Funky Monkey - Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Chocolate and Salted Pecans

Blueberries, raspberries and all manner of stone fruits hog all the glory this time of year.

Who can resist?

But don't forget our friend, the banana.

Who's there for you in the dead of winter, when berries are pale and overpriced?

Who makes a homey muffin or comforting bread, companion to morning coffee in March?

And whose sunny yellow color cheers up a dark kitchen any time of year?

The banana! That's who!

So even though those other fruits are dazzling and flirty, I used bananas to make something truly awesome yesterday.  Let's call it Funky Monkey, just for fun.

 But what it really is - 

Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Chocolate and Salted Pecans.

Yes, it's as delightful as it sounds. 

Roasting the bananas with brown sugar brings out a depth of flavor you never knew existed. Add a streak of dark chocolate just as the ice cream finishes churning. Then stir in some salted pecans. You'll get that irresistible sweet/salty/savory thing going.

The base of this recipe is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, which as I have mentioned before, is the best ice cream making guide ever.  I used his straciatella method for adding the chocolate, which goes like this:

Melt 5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, either in a saucepan set over a bowl of simmering water or carefully, in short intervals in a microwave. Drizzle a very thin stream of the warm chocolate into 1 quart of ice cream during the last possible moment of churning. If the chocolate clings too much to the dasher,

remove the ice cream from the machine and drizzle the chocolate in by hand, while you layer it in a storage container, breaking up any chunks while you stir.

This method results in streaks of chocolate, rather than chunks, making it a bit more elegant. 

Plus it's really cool.

If you don't have an ice cream maker yet, what are you waiting for?

Funky Monkey Ice Cream, adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

3 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 Tbsp. butter, salted or unsalted

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 Tbsps. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsps. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 

1/2 cup salted pecans (I used some from Trader Joe's)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the bananas into 1/2" pieces, toss them with the brown sugar and butter and place them in a baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes, stirring once, until the bananas are browned and soft.

Scrape the bananas and any syrup from the baking dish into a food processor or blender. Add the milk, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Process until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

At the end of the churning, when ice cream is thick and increased in volume, add the chocolate as described above. Remove ice cream from machine and stir in pecans. 

It'll be delicious right away, but if you want to store it in the freezer, be aware that it might be harder to scoop the next day. David offers some hints for softening homemade ice cream here.

I put it in the microwave for 20 seconds and that worked for me just fine.

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Strawberry Sorbet

You may have heard all my whining and complaining about it being mid-June and I was still without a local strawberry.

Unable to get into the Wednesday farmers market, I took a short drive to Pineland Farm.  This gem in the rolling hills of New Gloucester is a 5000 (that's right - five thousand) acre working farm, a business campus, an equestrian center and outdoor recreational facility (snowshoeing! mountain biking! tennis!).
And it's all non-profit.
But that's beside the point.

The point being - strawberries.

Fresh, local, sweet strawberry perfection.
Trying not to be too gluttonous, I only bought two quarts.
The first quart was eaten as is, which is the way the first berries of the season should always be eaten.

What to do with the second quart?
Something simple, that heightens the berry flavor.
I was very tempted by The Amateur Gourmet's Strawberry Shortcake, but since I wasn't having any company, I was afraid I'd end up eating the whole thing myself.
I'm thinking of making it for the Fourth of July though.

I looked to my cookbook shelf and spied The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.
Last summer I made an amazing gelato from this ice cream creation bible and it was, without a doubt, the best thing I ate all summer.

His recipe for strawberry sorbet looked like another winner.
And it was.
Not just because it tasted like the very essence of strawberry-ness, frozen. But also because it was so easy and quick that absolutely anyone with an ice cream maker could produce it handily.
Thank you David - you are an ice cream (and sorbet) genius.

Strawberry Sorbet
from the Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz


1 lb. fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

pinch of salt

Slice the strawberries (if they're large) and toss them with the sugar in a medium bowl. Stir until the sugar starts to dissolve. Cover and let stand for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Place strawberries and their liquid in the bowl of a food processor, or blender. Add lemon juice and salt. Process until smooth.
Return mixture to bowl and place in refrigerator until very cold, about 2 hours. Then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. To make the sorbet firmer, store in a plastic container in the freezer for several hours.

Pop on Over for Breakfast

You may have heard this before: I am a big fan of having dessert after breakfast.
Not everyday, mind you. This would be foolish and self-defeating.

But on Sundays it's a nice treat and an excuse to bake something.
Breakfast dessert isn't like dinner dessert.
It shouldn't be gooey or too chocolate-y (a little is good) or too rich.
Something sweet and light is just right after your bacon and eggs.

This weekend I made sugar-crusted popovers, inspired by a post by David Lebovitz. I love his blog and his cookbooks. You probably would too.
I made his gelato last summer and I think it was the best thing I made all year!

The popovers are waaaay easier than the gelato. I had them in the oven in about 5 minutes.

