We all scream for ice cream!
A few weeks ago, I wrote a bit about the history of ice cream – so when I got a PR email about new Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavours, my face managed a big fat smile, but when I read that one of the flavours is banana ice cream, my heart had even a little flutter!
The funny thing is that I actually don’t like bananas but love the flavour of it in puddings, yogurt, cakes and of course ice cream.
Unfortunately, supermarket and mass produced banana ice cream tastes artificial but artisan ice cream is on another level.
The best I have eaten so far was in Youghal in the ice cream parlour Fantastic Flavours (they also do a delicious cherry ice cream which is my second favourite flavour).
A quick banana ice cream can be made by slicing a banana and freezing the slices in a single layer (so that they are not overlapping). When frozen (after about an hour), place the slices in a food processor with 75ml buttermilk, 3 tbsp of sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like it – don’t forget the banana is quite sweet to begin with) and a few drops of vanilla essence to round up the flavour.
Turn on the food processor and blend for a few moments – while the machine is still running, pour in 75ml additional buttermilk in a steady stream. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy (the frozen bananas will thicken the buttermilk). The result is rather delicious with a fresh taste.
The sourness of the buttermilk gives it a nice tartness that goes well with the sweetness of the banana. This ice cream is meant to be eaten straight away. Freezing it for later will make it rock solid.
The new ice cream by Ben & Jerry is called Oh My! Banoffee Pie! and includes chocolate caramel cups and cookies swirls (oh my heart just skipped a beat!).
Other new flavours by Ben & Jerry are Cookie Vermont-ster with chocolate chip cookies and swirls and Hazel-nuttin’ but Chocolate with chocolate hazelnut ice cream, brownie pieces and sea salt chocolate swirls.
And they even have a new vegan version called Non-Dairy Berry Revolutionary with raspberry non-dairy ice cream (not my thing I have to admit) with sandwich cookies and chocolate cookie swirls. Now, I don’t like (or have never eaten a really good one) vegan ice cream.
Firstly I love cream and secondly a lot of vegan ice creams are made either with avocado or nuts which gives them the ‘creaminess’ but also an odd undertaste. I am sure there are good vegan versions available but I have yet to come across one.
I think my mistake is that I am comparing it to dairy ice cream and that might not be a fair assessment but as I am a creature of habit, this can’t be helped!