SpiceDish Saturday {December}: Banana Spice Snap

Last month we started SpiceDish Saturday. Can't believe a month has gone by, but it has! I think the picture to the left is proof that we need not wait another minute to make this ice cream -- it looks SO yummy! So I will stop talking and give to you another recipe from the Ab Fab EB...AFEB...hmmm....

Call it a sign of the economic times, but I find that most of my recipes lately consist of leftovers or pantry items that I try to stretch as far as possible. This ice cream was no different.... and surprisingly led to great tasting results. Trying to rid myself of at least a few of the dozens of frozen bananas I have in the freezer, I decided to make banana ice cream. When making banana ice cream it's actually very important to use bananas that have been previously frozen (I could go into an Alton Brown like spiel here but lets just say it has to do with the formation of ice crystals and move on). I wanted to add some oomph to the banana with spices because, well, I love spice ice cream so I added ginger and then one upped the spice factor with a few crumbled ginger snaps I had sitting in the pantry. This is a surprisingly rich, creamy and decadent ice cream that also happens to be pretty easy to put together! Enjoy.


Banana Spice Snap

3/4 cup whole milk
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 ½ cups mashed banana that has been frozen and thawed (fresh banana will turn into frozen ice chunks!)
1 cup ginger snaps, broken in pieces
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 dash nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

Warm the milk, sugar and ginger in a saucepan. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat. Pour cream into a bowl and set a strainer on top of the bowl. In another bowl, whisk yolks. Add a few tbsp's of the milk to the yolks and whisk. Slowly add rest of the milk while whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into saucepan. Heat on medium. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Be sure to stir constantly so eggs don't harden. Pour the mixture, through the strainer, into the cream. Stir in well mushed banana and vanilla. (For a smoother texture, blend in blender). Cool over ice, then put in the fridge to cool completely. When cold, freeze in ice cream mixer (according to directions). 5 minutes before finished, add cookie pieces. If soft, ripen in the freezer for a few hours.

Thanks, AFEB!

P.S. Check out SpiceDish's site for some "Rubberized Awesomeness" -- totally up our alley. Really, this is rated G, people (as my friend Ashu would say).