Roasted Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Growing up in Australia it was perfectly normal for us to throw whole bananas on the BBQ, and once they were ready we would split them open and enjoy the contents - sometimes with a little ice cream, but mostly just plain.  Roasting them like this brought out all of their sugary goodness and when we BBQ today, I still add some bananas to the grill.

I always try to have bananas in the house.  They are one of my favorite fruits and I love them in baked goods too.  They are even great in a curry.  Thank goodness they are relatively inexpensive here as I tend to buy the big bag of them from Costco.  My eldest daughter tells me that in Australia they are currently $14.00 per kilo, that is about $7.00 per pound!  This is due to a cyclone which ravaged the trees up north.

When a recipe for Roasted Banana Ice Cream appeared on Michelle's blog, Brown Eyed Baker, I knew my family would go crazy for it.  I really should have known to double the batch because there were some very sad faces when it was all gone in a few hours.  This is such an easy ice cream to make because it is not custard-based.  The hardest thing you will have to do is roast the bananas and lift your blender and ice cream maker out of the cupboard - if you keep these items on your kitchen counter then you just halved your workload.

As usual I had trouble sticking to the original recipe.  I wanted to make it a little more like Bananas Foster so I added some Malibu rum to the bananas prior to baking, I used orange juice rather than lemon juice, and I substituted 1/2 a cup of whipping cream for some of the milk.  I think that next time a little toasted coconut would make a nice textural addition too.  The flavor of the blended roasted bananas and the milk/cream base is amazing.  I think that I could have eaten it with a spoon before it was even churned.  I did restrain myself and the reward was definitely worth it.  This ice cream is swoon-worthy.



Roasted Bananas Foster Ice Cream

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 4 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons Malibu rum
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ teaspoons orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
• prepared caramel sauce, optional 

Preparation 

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Slice the bananas into ½-inch pieces and toss them with the brown sugar, butter, and Malibu in a 2-quart baking dish.
• Bake for 40 minutes, stirring once during baking, until the bananas are browned and cooked through.
• Scrape the bananas and the thick syrup in the baking dish into a blender or food processor.
• Add the milk, cream, granulated sugar, vanilla, orange juice and salt, and purée until smooth.
• Chill the mixture for at least 8 hours (preferably overnight) in the refrigerator.
• Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (if the chilled mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it to thin it out).
• Serve with a drizzle of caramel sauce, optional.

Recipe by Brown Eyed Baker and adapted from The Perfect Scoop.