Banana Ice Cream (Ninja Creami)

Find more recipes at fussfreeflavours.com

Close up of pale cream coloured banana ice cream being scooped out of a Ninja Creami pot

No ratings yet

Irresistible soft serve banana ice cream made in the Ninja Creami, is so soft, creamy and packed with banana flavour. Only 4 everyday ingredients and nothing ultra processed!

Servings:

Author: Helen Best-Shaw

Prep Time10

Freezing1

Total Time1 10

Equipment

Ninja Creami

Ingredients

2 bananas - 1
1 tbsp maple syrup - 2
1 tsp vanilla bean paste - 3
225 ml single cream - 4

(4) In place of the single cream

150 ml semi skimmed milk
75 ml double cream

Instructions

Prep the tub - Peel and break up the bananas and put into the Ninja pot.
Add the maple syrup (honey or golden syrup), and vanilla extract.
Pour over the cream up to the maximum fill line. The recipe is very forgiving, so with larger bananas there will be a little less cream, and a little more with small bananas.
2 bananas, 1 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 225 ml single cream
Whizz to mix - Use a stick blander to give it all a blitz, so there are no pieces of banana to sink to the bottom of the tub. Check that the maple syrup is completely mixed in, as it will run to the bottom of the tub when you add it.
You can also blitz in a regular blender, but using a stick blender in the Ninja Creami pot means less washing up.
Freeze until solid; this can take overnight or up to 24 hours depending on your freezer.
Check for humps - If the mixture has developed a hump or bump in the middle scrape with a spoon so it is flat.
* Freezing with the lid off can help to stop humps forming. Different recipes and freezers can different sized humps to form. If your mixture always forms a large hump as it freezes give it a stir after the first hour in the freezer.
Do not spin a mixture that has a large hump, without flattening it first. You may damage your machine.
Process - Put the container in the machine and spin – with the regular Creami (the NC300) I have found that the light ice cream cycle gives the best results.
Scrape the sides down and respin if needed.

Notes

Bananas – The riper the banana the more intense the flavour and sweetness. So pick ones which are deep yellow and starting to get some flecks of brown. Two bananas (about 200 - 220g) is perfect - but a little more of less either way won't matter, as you adjust the amount of cream used to fill the tub. If the bananas are still on the green side of yellow then add a little sugar to the mixture.
Maple Syrup adds some sweetness and improves the texture of the final ice cream. You could also use honey or golden syrup.
Cream – British single cream (18% fat). Or you can use a mixture of two parts semi skimmed milk to one part double cream which has almost the same fat content. This will be 150ml milk and 75ml double cream. I nearly always weigh the cream and milk using 1ml = 1g as a guide, the recipe will still work perfectly.
Vanilla Extract / Paste – takes your banana ice cream to the next level! I prefer a vanilla bean paste with the little black flecks of seed, as they have more flavour. It is worth spending more money on a decent brand, because if you buy a cheaper, one you often need twice as much (or more). Avoid false economy!
Vanilla extract contains real vanilla, while vanilla essence is generally synthetic and really does not taste very good. So don’t buy it.

Hints and Tips

This recipe is for the regular NC300 Ninja Creami, with (American) pint pots. For the Deluxe model use 1.5X the ingredients.
For best results use ripe bananas as they are sweeter.
Make sure the mixture is completely frozen before processing.
If you add some banana slice as additions using the mix-in function, then any re-spinning of the ice cream will blend them completely.
Smooth the surface of any leftover ice cream before returning to the freezer.
To enjoy a half empty pot: either just let it thaw slightly or process again with the light ice cream function. You must not the re-spin function on a solid mixture. Or, you can add about 2 teaspoons vegetable, food grade glycerine into the mixture so it is scoopable from the freezer. Experiment to perfect quantities.

Variations

Replace some of the cream with any of the below

1/4 cup (4 tbsp) nut butter
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) chocolate spread
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) biscoff spread

• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.