Homemade Banana Ice Cream.

"Homemade Banana Ice Cream" served with Fresh Banana Slices, Chocolate Sauce and Roasted Cashew nuts+ Melon Seeds ... long back I had read a book the name of which I forget, however, each time I enjoy a spoon of ice cream I am reminded of those wordings ... it said; Ice Cream is an therapy, when you are sad, reach out to that tub of Ice cream, sit and enjoy spoon by spoon and soon you will be lost to the world ... not sure how far it holds true, but it does trigger the brain to induce feeling of pleasure and happiness scoop after scoop ... Yummilicious ...

** This one is the easiest Ice Cream I have ever made, not that I have ventured much into preparing them, I think I should. Festive time brings in lots of fruits and I am really not sure what to do with them. Got to keep thinking to get something done which was not done before. Lots of bananas were getting ripened quickly before I could think much. I had already finished making Banana Cake and was just wondering what to next ?

** Opening of the cupboard brought into notice the milkmaid tin that was lying untouched for over a month due to hectic schedule. Just thought why not experiment something with it. Hubby loves Ice Cream, any flavour will do. So I decided to try Banana Ice Cream with Milkmaid and those ripened bananas. The Ice Cream really turned out great, soft in texture and full of banana flavour and rest is history.

** Here is my simple recipe for "Homemade Banana Ice Cream" ... my style ...

** Preparation of Banana Ice Cream : Peel off the skin of 3 large sized bananas and chop them to pieces. You should have about 3-4 cups of them. Put them into a mixie jar/ blender with one full tin of milkmaid (sweet evaporated milk of 400 gms) and 1 cup of sugar and run the mixer till the mixture is smooth. Now add in 200 ml of thick cream (I added Amul full fat cream), a few drops of vanilla essence and blend together.

** Remove and pour in an air tight container and put it in the freezer for 2-3 hours or until you see that it has begun to freeze. Remove and once again beat the mixture well with a electric beater to remove the water crystals if any. Off course there wont be any or maybe just some, but beating it will ensure a smooth texture. Put it back in the freezer and leave it there overnight. Remains good for more than a week.

** For Serving the Banana Ice Cream : While serving remove the Banana Ice Cream and keep it aside for 5-7 minutes which will enable you to remove it into a nice scoop. Meanwhile peel and cut into rounds one small sized fresh banana. Now put 2 scoops of the Ice Cream in a bowl and add in the banana pieces. Now top it with chocolate sauce and sprinkle some roasted nuts prepared before hand. 

** Note : I used Cavendish variety bananas for preparing the ice cream, however for serving I used the small ellaichi variety bananas (south Indian).  The chocolate sauce, milkmai, cream are all store bought, that's easily available in market. 

** For roasting of Cashew Nuts and Melon Seeds : I roasted both in microwave oven as I always get perfect results, you can use stove top too. 

** "Homemade Banana Ice Cream" is done and ready to be served. You can either serve it as mentioned above or serve it as it is in small serving bowls. Again, if your children like banana milk shake then you can top a scoop of this ice cream on top and serve with a generous topping of chocolate sauce, tastes great. 

** Though Ice Creams are avoided by calorie conscious people, just a spoon or two does not really harm much especially when its homemade. You can cut down on sugar a little bit if desired, though I would not, as the taste would be lost. Do include homemade ice creams to serve your family which is much better the store bought. 

** Store bought Ice creams are loaded with preservatives and flavor essence along with high fat ingredients and ice cream setting agents which is the real culprit. Homemade ones with addition of fruits are far better than those cream laden ones, so the next time you have fruits like banana, chickoo, plums etc. try preparing ice cream and enjoy.