Sugar-Crusted Popovers
adapted from David Lebovitz


For the popovers:

2 Tbsps. butter, melted

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsps. sugar

1 cup flour

additional softened butter for greasing pan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease a nonstick popover pan or 9 wells of a muffin tin (with 1/2 cup indentations), with softened butter. Place 2 Tbsps. melted butter, eggs, milk, salt and sugar in a blender and blend for a few seconds. Add the flour and whiz for about 10 seconds more, just until smooth.

Divide the batter among the 9 greased molds, filling each 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the popovers are golden brown all over.

Remove from the oven. When popovers are cool enough to handle, remove from pan and set on a cooling rack. You may need a small knife to help get them out.

For the sugar coating:

Mix 2/3 cup sugar with 1 tsp. ground cinnamon. Melt 1/4 cup butter.
Brush melted butter all over each popover, then dredge it in cinnamon sugar, coating them completely.
Let cool on a wire rack.


The Best Thing I Ate All Week

Mixed berries with grapefruit zabaglione. So simple. But the flavor of the zabaglione is a real wow! with the berries. A perfect dessert, after dinner or breakfast.
Find the recipe here.
What's the best thing you ate all week?

Gianduja Stracciatella Gelato

Say "jyan-do-ah stra-cha-te-la".

That's a mouthful, isn't it?

And oh what a mouthful it is!
Creamy nutty cold smoothness punctuated with streaks of bittersweet chocolate.
As they say in Italy, squisito.

I made this incredible gelato yesterday, using a recipe from my most recent cookbook purchase, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. David, a former pastry chef, has an enviable life in Paris - baking, cooking, blogging, writing, eating. Can't think of much that's better than that!

It was a steamy day and I craved something sweet and chilly. A popsicle just wasn't going to do it.
Looking through the book, there were so many choices, but this one caught my eye. It sounded a lot like Nutella, which as you know, is a favorite in our house.

You will need an ice cream maker of course. I've been using this Cuisinart model for years. It's inexpensive and so easy even a child can do it. ( I have often encouraged this, but she hasn't taken the hint yet.)

Making this gelato is a bit more complicated than your average ice cream recipe. There's quite a few saucepans involved, a couple of bowls, more than one strainer, toasting of nuts and some waiting time.
But I promise you, it's worth it!

Be sure to use the good stuff.
The best chocolate you can find (I used Black & Green, plus Scharffen Berger) and real dairy cream (try to find something local that hasn't had thickeners added).

The coolest ( and most delizioso) thing about this is the straciatella, which are the streaks of chocolate. It's the idea of chocolate chips but in a sophisticated Italian style. I'd had them before in vanilla gelato, but I never knew how it was made. Actually it's the simplest part of the recipe. See below for instructions.

Gianduja Gelato with stracciatella,

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (see note)

1 cup whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. sea salt, or other coarse salt

4 oz. milk chocolate, finely chopped

5 large egg yolks

Place toasted, skinned hazelnuts in a food processor and finely chop.

In a saucepan, warm the milk with 1 cup of the cream, sugar and salt. Once warm, remove from the heat and add chopped hazelnuts to the saucepan. Cover, and let sit for an hour at room temperature.

Put the milk chocolate pieces in a large bowl. In another saucepan, heat the remaining cup of cream just until it boils. Pour the cream over the milk chocolate and stir until it's completely melted and smooth. Set a mesh strainer over the top then place the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and cold water.

Pour the hazelnut-infused mixture through a strainer into a medium saucepan, pressing on the nuts firmly, making sure to extract as much of the liquid as you can. Discard the hazelnuts.

Rewarm this mixture gently. (How do you know when it's just warm? Stick your finger in it.)

In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the warm hazelnut-milk mixture into the egg yolks, then scrape the whole thing back into the saucepan.

Place the saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Now, pour the custard through the strainer that's placed over the milk chocolate and stir it in until well-combined and cooled. (I had to press on it quite a bit with the spatula to help it through the strainer.)

Chill the mixture thoroughly in your refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

To make the stracciatella, melt 5 oz. finely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate in a bowl set in a saucepan of simmering water (or a double boiler). Stir until it is completely smooth.

To add it to the gelato, drizzle the warm chocolate in a very thin stream directly into the ice cream maker, while it is still running, but just at the very last moment before it is done. You'll be able to see it harden into chocolate streaks.

You may want to eat it all at this very moment.

Go ahead, at least lick the dasher.

But put the rest in a plastic container and freeze for at least an hour or so.

If you can.

Note: To toast hazelnuts, preheat oven to 350. Spread the nuts in an even layer on a baking sheet.

Bake the nuts for 10-15 minutes, stirring them once or twice while baking so they toast evenly. Let them cool completely before using in a recipe.

To skin the hazelnuts, rub them, while still warm, inside a clean dishtowel. This will remove much of the papery skin. Don't worry about getting it all off.