How to Make Banana Nice Cream & Fruit Sorbets

How to Make Banana Nice Cream

My favorite raw sweet treat! So you’re reading this because you want to know how to make banana nice cream. What is it though, exactly? What is termed as “nice cream,” is just a way of saying banana ice cream. (Don’t ask me where the nice part came from, I’m not too sure myself! Maybe because this is a … nice ice cream)? The first time I heard about how bananas could make a soft-serve ice cream, it BLEW my mind. All of a sudden, I had dozens of bananas in my freezer that were way too ripe, so too soft to eat. But they were perfect for some frozen desserts!

After that, my jaw would drop to the floor if any my family members ever so much as looked at a spotty banana to throw away. They ALL knew that I was an ice cream queen, ready to whip up different nice cream flavors of this banana based dessert.

Not Exactly Classic Ice Cream …

Now, I can’t say it is exactly like traditional ice cream, because there is a banana undertone to it (which might take getting used to for some). However, if you try different flavours, you’ll be able to find what you like best! I love mixing frozen strawberries or cocoa powder into the frozen banana ice cream base. This makes some of my favorite flavors (classics!) like strawberry or chocolate ice cream! I’ve even tried making a matcha banana ice cream (green tea ice cream), so the flavor options are really endless.

You might be wondering how exactly it’s made though. All you do is peel and chop super ripened bananas. Throw them in a ziploc or a freezer-safe container. Keep them in the freezer overnight. Then scoop them out of the container, blend them in a food processor until they look like soft-serve ice cream, and voila! Your “vanilla ice cream” but with a base of bananas, is ready. But the best part? It’s all raw, vegan, no ice cream maker required, refined sugar free, budget-friendly (bananas are some of the cheapest fruits!), free of allergens (unless you’re allergic to bananas) and a magic one-ingredient ice cream that is ready for add-ins to mix a ton of different flavors with.

Why You’ll Love This Healthy Banana Ice Cream

• Raw Vegan: This recipe is raw vegan, so no heating of the ingredients required and no added sugar, but also all natural ingredients from the earth. It also contains vitamins from many different sources! Spices have their own array of vitamins and minerals, as does each fruit.
• Simple Ingredients: This banana ice cream parfait uses easy ingredients you can find in most supermarkets! There’s also no ice cream maker needed for this, which makes it a whole lot easier.
• Versatile Ingredients: The bananas, berries or tropical fruits can easily be substituted for different ones. The spices are also optional. The bananas are the main ingredient, but the rest of it is easily replaceable.
• Snack, Dessert or Breakfast: Make this recipe anytime! If you drink smoothies or eat fruit for breakfast, you might try swapping it out with this parfait! If you’re more of a fruit-for-snack person, this is perfect for a quick afternoon snack. Or if you’re into fruity desserts, this also makes a great healthy dessert! Basically, any time of day.
• No Waste (use up old fruit): If I have fruit that’s rotting, especially bananas, I throw them in the freezer to use in recipes. Nice cream is an awesome way to use up frozen bananas, but even with berries that are starting to go bad, or any other fruit works. This is a great alternative to tossing out your old fruit.

Dairy Queen Comeback

If you’re familiar with Dairy Queen Blizzards, it’s ice cream in a soft-serve consistency with different flavors mixed in. When serving the Blizzard, sometimes in commercials they will show the Blizzard cup being put upside down to see if any ice cream falls out (as a way to show how solid the ice cream is). This is what happens to the banana ice cream if it’s made right! You can scoop it out with a spoon and it will hold its shape. It’s super satisfying to see that, since I was a huge DQ fan back in the day.

Substitutions: Fruits

Bananas: Bananas are the star of this recipe! Make sure your bananas are as ripe as possible though. The texture of frozen bananas specifically is way creamier than most other fruits. If you really don’t want to use bananas as the base, try 1/3 cup of frozen avocado per banana instead. Or open a can of coconut milk, freeze the milk into ice cubes, and use 1/3 cup of ice cubes per banana. To make it even more decadent, keep a can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. Open it the next day, and there will be a layer of cream that rises to the top, with water underneath. This is coconut cream! Scoop this out to make ice cubes with, and use just the cream ice cubes to blend as the base. They’re very rich!

Tropical Fruit: Try frozen mango, pineapple, peach or even papaya! Key word: frozen! Or it wouldn’t be sorbet. I love buying giant bags of frozen fruit at Costco specifically for frozen fruit smoothies or a nice cream recipe. If you really

Blueberries: These pack an antioxidant punch and

Coconut: Totally optional, but adds more healthy fats. I love to sprinkle some shredded coconut flakes in between the layers for a little crunch.

Substitutions: Other Ingredients

Milk: I love a splash of oat milk to help the fruits blend (or a little almond milk or other non-dairy milk). Water dilutes the recipe, but it also works. Another method is to just let your fruits thaw for 10 minutes out of the freezer before using and you’ll have an easier time blending without added liquid (since your blender is not doing as much work if the fruits are not frozen solid).

You don’t want the fruits to come to room temperature or it won’t blend well. Make sure they are still very frozen! One way I check (if I am thawing out the fruits rather than adding liquid in) is to see if the frozen banana slices can be dented just a little (but are still very cold to the touch). If yes, this is probably the right time to blend them.

Vanilla Extract: Feel free to omit the vanilla, but I find that a little bit always adds some flavour!

Cinnamon: Cinnamon is a spice with many health benefits, as are most spices. It adds an enjoyable flavor to this ice cream, almost like a snickerdoodle nice cream flavor!

Video

You can watch the video to see how I made these parfaits below!

Notes: Ingredients

• Only use bananas that are getting very spotty (super ripe bananas). The more brown spots, the sweeter they are.
• Frozen fruit bags are cheaper than buying that same fruit fresh and freezing it. For example, frozen blueberries have the same nutritional profile as fresh ones. They get picked when they are in season and then frozen. So even if it’s winter time and you can’t find tropical fruits, don’t fret! I do not recommend to get the fresh fruit and then freeze for this recipe, as it will be multiple times more expensive.
• A high speed food processor or high-speed blender works best, or you can have leftover chunks of banana that aren’t blending well.
• Peel and chop your bananas in advance into a container or a freezer bag before freezing. This way, they are not frozen solid when you want to use them. Trust me, it takes a whole lot longer if you don’t.
• Some of my favorite toppings are dark chocolate chips, a seed butter (like nut butters, but with seeds such as sunflower seed butter) or an almond butter drizzle!
• There’s no added sugar to this recipe because all the fruits used contain natural sweetness themselves. However, if you have a major sweet tooth, try adding in some pure maple syrup into the banana base.
• The recipe time only says 8 hours because it takes some time for the bananas to freeze properly!
• Add a pinch of salt over top of the banana ice cream for a “salted” taste. Have you ever heard of the salt on ice cream hack?

More Raw Vegan Banana Recipes

Here are some of my favourite raw vegan banana ice cream recipes!

Neapolitan Ice Cream: Healthy chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice creams (all banana based)!

Chunky Monkey Ice Cream: This is peanut butter banana ice cream, with dark chocolate and walnuts!

Banana Split Parfait: Layers of banana ice cream, with a cherry and whipped cream to top!

Mocha Nutella Ice Cream: Coffee and hazelnuts? Yes, please!

Strawberry Kiwi Sorbet: Strawberry and kiwi make a perfect, creamy sorbet with just two ingredients!

Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie: Frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, chia seeds and rolled oats make a smoothie that tastes like a bowl of blueberry oats!

Banana Mango Ice Cream

Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream

If you make this recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Let’s get onto this recipe!