peanut butter & banana ice cream sandwiches
Don’t you just love when food gets all magical on you?
I’m fascinated by watching yeast bloom, or egg whites transform into meringue.
But when I read I could watch frozen bananas turn into ice cream, it just sounded too good to be true.
It also sounded delicious, so I set out to try it.
It’s literally chopped up, briefly frozen banana thrown into a food processor, and yet it creates a creamy soft-serve-esque banana dream. I was overjoyed!
Apparently this is something vegans and the rest of the internet have been hip to for years, but this was totally new territory for me.
And since it was healthy territory… I had to fatten it up a bit. Just a little!
So, naturally, I added toasted coconut to the bananas. And sandwiched it between peanut butter cookies. And drizzled them with chocolate…
…What?
Don’t look at me like that. You would do the same thing.
You SHOULD do the same thing!
Any combination of bananas, peanut butter, chocolate and coconut… and I lose it. This has ALL of them. And fancy salt for good measure.
I highly suggest giving some of these away to friends and family. They’ll love you for it, and you’ll hate yourself less because you won’t be allowed to eat all 20 of them! Everybody wins.
peanut butter & banana ice cream sandwiches
The cookies for this recipe can easily be made ahead of time. When it comes to assembling the sandwiches, I recommend doing so right after making the banana ice cream. When it comes out of the food processor it's the perfect consistency for sandwich making.
ingredients
3 1/2 cups banana coconut ice cream (recipe follows)
40 small peanut butter cookies (recipe follows)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
fleur de sel or other flaky salt, for sprinkling
method
Place half the cookies face down on a baking sheet. Top each with a large spoonful of ice cream, and then another cookie. Put the pan into the freezer for about 30 minutes to set the ice cream.
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate. Put half the chips in a bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted. Stir in the other half of the chocolate until melted, then stir in the espresso powder. Transfer the chocolate to a plastic bag.
When the sandwiches have set, snip a tiny bit off one corner of the plastic bag. Working a few sandwiches at a time, drizzle them with chocolate and sprinkle with the salt. It's important to alternate these two tasks, otherwise the chocolate will start to freeze onto the cookies and the salt won't stick to it. Put the sandwiches back into the freezer for 30 minutes or so for the ice cream to set fully. To store for longer, wrap each sandwich individually in plastic wrap, then put them in a large plastic bag in the freezer.
Yields: 20 sandwichesPrint
banana coconut ice cream
Adapted slightly from The Kitchn
ingredients
7 bananas
1/3 cup toasted sweetened coconut
method
Peel the bananas and cut into chunks. Place on a plate and freeze for 1-2 hours. (If freezing longer, let them sit out for 15 minutes or so before processing.) Blend the bananas in a food processor, scraping down the sides often, until a smooth, creamy mixture forms. Add the coconut and pulse until combined.
Yields: 3 1/2 cups ice creamPrint
peanut butter cookies
Adapted slightly from Betty Crocker's Cookbook
These are the peanut butter cookies my mom always made when I was little. Therefore, they're the best this world has to offer. :)
ingredients
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I use butter flavored vegetable shortening)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
method
Mix sugars, shortening, peanut butter, vanilla and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Shape dough into balls a little bigger than 1 inch. Place a couple inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork dipped in flour. Bake 10-12 minutes.
Yields: 40 cookies