Kids cook: banana, blackberry and peanut butter ice cream

I’ve always tried to encourage N to bake with me, or learn to chop veg.  He loves peeling and chopping veg although it does take ages. Practice makes perfect though.  But he gets a bit bored baking.  Weighing is good, but half way through he’ll give up and wander off.  But recently he’s shown more of an interest in learning to cook.

First on his list was a fried egg.  I’m not sure why, but I said we could do it at the weekend for breakfast. He ended up going to the farm for breakfast though, so there wasn’t any chance to do it.  But he’s written a breakfast menu and I think he wants to work his way through the list.

We can already tick off toast because he’s been making his own for a couple of years (this morning I caught him using a bit of kitchen towel to protect his fingers from the hot toast as he removed it from the toaster (he’ll have ‘asbestos’, able to pick up any hot food, fingers by the time he’s a grown up!)

N does like to watch Tilly Ramsay’s tv show Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, and he likes to see what she’s cooking.  The other day I spotted a shopping list he’d left on the side, and was informed he wanted to make ice cream.

We duly went shopping and bought the 3 ingredients.  I had to remind him that he had to wait because we’d have to freeze the fruit first, but it only took a few hours before the first round of ice cream could be made. 

N chopped up the bananas, then made sure the fruit was bagged up and put in the freezer.

Then once frozen it was time to blend the fruit with a little peanut butter.  It turns out the Nutribullet didn’t work well as it couldn’t cope with the bananas.  But luckily I have a little hand blender. It took a bit of time, and things got a little gooey.  But we ended up with a really nice ice cream with just a hint of peanut butter.

We served ours in bowls and N added sprinkles to his.   The texture is a soft ice cream, much like gelato, and should be made just before eating.  Alternatively you should be able to put into a freezer proof container and freeze until needed. Just remove from the freezer a short time to soften slightly before serving.

Because you can make only as much as you need after freezing the fruit, it’s great for portion control.  And being mostly fruit you’ve got no added sugar. I’m thinking we could adapt this to any frozen fruit combinations and as a short cut, buy frozen fruit to use rather than freezing your own.

How to make banana, blackberry and peanut butter ice cream

It really is as simple as just chopping up frozen fruit, adding the peanut butter and then blending.

Tips

Bananas are harder to blend down than the berries, so you might want to freeze the bananas for less time.

Make before serving as it is a soft ice cream and will melt quickly. Serve with sprinkles or a fruit sauce according to taste.

Add peanut butter gradually to avoid adding too much in one go.

Find the recipe below.

Print

Banana, blackberry and peanut butter ice cream

Course Dessert

Keyword freezer, fruit, ice cream

Prep Time 10 minutes

Freezing time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

• Bananas – ripe
• Blackberries
• Smooth peanut butter – to taste

Instructions

1. Peel and chop the bananas into berry sized pieces
2. Place in freezer bag or tub and freeze until needed
3. Freeze blackberries in their carton, or on a baking sheet until frozen then store in the freezer in bag or tub until needed.
4. As needed, take out a few bananas and blackberries for each portion – 4-5 each if you want to make 1 cone’s worth of ice cream and put in a blender friendly bowl.
5. Add a little peanut butter per portion depending on taste.  (Start smaller and test before adding more)
6. Blend – we used an electric hand blender, but if you’re making a larger amount, use a normal blender – until the 3 ingredients are combined and smooth.
7. Serve with sprinkles or a fruit sauce according to taste.

Recipe Notes

Bananas are harder to blend down than the berries, so you might want to freeze the bananas for less time.

Make before serving as it is a soft ice cream and will melt quickly.

Add peanut butter gradually to avoid adding too much in one go.

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