Sunday 4 December 2011

Banana, Caramel pecan and Date Ice cream

Winter doesn't usually conjour up dreams of ice cream but strangely this winter I've already got through two tubs, hmmm must be comfort eating!

I don’t often make icecream, infact I will admit now that I’ve never made ‘real’ icecream using eggs etc, preferring to use condensed milk and cream. Health conscious you see ;-) As it uses fresh banana you could even trick yourself into believing its one of your 5 day! And nuts are good for you to, full of essential stuff!

This recipe came about firstly after buying far too many bananas in the market some weeks back (I only managed to look at banana's again this week!), secondly being slightly addicted right now to dates and thirdly, the caramel pecans, well, erm not sure how they came about but I love them and thought that it would work well with the banana flavour! Oh and fourthly (is that a real word, looks wrong?!) I had bought some double cream that needed using up that day, so had whipped it up to go into the freezer but reserved some for this icecream, to make it extra indulgent!

You don’t (probably shouldn’t) eat this in huge quantities. Personally I would rather have a small amount of something indulgent rather than a large portion of something low fat anyway!

Oh and the recipes is in ounces as accidentally pressed the wrong button on the scales, sorry!

Makes 1 medium sized tub - about the size of a margarine container

3 bananas mashed
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 dates, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, then roughly shredded
4oz whipped double cream
1 heaped tbsp. margarine
1 heaped tbsp. dark muscovado sugar

Firstly, make the Caramel pecans: 
Melt together the sugar and margarine. Butter would have been excellent here, however I forgot to buy any and improvised with the Stork I use for baking with! Once its bubbling and looking a caramel colour, stir in the chopped pecans to coat, transfer to a sheet of non stick baking paper and try to separate them. Once cooled down and set, roughly chop.

banana and date icecream 3

Using a hand mixer, lightly whip the condensed milk with the cinnamon and mashed bananas with the cream for a couple of minutes to combine thoroughly. Fold in the double cream, caramel pecans and dates.

banana and date icecream 1

Transfer to a suitable container and place in freezer. After an hour or so, gently fork through to break up any ice crystals and then repeat this stage a couple of times for a couple of hours until its frozen.

Grab a spoon and dive in!
banana and date icecream 4
Sorry about horrific pictures! Oh and the chipped dish oops!

5 comments:

  1. Yum yum yum! That sounds an amzing combo!

    And I am glad that I am not the only person to bake with Stork. Half the price of butter, and if it is good enough for Mary Berry it is good enough for me!

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  2. Helen - my mum always uses Stork too, and I've never had any complaints on my baking!

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  3. I love the flavour combo there - yum! Banana and date match so well, and the crunch of caramel must be great too.

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  4. This is a wonderful recipe
    No uncooked eggs - great!
    Love it

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  5. I've tried the caramel pecans by myself a long time ago. I haven't combined sugar and margarine - only sugar and water. It was awful - everything in the kitchen was sticking after that... With margarine it should be easier :).

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Thanks for stopping by my kitchen! I love to hear your thoughts and comments on my recipes!

Anne

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