Banana Swirl

When children's books guide your cooking

Owing to my exhaustion and my overstuffed inbox, I’m bringing you an abbreviated missive today, but no less delicious.

I’m just returning from a glorious and exhausting week in NYC. We saw great friends and ate delicious meals at Cervo’s, Gem Wine, and Sailor. I had a nice schvitz at the Russian & Turkish Baths. We saw Stop Making Sense in IMAX on a cold and rainy day, and we drank way way way way too much. It’s nice to be home and back into our routine — less Negronis and more Ghia Spritz, Athletic Brewing, and lots of water.

Tonight, we’re even going to a sound bath after dinner. Wellness wins!

And with that in mind, I want to share with you the dessert I’ve been making at our house, inspired by a Daniel Tiger story I read with my son. It’s called “Banana Swirl.” This is a healthful banana ice cream with no dairy and no sugar, but you wouldn’t know it. It is truly and genuinely delicious - and healthy!

This recipe presupposes you’re keeping frozen bananas on hand. In our house we buy twice the bananas we need, and when one bunch is well covered in brown spots and past their prime, we peel them, wrap each banana in plastic wrap, and store it in the freezer. These little parcels are great for smoothies, a healthy popsicle (one of our son’s favorite treats) or for to use in our Banana Swirl.

To start you’ll want to pull your frozen bananas and roughly chop them. I use one banana per person.

Toss these in the food processor:

And blend! It will be loud, and the bananas will seem more like a crumbly, dry mixture at first. Just let the processor do the work.

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Once it’s nicely chopped, open up the processor and add a nice dose of cinnamon - about 1.5 teaspoons per banana. Then add a large scoop of your favorite peanut butter. This is mine. And drizzle in a bit of vanilla extract, then turn it back on.

While it spins, you can add a small stream of water to help get everything going. Better to add less, slowly, as you want a thick ice cream consistency:

To serve, we like it in little pewter mugs.

From where I’m sitting, this is just as good as a bowl of ice cream. The fact that it is vegan and sugar-free is more of a happy accident.

Enjoy, friends.