Thursday, April 26, 2007

Banana Ice Cream with Sugar-Toasted Pecans

roastedbananaicecream1

It's incredibly warm and sunny today, so I thought I'd share a fabulous ice cream recipe from David Lebovitz new book, The Perfect Scoop. I found it on the Traveler's Lunchbox, where you can also read an interview with David. The book is definitely on the top of my wishlist for summer - I'm sure all the ice creams are fabulous. This one definitely was!

It's a great way to use up browned bananas - why do I keep buying them, since I never really eat them? One of life's eternal mysteries.. but I do like to use them in baking, as I'm sure I've said over and over again. Roasting the bananas with brown sugar really brings out their flavor, and adds that of caramel. Yummy! I adapted David's recipe a little, using less lemon and more vanilla, tad more salt, and adding sugar-toasted pecans. If I didn't know, I'd never guess that this ice cream didn't have cream in it - but it's really just made from milk. (I don't think I'd try it with low-fat milk though - you gotta draw the line somewhere..)

Banana Ice Cream with Sugar-Toasted Pecans
3 very ripe bananas
70 g brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
375 ml full-fat milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt (flaky sea salt is what I used)

Cut the bananas into pieces, and put in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and dot with the butter, and bake at 200°C for about 30 minutes. The bananas should be really soft and you will have a caramel-like syrup in the pan. Remove to a large bown, and add milk, sugar, vanilla and lemon. Mix with a handheld mixer (or do this step in a food processor) until it's smooth. Add the salt.

Cover the bowl tightly, and place in the fridge until very cold - overnight is good. Then freeze in an ice cream maker. Add the sugar-toasted pecans for the last minute or so.

roastedbananaicecream2

Sugar-Toasted Pecans
100 g pecans, roughly chopped
2 tbsp demerara sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tbsp butter

Mix in a large pan, and heat while stirring until all the sugar has melted and the nuts are lightly golden. Spread out on a lined baking sheet so that they cool down quickly, and keep in an air-tight jar.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bananglass med sockerrostade pecannötter

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That recipe sounds fantastic...thanks for sharing it... (did you know that blackening bananas happily will keep in the freezer until you want to defrost them to cook in a cake or something else?)
And a question: is there any way on your site that I can find recipes of typically Swedish food??

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

What is it about bananas! I buy too many and end up throwing some of them out.
You're right brown sugar works really well with bananas. Whenever we have a barbeque we always finish up with bananas.
You put the unopened bananas on the grill until they blacken and start to split (this can be achieved in the microwave for a few minutes too). Take the bananas off the grill and onto a plate. Split the banana and let the skin act as a dish. Sprinkle with plenty of brown sugar and top with whipped cream. They are gorgeous! I have heard they are good with a little rum drizzled over, but that's not for me.
Holler

Anne said...

Stephanie - that's a great idea! I've never tried it though, but I will! As for Swedish recipes, I don't really have a category for that, but I should fix one - thank you for the suggestion!

Holler - ooh, that sounds tasty! Here, we usually do something similar, but with squares of chocolate instead of brown sugar.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

I'll have a go making the bananas with chocolate. A really dark chocolate with a good snap, I think!
I also put peach halves on the barbeque, sprinkled with brown sugar and wrapped in tinfoil. I am thinking those would be decadent with dark chocolate melted on them and served with cream!
Yum!

winedeb said...

Hi Holler & Anne - Cannot beat a the wonderful banana. We peel one strip off the banana, stick small squares of chocolate into the banana, put marshmellows on top of that, wrap in foil and put on the grill. After about 5-7 minutes, open the foil for a sweet, gooey treat. Using a spoon, just scoop the banana, etc. right out of the peel and into your mouth. The foil acts as the serving dish.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

That sounds good Deb. Would you consider adding that to my blog next time you make it? Thanks. Holler
www.tinnedtomatoes.blogspot.com

That's not bad etiquette is it?
I am just starting out.

Brilynn said...

I need to get this book! That ice cream looks amazing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne - I just received this book in the mail yesterday, and I can hardly wait to try a number of recipes in there - including this one!