Caramelized Banana Ice Cream with chopped pecans
In anticipation of the upcoming holiday season Mark’s Daily Apple blogged about Gateway Foods: The Slippery Slope of “Just a Bite”. Many people have “gateway” or “trigger” foods that even one bite can send them sailing off the rails into a carb or sugar laden binge-fest. Ice cream is that food for me. While I know I can’t run to the grocery store and grab a pint of Cherry Garcia (and truthfully don’t even want to anymore) I DO like to enjoy an occasional bowl of ice cream. When I was still eating dairy I worked my way through David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop making the necessary substitutions for using natural sugar sources…now I’m modifying them for a dairy-free lifestyle! I’d like to say I can make up a few batches of ice cream and keep them in the freezer for an occasional treat but I can’t…nowadays I will make a small batch for a special occasion, enjoy a bowl (or two) and then send it on its way to my parents house for them to enjoy! This recipe is delightfully simply and very tasty…we topped it with Oven Roasted Cherries (recipe coming soon…) and toasted almonds and coconut flakes.
Caramelized Banana Ice Cream
4 medium ripe bananas, broken into small pieces
2 pitted dates, chopped
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1- 13.5 ounce can coconut milk (I like Native Forest)
2 pastured egg yolks** (optional, make sure they are from a farmer you trust since they will be raw)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place bananas and dates in a glass baking dish and drizzle with coconut oil and vanilla. Roast in the oven until the bananas and dates begin to caramelize, stirring 1 to 2 times, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. In a high-speed blender combine the coconut milk and pastured egg yolks (if using) and blend until smooth. Add the caramelized banana mixture to the blender and puree on high until well combined and texture is creamy. Pour into a container, cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 4 hours if you just can’t wait!). Once chilled, place in an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Enjoy scooped right out of the ice cream maker for a soft serve style ice cream or transfer to an airtight container and freeze for a couple of hours for a firmer ice cream consistency. Sprinkle with nuts, berries or dark chocolate chips and serve. Makes 1 quart.
**The egg yolks will give the ice cream a creamier texture but the recipe will work just fine without them.
This recipe is shared at:
Fight Back Fridays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Fat Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays
Simply Living Healthy 
I have all of the ingredients to try this in my kitchen so I am going to try to make this tomorrow. It looks really yummy! Ice Cream is one of those treats I could easily get carried away on…
Gluten free is important to me, but I’m worried about the eggs. There are no farmers i trust.
I would just leave them out, I’ve done it both ways, it just stays creamier from the freezer with them in…
What a creative recipe! Looks very delicious! Visiting from Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday 🙂
That looks really good! As an ice cream lover, going dairy-free is really hard. Glad I found your recipe!
It really is a great alternative…giving up ice cream was the hardest thing for me too…
This looks amazing! I lurve caramelized bananas. 🙂
I’d love to pin this on pinterest, but you need to tag your photo properly so that pinterest can “find” it when I click “pin.” I don’t know the details, but it won’t let me pin because it can’t find the artwork. This recipe is delicious!
Ok, well I did a search to see what I needed to do and couldn’t really find anything…I did change the settings for the photo to link to the post so maybe that will work…let me know if you still can’t get it and I’ll try something else! Thanks!
It STILL won’t work. I wish I could share it… It is so GOOD!