Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Bananas have always been on my list of “Love-Hates.” I love them. I hate them. I love them. Nah…I hate them. And so on.

It started when I was a little preschool girl some 25+ years ago. My preschool teacher made us healthy banana shakes. She made me drink a glass of it. I don’t know to this day what was in that, but it churned my stomach in a big way. And also to this day, I can only eat banana cold in two capacities: Banana Creamies (a local popsicle), and now this ice cream. (Three–cold banana cake.)

I just love ice cream. I could have fun making ice cream all day and then having a blog just dedicated to ice cream. I could open an ice cream parlor. (And have tons of fun decorating it.)

Some of my ice cream recipes are happy accidents. This is no different.

Yes, of course, I occasionally (read: several times a week) have disasters in the kitchen, recipes that go wrong, etc. On Sunday some caramel sauce I was making crystallized. I was devastated.

What to do?

I thought about it for a long time. I didn’t want to waste all the ingredients and I certainly couldn’t remedy it. I thought back to Aran’s recipe for Salted Caramel Ice Cream and decided that was the only possible direction to take it.

Then came the bananas and rum. What can I say? I go with it when the inspiration comes. I’m like that. (Please note twist of sarcasm.)

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

original recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream (not ice cold)
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 cups whole or 2% milk
2 whole eggs or 4 egg yolks
1-2 ripe bananas (depending on how big they are)
2-4 tablespoons dark rum (optional–can use 1 tsp. rum extract, too)

Instructions:

In a 2-quart pan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until the sugar becomes a deep amber color. Add the heavy cream and stir well. Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract, butter, and salt. (It may clump up, just keep stirring and it will smooth out.)

Transfer caramel to a heat proof bowl to cool.**

Once caramel is cool, whisk in the eggs (or egg yolks).

Prepare an ice bath. (You will need it to quickly cool the hot custard.)

In another pan, heat milk until very hot.** Gradually add the hot milk to the caramel/egg mixture. Whisk well and pour it back into the pan. Cook over medium heat until the custard reaches a temperature of 160 degrees F on an instant read thermometer. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Place the bowl in an ice bath to cool.

Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and put them into a blender. Add some of the custard and puree until smooth. Add the puree back to the bowl with remaining custard. Stir well. Add the rum, if using.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until very cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer directions.

Makes 1 quart.

**Alternatively, you could add the milk to the caramel while it’s still hot and then add it to the eggs that have been whisked in a separate bowl. It just depends on how you want to do it. It will work just as well either way. My caramel just happened to be cold, so I added the eggs to the caramel.**

Want some?

You may also like

107 Comments

  1. I SO have to make this as soon as possible. It looks absolutely dreamy! In the banana love/hate relationship dept I have to admit, I love banana everything… but can’t just eat a banana. Weird. I know.

  2. Have you ever tried Banana foster french toast? I happen to love it. I am currently making your dulce icecream. I can’t wait to try it. (The custard part was delicious… yes, I may have tried it)

  3. That sounds and looks so delicious- way to make something great out of something that didn’t quite turn out- that’s always a huge plus! :)

  4. I am not a real banana lover either. I like them cold and sliced on top of rice crispies, or with ice cream, but|I could never sit and eat a banana. I do like banana bread and muffins though.

  5. I’ve never even tried it but I want to now!
    Oh, and consider yourself lucky. My preschool teachers made us eat liver :-

  6. Just wondering how you were supposed to use the rum listed in the ingredients, but not in the directions. As I am LDS, I don’t have any anyway, but wondered! Thanks!

  7. Lindsey, I have a question…when making the custard do you remove it from the heat as soon as it hits 160 or after it hits 160, coats the back of a spoon, AND you can leave a trail? Sorry, I’m a bit confused. Do you think this recipe will triple fairly easily?! THX! I’m going to try and make this sometime this weekend in between the SEVEN games of baseball the twins have!!!
    ~ingrid

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.