Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"

(pictured: coconut banana ice cream still soft serve going into a container for the freezer)

My husband is an ice cream fiend. He has always loved ice cream and has eaten many hundreds of pounds of the stuff in his lifetime. I like to make things he enjoys but don’t want to make anything that is too bad for him. This frozen dessert is my compromise between yummy ice cream and something that is reasonably healthy. We will see how long it takes him to eat it all.

Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"
Makes 4 generous husband sized servings, or 8 wife sized servings

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 ½ cups reduced fat coconut milk
½ cup almond milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons arrowroot
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 banana, peeled and cut into small chunks and added at the end of the process

Directions:

Combine everything except the vanilla and the final banana in the blender and puree until the mixture is completely smooth. Add enough coconut milk or almond milk until you have three cups of liquid.

Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed pot and cook, while whisking, until the mixture begins to thicken. This should take about 5 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat.

If you are in a hurry you can fill your sink with cold water and whisk the mixture until it falls below 100 degrees. Again this should happen in 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the mixture into a container with a lid and store in the refrigerator or freezer until cold but not frozen.

Pour into your ice cream maker, add the vanilla, and churn until the texture reaches a soft serve consistency. Before removing from the ice cream maker add the final banana so it can get distributed through the ice cream. Store the frozen dessert in closed containers in your freezer until ready to eat.

If you like your ice cream a little soft remove the container from the freezer 10 to 15 minutes before you are ready to serve so that it will soften enough to be easily “scoopable”.

Nutritional Information (assumes 4 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 120.66
Calories From Fat (16%) - 19.68

Total Fat - 2.03g
Saturated Fat - 1.23g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 21.26mg
Potassium - 357.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.85g
Fiber - 3.28g
Sugar - 11.1g
Protein - 1.18g

Comments:

This ice “cream” is very rich and creamy from the coconut milk. It also has a very tropical feel from the coconut, banana and vanilla. I love coconut so this dessert speaks my language. I find 1/8th of this with some fresh fruit and a tablespoon of nuts on top is more than enough. My husband, AKA the ice cream fiend, thinks this definitely only makes 4 servings. However, he would make it one serving if I would let him. That man has a vicious sweet tooth.