I have a confession to make – I love Ben & Jerry, no really. One thing I love about them most is that they make one of my all time favorite ice cream flavors – Chunky Monkey. Oh, yeah you know the one. Full fat banana flavored ice cream with chunks of chocolate and walnuts,… all it needs is a cherry and some whipped cream. Oops, I’m drooling on my keyboard.
Problem is it’s just too, well, chunky,…on my backside. Seriously. I could eat the whole pint myself. I can fix that though, the chunky part – I’ll still eat the whole pint of this one. Only, I won’t have to run around the world twice to work it off. Come on I’ll show you.
Not So Chunky Monkey
1 lb Frozen Bananas (about 4 cups, or one tray, or 5 or 6 bananas…this is why I weighed this one out)
1/2 Cup Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk (about 1/2 can)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Vanilla Paste * optional, not everybody has this in their cupboard.
1/3 Cup Walnuts chopped
3 or 4 Tbl Home Made Magic Shell, check out that post here
Get out all the goodies
Step 2:
Measure out those frozen banana slices. I buy bananas and keep them in the freezer in a ziploc for smoothies.
Step 3:
In a food processor, add the bananas, milk, vanilla.
Step 4:
Give it all a whirl, pulse it so that all the pieces get a chance to be mashed up.
Step 4a:
There – now it’s a frozen treat. I can’t really call it ice cream – even though there’s cream in it. Hmmm
Step 5:
Get it into a freezer safe container. I like a stainless bowl because it freezes quick.
Step 5a:
Drizzle on some of that Magic Shell – you did see that post, didn’t you. On that post I showed you to put the chocolate on a plate and freeze to have larger crunchy bits to fold into ice cream. They’re good to have because the drizzles aren’t always thick enough to be considered ‘chunks’. Don’t forget to fold in those walnuts too.
Step 6:
Cover it with plastic wrap, right ON the ice cream so has to keep the bananas from being freezer-fied. Get it chilled until firm – at least a couple of hours.
Finale:
That’s it ! A Low Fat, high flavor and all around good-for-you treat. Not banana flavored ice cream – it’s actually bananas !!! So good – and still has an ice cream texture. Enjoy!