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Caramelized Banana and Almond Nice Cream

Caramelized Banana and Almond Vegan Ice Cream
Photo by Alex Lau

This banana-based "ice cream" adds a sweet depth of flavor by caramelizing the bananas first, then puréeing them into a smooth cream. Plus, the toppings possibilities are endless!

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups

2

tablespoons of virgin coconut oil

3

large ripe but firm bananas, peeled

1

tablespoon dark brown sugar

¼

teaspoon kosher salt

¼

cup coconut cream or coconut milk

¼

cup almond butter

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat coconut oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium. Add bananas and cook, undisturbed, until dark brown underneath, about 3 minutes. Turn and continue to cook, turning occasionally, until caramelized around the edges but still mostly firm, 2–3 minutes more. Add brown sugar and salt and toss just to coat bananas.

    Step 2

    Transfer bananas (along with any liquid) to a small silpat-lined rimmed baking sheet (or a baking sheet coated lightly with nonstick spray). Freeze until hard, about 3 hours.

    Step 3

    Let bananas soften just until you’re able to break them into large clumps (they should still be mostly frozen so this is really just a few minutes) and transfer to a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, scraping down occasionally, then continue to pulse until a smooth paste forms, about 2 minutes. Add cream and pulse until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute more. Add almond butter and pulse just until combined.

    Step 4

    Transfer nice cream to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.

    Step 5

    Do Ahead: Nice cream can be made 2 weeks ahead. Keep frozen. If too hard, let soften for a few minutes before scooping.

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  • Woah. This ice cream actually blew my mind. The texture is perfect. I followed it exactly, only addition was folding in toasted almonds. Wish I'd have folded in some fudge too. Oh well, guess I'll have to make it again!

    • Anonymous

    • milwaukee

    • 9/8/2020

  • Delicious! I’m not vegan so I added a few splashes of heavy cream with 1/4 cup of coconut cream and it turned out so good and creamy. I also added a dash of cinnamon and it turned out really well rounded. My bananas were just starting to get freckles and this was the perfect level of ripeness.

    • Anonymous

    • Arizona

    • 4/7/2020

  • Its not completely frozen yet but the texture was really weird. Its probably due to the fact that I substituted heavy cream for coconut milk, i may try again later with almond milk.

    • PigglyWiggly

    • Colorado

    • 4/25/2019

  • The consistency was perfect! It was creamy and was, well ,ice creamish? Anyways, that part was good. Just a quick tip, make sure you don’t use banana bread ripe, bananas for this recipe. Unless you like the taste of banana baby food (I kinda do...). I recommend bright yellow if you’re looking for a more subtle banana flavor.

    • Minnesota

    • 3/28/2018