blending.
- if you’re not worried about being vegan and you want a special treat, toss some mini peanut butter cups, chocolate chips or chocolate chunks into the mix at the end.
- Eat immediately as soft-serve.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 