"Banana Swirl" - A Two-Ingredient Cultured Ice Cream

I have to credit my daughter for this one. 

She enjoys the PBS Kids show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and last week, a recipe for blended frozen banana puree was featured on the website.  She was so excited about it that she had to write it down.  (Maybe we have a little foodie-in-training?)

But on our first attempt at Banana Swirl, we didn't follow the recipe exactly, so a new recipe was born. First, I left the bananas in the freezer overnight instead of twenty minutes.  That meant that the bananas were so frozen that we could not blend them by themselves, as the original recipe called for. Usually, I would add milk or yogurt or cream in a situation like this, but this time, I reached for my jar of cultured cream.  I added a few large spoonfuls, until I could process the bananas.  To our delight, the result was:  ice cream!  Creamy, rich, gently sweet, without any added sweeteners - and full of the goodness of cultured cream - a perfectly nourishing treat!

Can you tell that I'm a little bit excited? 

This is an easy recipe that even little hands can make.  My two little children (two and five years old) love to cut up the bananas and put them into the freezer all by themselves, with the help of a chair.  Then they help me push the button on the food processor.  It's also a great way to teach them delayed gratification, because you can't have banana swirl immediately- you have to wait for the bananas to freeze solid.  Otherwise, you will have something closer to a pudding, which we also found to be yummy.

"Banana Swirl" Ice Cream

2 well-ripened bananas

1/3-1/2 cup cultured cream

1.  Peel the bananas, and cut into pieces.  Freeze until hard, for several hours or overnight.

2.  In a food processor, combine bananas and cultured cream.  Pulse until smooth and creamy.  You will need to push down the bananas periodically, to make sure that they are incorporated.

3.  Scoop and serve immediately.

Yield: 3 servings

My daughter's first written recipe, age 5

What about other flavors? I bet you could add in a little other cut-up fruit - strawberries or blueberries come to mind. I also can imagine that a little peanut butter in there would be really delicious. Or maybe coconut?  What would you add to banana swirl? 


Related posts:
*Cultured Cream, or My Approximated Shemenet
*Traditional Food Basics Part 1: Eat (Good) Germs
*Pistachio Ice Cream with Pomegranate Sauce




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