Banana Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
This is a really great, creamy and delicious banana chocolate chunk ice cream, that won’t disappoint! Easy and perfect to make when you have some ripe bananas you haven’t eaten yet.
Banana’s gotta be one of my favorite fruits. That sweet taste when you get a ripe banana is just heaven for me.
So naturally, I had to make a banana ice cream.
I chose to make this ice cream french style – which means cooking a custard. I wanted to make sure I kept that creamy texture from the bananas and the heavy cream and egg yolks will help with that.
And the chocolate? – you might ask. Well, that was my wife. She loves chocolate and asked if I could add some – so here you go – Banana Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream!
What you need for Banana Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
So, what do you need to make this delicious banana ice cream! Well, not much:
- Chocolate – any chocolate can be used. Add your favorite. I use a 70% unsweetened.
- Salt – just a pinch of salt to boost flavours!
- Egg yolks – pick some nice large eggs. Alternative you can always add one extra egg yolk if you feel like it.
- Sugar – just use normal white granulated sugar.
- Cream and milk – both helps provide the richness of your ice cream.
- Bananas – make sure you use some really nice ripe bananas. This will help you get that sweet banana flavour stand out in your ice cream.
- Vanilla extract – just to give it that touch.
How to get ripe Bananas
Whether you bake a cake, make a fruit salad or ice cream, you want your bananas to be ripe, so you get that nice sweet taste.
Ethylene is a gas found in bananas (and other fruits). The gas causes the banana to ripe, soften and convert starches to sugar. This is why a yellow ripe banana taste so nice and sweet.
Now, if all your bananas are green and under-ripe, there are a couple of things you can do to ripen them quickly.
Put them in a paper bag
Put your bananas in a folded paper bag and leave it on your counter (avoid direct sunlight). If you have an apple, add that to your bag as well – this will help speed up the process, as apples also release ethylene.
Check on your bananas daily. What we are looking for are yellow bananas with brown spots.
With this method, it will take you a couple of days to ripe your bananas.
Bake them in the oven
If you need ripe bananas right now, another solution is to bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 250 degrees.
The bananas will turn black on the outside, but no worries…after they have cooled down you have ripe and sweet bananas, ready to use.
How to choose Bananas at the store
Allright, if you dont have any bananas at home, make sure you select the right ones when you go to the store.
You want to look for bananas with an even yellow color. Brown flects are also a good sign – it means they are ripe and sweet – ready to use in your ice cream.
Banana Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 4 bananas, ripe
- 1/4 kosher salt
- 1 1/2 oz chocolate, unsweetened and chopped
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Put the cream, half the milk, the salt and 2/3 of the sugar into a saucepan. Set the temperature to medium.
- Now prepare an ice bath. Fill a large bowl (or an empty sink) with cold water. Put a smaller bowl inside.
- In another bowl, beat together the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar. Make sure you get a smooth and creamy mixture.
- Temper the eggs by slowly adding half your heated mixture into your eggs. Make sure you constantly whisk to prevent scramble eggs. Now pour your egg mixture back into the saucepan and heat the mixture over medium heat until it thickens.
- Remove from heat and pour the mixture into the small bowl in your ice bath. Add the rest of the milk and vanilla extract. Stir until cool.
- Pour half the cooled mixture into a blender or food processor and add the bananas. Blend until smooth and then stir the banana mixture back into the rest of the custard.
- Chill your mixture in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
- Before adding your chilled mixture to your ice cream maker, pour it through a sieve to remove any small banana pieces. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Add the chopped chocolate doing the last minutes of churning.
