Ice Cream & Iced Tea: End-of-Summer Goodness

how cool is that ice cube??

I'm including my iced tea in my post solely because of the cool accidental diagonal ice cube that takes up a good portion of the bottom of my glass.  Earlier in the day I was drinking iced water, then shoved the alomst-empty glass into the freezer at an angle to stay cold (diagonal was the only way it would fit, nestled between random frozen treats and smoothie fruit).  I made a decaf irish breakfast cup of tea that I had put in the fridge earlier, and poured it over my awesome accidental ice cube.  Sipping it, I decided to procrastinate on my afternoon run and instead make one of my new obsessions, ice cream to really celebrate the summer.

Let me clarify.  By ice cream, I mean soft serve, and by soft serve, I mean banana soft serve.  The original banana soft serve I made was cacao espresso, but was too liquid-y, so I had to freeze, resulting in a less-than-ideal texture.  While still yummy once slightly softened, it was no soft serve, so I tried again today, resulting in the creamy deliciousness that was this delicate foamy banana soft serve.  Strong with vanilla, the banana flavor was subtle yet sweet, and it tasted absolutely decadent.  I could probably live off of this treat.

This recipe can be made simply with a food processor.  It'll be good though not as thick as traditional soft serve, so chilling it for 10-15 additional minutes may be required.  If you are lucky like me, and own a pink Cuisinart soft serve machine (Thank you, mother-in-law!), then not only will you get the delicious taste and texture of real soft serve, you'll also have the fun experience of twirling the cream around in a cone or bowl, and even adding in any mix-ins of your choosing.

Banana Vanilla Soft Serve

Ingredients:

3-4 frozen bananas
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/3 can coconut milk, chilled (leave it in the fridge for several hours until thick/cold)
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla coconut milk
1/3 cup plain coconut yogurt

Directions:

Puree above ingredients in a food processor, then add to the soft serve machine and let it run 10-20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.

If you do not have an ice cream machine, use just the processor, though you may need an additional frozen banana (or two).

twirl the cone or bowl underneath the spout to achieve the "DQ" look