Banana Ice Cream with Sugar-Toasted Pecans

It's incredibly warm and sunny today, so I thought I'd share a fabulous ice cream recipe from David Lebovitz new book, The Perfect Scoop. I found it on the Traveler's Lunchbox, where you can also read an interview with David. The book is definitely on the top of my wishlist for summer - I'm sure all the ice creams are fabulous. This one definitely was!

It's a great way to use up browned bananas - why do I keep buying them, since I never really eat them? One of life's eternal mysteries.. but I do like to use them in baking, as I'm sure I've said over and over again. Roasting the bananas with brown sugar really brings out their flavor, and adds that of caramel. Yummy! I adapted David's recipe a little, using less lemon and more vanilla, tad more salt, and adding sugar-toasted pecans. If I didn't know, I'd never guess that this ice cream didn't have cream in it - but it's really just made from milk. (I don't think I'd try it with low-fat milk though - you gotta draw the line somewhere..)

Banana Ice Cream with Sugar-Toasted Pecans
3 very ripe bananas
70 g brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
375 ml full-fat milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt (flaky sea salt is what I used)

Cut the bananas into pieces, and put in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and dot with the butter, and bake at 200°C for about 30 minutes. The bananas should be really soft and you will have a caramel-like syrup in the pan. Remove to a large bown, and add milk, sugar, vanilla and lemon. Mix with a handheld mixer (or do this step in a food processor) until it's smooth. Add the salt.

Cover the bowl tightly, and place in the fridge until very cold - overnight is good. Then freeze in an ice cream maker. Add the sugar-toasted pecans for the last minute or so.



Sugar-Toasted Pecans
100 g pecans, roughly chopped
2 tbsp demerara sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tbsp butter

Mix in a large pan, and heat while stirring until all the sugar has melted and the nuts are lightly golden. Spread out on a lined baking sheet so that they cool down quickly, and keep in an air-tight jar.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bananglass med sockerrostade pecannötter