Banoffee Pie Ice Cream

This is my first ever entry into Kavey Eats’ Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge which, as you’ve probably guessed, invites bloggers to create ice cream recipes to a monthly theme. July’s theme is to create a recipe using condensed milk – apparently condensed milk ice-creams don’t need churning which makes them super easy to prepare without an ice-cream machine.

When I read about the challenge I automatically thought of the half a tin of Nestle Caramel languishing in the fridge – you know the sort you used to have to dice with death with to achieve by boiling a tin of condensed milk for three hours? There was only ever one dish that was worth going to such perilous lengths for. And that dish is the muse for my ice cream entry. That’s right. The banoffee pie.

My recipe is a bit of a hybrid of inspiration. The ice cream base is inspired by this BBC Good Food recipe here whilst the method for roasting bananas comes from David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.” I added the crushed biscuits to represent the banoffee base – make sure you use a nice crisp biscuit otherwise they will disappear into the icecream and you won’t get the contrast in textures.

As I always find with non-custard based ice creams, this ice cream doesn’t have the same mouth-feel as your typical scoop. It is denser and a lot heavier on the palate. Having said that, the ease with which it is made more than compensates for its imperfections. Plus the combo of caramel, banana and biscuit is ridiculously moreish. A deliciously addictive ice cream.

Banoffee Pie Ice Cream

3 ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
75g demerara sugar
25g butter
juice of ½ lemon
pinch of salt
½ a 400g can Nestle Caramel
500ml double cream
100g crisp plain or oat biscuits, crushed

1. Mix the banana, sugar and butter together in a baking dish and roast for 30 minutes at 200C/180C/gas 6. Mash the bananas with the lemon juice and salt or puree the whole lot in a food processor.

2. Gently heat the caramel in a small pan until it becomes runny and smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour into a bowl and add the double cream. Whisk until thickened and soft peaks form.

3. Stir in the banana puree and then the crushed biscuits. Spoon into a plastic container and freeze until solid (about 4 hours). Serve with extra bananas and crushed biscuits if you like.