Just 4 simple ingredients to make this:
Swirly chocolate soft-serve.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen the idea of whipping frozen banana in a vitamix or food processor until it resembles the exact texture of soft-serve ice cream. (If you add a fat source, like peanut butter, it tastes pretty similar to ice cream as well. Or leave the fat out for a refreshing sherbet-like taste.)
I first blogged about the idea back in 2009, and then again in the Vitamix ice cream post, and I’m sure others were making it even earlier than that. The best thing about the concept is its versatility; everyone gets to put his or her own spin on the basic recipe. One of my favorite variations: chocolate soft serve!
With sprinkles on top.
(Just in case you forgot whose blog you were reading.)
Chocolate Banana Soft Serve
(Serves 2-3)
Category: 50+ Healthy Banana Recipes
- 3 medium bananas, the riper the better (for substitutions, see nutrition link below)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/16 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder (15g)
- optional: sweetener of choice, depending on your tastebuds and ripeness of the bananas
- optional: 3-5 tbsp peanut butter or another nut butter of choice
Ahead of time: peel and slice the over-ripe bananas into chunks. Freeze in a Ziploc-type bag, then combine all ingredients in a Vita-Mix, food processor, or blender. (If not using a Vita-Mix, add 2-3 tsp milk of choice so it’ll blend more smoothly. You might also have to thaw the frozen bananas if your freezer is super-powerful.) If you want the look of ice cream, use an ice-cream scoop to serve! (If you scoop it all into a container and freeze about 10-15 minutes, the texture will also become a bit firmer like ice cream, as opposed to soft serve.) Don’t try to halve the recipe unless you have a tiny food processor, as it won’t blend as smoothly.
View Chocolate Banana Soft Serve Nutrition Facts
Have you ever tried banana “ice cream”?
Any favorite ways to eat it? I almost always add a ridiculous amount of peanut butter, even to this chocolate version. Peanut butter and banana belong together, and the added fat makes it taste more like ice cream than sherbet.
LINK OF THE DAY:
Do you think this would work putting in coconut cream concentrate (the homemade stuff you describe)? I’m concerned about the temperature, if the CCC would mix in well.
My dairy allergic son loves this. Thank you. I blogged about it today here http://www.carolburris.com/life_with_nin/2012/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-soft-serve.html
I love your strawberry idea 🙂
So amazing! Added peanut butter at the end. Hubby’s going to love this too!
I just made this again but added peanut flour in place of peanut butter because I am watching my calories. It came out delicious!
Hi Katie – Just wanted to let you know I gave my readers a link to your blog in today’s post – http://www.thestuffofsuccess.com/2012/09/when-i-buy-bananas.html . Have a terrific day. Athena
Thank you! I loved your post :).
I first read about banana ice cream on your blog. My kiddos were unimpressed so I added strawberries and or blueberries and it was a hit, BUT my husband and i LOVE IT! Often in the summer I whip it up on a hot day and we fight each other over every bite and contemplate making more. I would even consider never eating real ice cream again except that nobody makes it commercially so when we are out, I suffer with the real thing, lol. LOVE YOUR BLOG!!!!
Omg! made this it was unbelievably easy, and it was so good ( mine was the peanut butter version) <3
I don’t know if it’s because I used baking cocoa or the wrong kind of banana or what, but this never got the consistency of soft serve and it always tasted overwhelmingly of banana. I even added peanut butter as you suggested but then I just made it taste like peanut butter and banana ice mush. Every once in a while I’d get a cocoa aftertaste, but the cocoa never masked the other flavors. Very disappointed with this recipe. I really wanted to like it. 🙁
Ok let me get this straight. You made a recipe with BANANAS as the base and are now disappointed when it tasted like banana? So disappointed that you bother to leave a nasty comment about how disappointed you are? This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!
Well, yes, when the recipe is called ‘chocolate fudge soft serve’ and the title makes no suggestion whatsoever that there is going to a strong banana flavor (I thought that was the point of Katie’s recipes, to make vegan alternatives taste similar to their commercial counterparts), I do feel a need to make my experience known in hopes that either Katie will help me or that my experience will help others. I did not intend for my comment to sound nasty in the slightest and I think you just wanted to read that tone into my words, although I have no idea why. I even acknowledged that I might not have followed the recipe correctly and that it could have been my fault. You’re so upset that I had a bad experience and felt the need to share it with Katie so that she might be able to tell me what I did wrong so I could have a better experience in the future that you bother to leave an actual nasty comment in response to mine about how angry you are that I had a bad experience? THAT has got the be the stupidest thing I ever heard. How dare you. There’s nothing to get defensive about. You’re just being mean for the sake of being mean.
So I finally am out of temporary housing (due to moving from NYC to Chicago in May) and therefore am starting to continue expanding my kitchen with necessities like… a VitaMix (the husband still laughs when I say that I NEED it). 🙂
With that said, which VitaMix should I get? Which is the best? Thanks!
I have a VERY old model (a 5200, but it’s around 10 years old). So I don’t think it really matters.
Oh my gosh… just tried banana soft serve for the first time and it’s AMAZING!!! Thank you for introducing me to it, Katie! I can’t believe bananas can do that, and become ice cream! 😀 very happy bunny as this is not too difficult eating-disorder-recovery food 🙂