I heard/read somewhere (though I have no idea where) that frozen bananas can make a great substitute for ice cream if you pulse it in a food processor for a minute or two until it is a custard-y texture.  And it absolutely tastes like ice cream, particularly if you love Chunky Monkey Ice Cream.  I like to add chopped pecans, coconut and (sometimes) chocolate chips to mine.  A teaspoon or so of Nutella mixed in the food processor is pretty fantastic too!

In a perfect world, I would have used macadamia nuts too, but all I had were pecans.  These smelled absolutely amazing while they were cooking, but I was the only one who actually liked them.  Who doesn’t like banana waffles and coconut syrup?!  My two Picky Apples, that’s who.  Admittedly, they were a little floppy (somewhat remedied by toasting in the toaster), and I will definitely cut back on the banana next time.  But don’t let that stop you from trying these.  Great flavors in both the waffles and the syrup!

Banana Waffles

from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• nuts, shredded coconut, and sliced bananas for topping (optional)

Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vanilla, vegetable oil and bananas.  Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.  Preheat waffle iron.  Pour or scoop the batter onto the waffle iron, using approximately 1/3 cup for each waffle. Cook until golden brown on both sides; serve hot.  (You can also make them crispier by toasting them in the toaster before serving.)  Top with Coconut Syrup, nuts, sliced bananas and shredded coconut, if using.

Coconut Syrup

recipe by me!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Serve warm with Banana Waffles.

Banana Crumb Cake

recipe from Good Housekeeping, December 2010

Makes 12 servings

Coconut-Pecan Topping:

• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp.  ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Banana Cake:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp.  baking soda
• 1/2 tsp.  ground cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp. butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp pure honey
• 2 lg eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup mashed bananas (from 3 very ripe medium bananas)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Prepare Coconut-Pecan Topping: In medium bowl, combine pecans, coconut, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  With pastry blender or 2 knives used scissors-fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, with a few pea-size chunks remaining.

Prepare Banana Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9-inch springform pan; line bottom with parchment paper and grease parchment.  In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until well blended.  In a large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat butter, sugar, and honey until light and creamy, about 5 minutes., scraping bowl occasionally.  Gradually add eggs, beating after each addition.  On low speed, add half of flour mixture, then mashed bananas and vanilla. Add remaining flour mixture and beat just until smooth.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.  Sprinkle with crumb topping.  Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan on wire rack 10 minutes.  With small metal spatula, loosen cake from side of pan and remove  Cool completely.  (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature up to 1 day.)

I was inspired to try again recently when The Littlest Apple developed an addiction to ice cream in the last month or so.  Most mommies might cringe at this, but we have wholeheartedly embraced this love of ice cream.  He has ice cream daily, and has come to expect it.  You see, The Littlest Apple is still very small for his age (like, off the charts low weight) due to several factors I won’t delve into here….but his extreme pickiness isn’t helping. Per doctor and dietician orders, we are to feed him all the heavy cream, oil, butter, sugar in the land.  Ice cream?  Bring it on!  Have seconds, even! When I look for ice cream at the store, I look for the highest fat and calorie content I can find.  This is usually the Ben & Jerry’s or the Haagan Daaz (you know, the GOOD ones).  But I’m never able to buy those because The Littlest Apple has an egg allergy (yet another contributing factor…the food allergies), and all the Ben and Jerry’s and Haagan Daaz flavors have egg.  So, I came up with a few recipes for homemade ice cream with no egg and busted out my ice cream maker.

This, my first attempt satisfied The Picky Apple’s desire for a banana ice cream sans nuts and other chunks, and gave me another option for The Littlest Apple.  It was easy to mix and tasted super banana-y.  We’ll definitely be making this one again!

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

adapted from Joy The Baker

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces Cool Whip (1/2 of an 8ounce container)
• 7 ounces sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of a 14 ounce can)
• 1/2 gallon milk
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) package Jello Banana Cream Instant Pudding
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 bananas (mashed)

In a bowl mix cool whip, condensed milk, banana pudding and about 1/2 of the half gallon of milk.  Add chopped bananas.

Pour mixture into an ice cream maker.  With machine on, pour in the rest of the half gallon of milk.  (It took less than half a gallon to fill my ice cream maker.)

Stir the mixture and begin freezing according the manufacturers instructions.

Remove very soft ice cream and place in a freezer friendly plastic container.    Serve with slice bananas and vanilla wafers.  (Or leave out the vanilla wafers if you’ve got an egg allergy!)

This week we wound up with quite a few ripe bananas that needed to be used asap.  The Littlest Apple appears to be sick of bananas.  Well, not just bananas.  Bananas and everything else under the sun!  Yes indeed, he has become the reigning Picky Apple in our house, and he’s still a few weeks shy of his first birthday!  I scoured the internets looking for something new and different to try with my bananas and came across this recipe for Bananas Foster Crumb Cake that I bookmarked on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  She’s always baking up something amazing, and her photos are gorgeous, so be sure to check it out!

I left out the alcohol, only because I didn’t have the right stuff on hand.  Shameful, I know!  The cake turned out great, though I may have over-blended the bananas into the batter.  One other tip: when she says to put a cookie sheet under the pan, don’t ignore that part!  My pan overflowed a bit and my kitchen is still stinky from those burned bits.  I would also recommend serving with caramel sauce (which we did not)…you can see my slice of cake below looking lonely and forlorn without his caramel sauce.  You can find the recipe here.

Banana Crumb Muffins

from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

The smell of banana bread baking is one of my favorite kitchen smells.  But my banana bread was always so….boring, especially since Nathan normally doesn’t like nuts or “chunk” type add ins.  Me, I’m all for them.  In the world of ice cream, for example, I gravitate towards Ben & Jerry’s chunkerrific ice creams, while Nathan would likely pick plain vanilla or chocolate.  One Sunday morning several years ago, we saw Ina Garten make this recipe on The Barefoot Contessa.  I thought “Wow, those muffins sure look tasty”, and my husband AGREED!  He agreed even though they’ve got lots going on.   If Ben & Jerry made muffins they would look like these.  So after some experimenting and changes to suit my husbands….er….Picky-ness, a favorite muffin recipe was born. These muffins get their “crunch” from granola, coconut, and banana chips.

Banana Crunch Muffins

adapted from this recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 bananas)
• 1 cup granola
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Dried banana chips, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Line 18 large muffin cups with paper liners. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, and add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don’t overmix.

Fold the granola and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each 1 to the top. Top each muffin with dried banana chips, if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.

Picky Apple Note:

• The “crunch” of the granola and banana chips fades pretty quickly, so these are best eaten in the first day or two.
• The original recipe calls for a cup of walnuts, which I omitted.  I’m sure either walnuts or pecans would be delicious and add to the “crunch.”