Banana Fudge Swirl Ice Cream (AIP, Vegan, Paleo)

I love musicals.

Nothing like a pile of total randomness to start a good conversation.

I saw my first professional musical earlier this year. It was The Sound of Music, and it was unbelievably amazingly fantastic.
My awesome aunt just took three of my cousins, my mom, and me to see Matilda the Musical, and it was unbelievably amazingly awesomely fantastic.

Alright, let me get to the point. I’m in a musical right now myself (Beauty and the Beast!). So I’m super busy, right? That’s my excuse for not writing in, like, a month.

Yep. Always gotta keep comin’ back to the excuses.

Really bad quality pic of me playing Ida in HONK!, the musical I was previously in (also my first musical ever)

Anyway, on the subject of that fudge-y banana-y wonderfulness I mentioned earlier, this stuff is three (or four) ingredient awesomeness. Perfect for the 4th! It’s basically banana ice cream swirled with gooey fudge.

Yeah, I know. You can save the thanks for after you try it.

It’s really easy, actually.
Blend up a bunch of frozen bananas: I did something around six or seven. Vanilla would also be awesome, but I am actually out of it (yes, I know, sadness.) so no one will die if you don’t use it (probably).

Once you get an awesome creamy dreamy mess, you’ll want to eat it all right then and there out of the blender.

Now you understand why I don’t like it when recipes tell me that I’ll ‘want to’ do this or that. What if I don’t??!!!

Ahem.

When you get creamy banana ice cream, I highly recommend that you make a fudge sauce to swirl with it, because that makes it even more amazing.

To make the fudgey-ness, stir together maple syrup and carob powder. That’s not too hard, right?

Then, dump in your ‘ice cream’.

Now swirl it all together!  And watch as it becomes the beautiful self it was always destined to be.

Oh man, I’m getting emotional now….
It’s just so beautiful. 😉

Be really careful not to over-mix! Don’t let it be over-mixed, but don’t under-mix it either. To be sure that it’s not over or under mixed, it might be a good idea to take a spoonful out to see how it’s swirled in the middle. Not that anyone would consider eating that spoonful, of course. That’s just crazy… right?

SWIRLIES!!!

I’m just going to keep inventing words, ‘kay?

Anyway, once you get those swirls just right, you can either eat it now or be patient and chuck it in the freezer for a while so it can harden into a … well… harder ice cream.

Before freezer…

pretty soft…

and after freezer…

Okay, it’s still pretty soft… I only froze it for about an hour (i guess I’m not very patient). But there’s your finished product!

Ingredients:

Several very ripe bananas, frozen
Vanilla, to taste (optional)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup carob powder

Place bananas and optional vanilla into a blender and puree completely (see notes). Pour maple syrup and carob into a large bowl and stir well until combined. Add banana mixture and swirl together, being careful not to over-mix. If desired, place in freezer for a couple hours to harden.

Notes:
You need a moderately good blender for this recipe. I have a Vitamix, but I suppose a not-as-fancy blender might work, if you stopped a lot to scrape down the sides. It would likely also work with a food processor, if you had a nice-ish one.

Enjoy! (: