Single Serve Chocolate Nicecream
June 17, 2017 by Nicole Collins
I promised you a sweet recipe today, and I'm going to deliver.
But, I also promised you that we were going to eat healthy for a little while. And, I'm not breaking that promise either!
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kelli was in town for a wedding; and she asked me to babysit her son, Grant. Now, confession time for a sec. I used to babysit all of the time in my teenage years. But as an adult, the only lives that I've had to be responsible for are canine ones (and myself, of course). I was a little nervous about how I was going to keep a 1 ½ year old alive and entertained at the same time.
So, I decided to stick with what I know, and I came up with the gameplan to make some kind of dessert with Grant. Of course, I wanted to run that past Kelli, and she let me know that she doesn't really give him sweets. She also told me he'd never had chocolate before.
Now, I was never planning on loading him up with sugar then passing him back to his parents and heading for the hills. (Side note...love the side eye he's giving me in that last pic. Like "Are we telling mom about this?") But, I needed a plan that would make Grant and Kelli happy, and most traditional desserts were not going to cut it. I thought back to this treat I'd seen called “nicecream” and figured if I added a little cocoa powder to it, Grant could have his chocolate, and Kelli would appreciate me feeding him something that was all natural.
So, this recipe is legit “kid tested and mother approved”.
Making nicecream could not be more simple. You take some REALLLLLLLLLY super duper ripe bananas, chop them in to quarters, freeze them, then run them through the food processor. That's it. Since the bananas are so ripe (like banana bread ripe), they're really sweet. The texture is like soft serve ice cream. And it tastes a lot like vanilla ice cream with a hint of banana. It's not overwhelming banana flavor at all.
But, to make this special for Grant, I added some cocoa powder, some peanut butter, and the tiniest drop of vanilla. Cocoa powder can be a little bitter because it's unsweetened, and we don't add any more sweeteners to this nicecream. That would defeat the whole purpose of making a healthy dessert. The peanut butter helps fill out the rich luxurious flavor that we crave from chocolate. And, the vanilla kinda acts like a sweetener. It just rounds out the flavor. But the vanilla is totally optional.
What I learned from making this with Grant is that this is best served right away. If you put it back in the freezer for any more than a half hour, it gets hard. Not like regular ice cream vs. soft ice cream hard. But frozen fruit hard. Which is a good thing. Because that's what it is. So, I scaled it back a little bit which is why we're working with a single serve recipe today. It's like the nicecream knows that it's healthy, so it has a fail safe built in to make sure we don't eat too much. Can't be mad about that.
I also learned that Grant loves chocolate nicecream! Excuse me while I go put a check in the “Auntie of the Year” column!
So, enjoy this guilt free sweet treat. You've earned it! And we'll be back to our regularly scheduled healthy eating shortly. Oh wait...we never left!
Let's eat!
Single Serve Chocolate Nicecream
Serves: 1 Print
Ingredients:
1 very ripe banana, quartered and frozen
½ tbsp cocoa powder
½ tbsp peanut butter
1/8 tsp vanilla (optional)
Directions:
Place frozen banana chunks in a blender or small food processor. Process until it looks like the banana has turned to rice. Scrape down the sides. Process again until smooth.
Add cocoa powder, peanut butter, and vanilla. Process until combined. Serve immediately, or place in the freezer for up to a half hour before serving.
Recipe notes:
*I keep a bag of frozen bananas in my freezer at all times for smoothies, and now for nicecream! When the bananas are very ripe (more black on the skin than yellow), peel and chop them in to quarters. Space them out individually on a plate or or tray, and place them in the freezer. After a few hours when they're completely frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag until ready to use. Freezing them separately keeps them from clumping together in the bag and being frozen with an undetachable buddy.
*You could replace the vanilla extract for another flavor to switch this up a bit. Mint extract would be yum! Or coconut extract mmm. Just a drop though. A little goes a long way.
