I love making banana “ice cream.” The basic sort is nothing but a pureed frozen banana, and it is so good and healthy. It’s even more fun adding flavors to make it taste like other ice creams. Chocolate mint banana ice cream is utterly delightful.
It’s easy to keep the supplies to make chocolate mint banana ice cream on hand. Any time bananas get close to overripe, I chop them up and spread them out on a plastic cutting board. They then go into the freezer for a couple hours. After that, they can be bagged up and kept until someone either snacks on them or I make them into banana ice cream.
If the banana chunks have been frozen for more than a day, they make better ice cream if you give them about five minutes to slightly defrost first. It will become smooth more quickly this way. Not that you’ll mind much if the ice cream isn’t perfectly smooth – it’s good either way.
I use about the equivalent of one to one and a half frozen bananas per serving. When the bananas are frozen in batches it’s hard to be precise. Fortunately, recipes like this don’t require precision.
We grow chocolate mint in our garden. It’s a bit more fun than regular mint, with its hint of chocolate. It’s nice having it available when a treat needs a little mint flavor. Fresh mint can be pretty powerful, but that’s part of the fun. I used about a tablespoon of them. You can use more or less, depending on your taste. I love the look of the mint blended into the bananas.
If you don’t have fresh mint, peppermint extract can be used as well, but be very careful. That stuff is powerful! For a single banana, you would be best off adding it just a couple drops at a time.
I used about a tablespoon of 63% cacao chocolate chips. Whatever chocolate you have around the house will be good.
Bananas are sweet enough that you shouldn’t need any further sweetener. That’s one of the things I love about banana ice cream. It’s as healthy as you care to make it. Do it right, and it’s pretty amazing.
Put the bananas and mint into your food processor or blender. I used my tiny food processor because I wanted to do just one banana. I would need to do at least two bananas for this to work well in my blender – larger containers need something more to work with.
Pulsing the food processor works best. You will need to take the lid off frequently and knock the bits of banana back down to the blades. They want to escape. It will take a few minutes for the frozen bananas to start to turn smooth.
You can add the chocolate chips at the start or as you get close to done blending the bananas and mint. I like them broken into smaller pieces, but not pureed into the mixture. In my tiny food processor, that’s at the start, but later on in the blender.
Serve immediately. I don’t recommend putting this back into the freezer. It won’t end well that way. I love the way this looks. There are little flecks of mint leaf throughout.
- 1 banana, sliced and frozen
- 1 tbsp chocolate mint or to taste
- 1 tbsp chocolate chips
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Slice banana. Spread out slices and freeze for at least 2-3 hours on a flat surface.
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Place banana slices and mint into food processor or blender. Pulse several times to start pureeing the bananas. Knock the mixture down frequently to keep the mix in reach of the blades. It will take a few minutes for the mixture to start to turn smooth.
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Add chocolate chips and pulse a few more times to break them up a little. Serve immediately.
Ingredients are per serving.
