Growing up, my mom didn’t have a big sweet tooth, but she did love chunky monkey ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s, so we almost always had that in the house. I haven’t had it in years, but for some reason I got a craving for it the other day. I decided to put healthy spin on it and came up with this guilt free chunky monkey ice cream recipe, or in other words “nice cream”.
You may have heard about nice cream before. To make nice cream, you pulverize bananas into an ice cream consistency. It’s always delicious, but in my experience you either have to eat it right away or let it sit out and soften a bit once it’s frozen because the bananas get rock hard. I decided to use science to create a guilt free chunky monkey ice cream that stayed soft and creamy while in the freezer. The answer is simple: vodka! It’s only a little bit so you don’t taste it, but the alcohol keeps the bananas from freezing solid in the freezer.
Guilt Free Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Ingredients:
- 3 ripe bananas (not overripe or totally black, but they can have brown spots on them)
- 2 teaspoons vodka
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 teaspoons maple syrup (depending on how sweet you want it)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Start by slicing and freezing the bananas. This is a great way to use up bananas that are getting too ripe. I slice them and freeze them on a cookie sheet so they don’t stick together, then you can use them once frozen or stick them in a container in the freezer until you’re ready for them.
Add the frozen bananas, vodka, vanilla, and maple syrup to the bowl of a food processor or high powered blender, and blend until the bananas turn into a smooth and creamy ice cream consistency. This will take a few minutes and it will be loud, but worth it. You may have to scoop down the sides of the food processor or blender to redistribute the bananas a couple of times. Just keep blending until all the bananas are blended and there are no little chunks.
Once the mixture is completely smooth, transfer to another bowl and mix in the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. From there, transfer to a freezer friendly container and freeze for about four hours. This guilt free chunky monkey ice cream is a perfect treat to stay cool in the heat!