Nice cream

"Don't toss out overripe bananas - freeze them! Ripe bananas have a caramelised flavour perfect for nice cream." Coles Magazine

In the latest edition of Coles Magazine - always an inspiration as you know - they have a section on 'Nice Cream', which, it turns out, is just frozen bananas mushed and whipped up in a blender. And then of course you have fun adding all sorts of stuff.

This was a new idea to me - what do I know after all? And not particularly tempting either - I mean overripe bananas. Ugh. But then I though of banana cake which is really nice, so I investigated further. The picture above is of the basic banana nice cream and below is a video of how to make it from a somewhat perky American young lady, who is marginally annoying, but actually is full of little tips as you go along. Read her article too because that has even more tips and helpful pictures.

So that's the basic thing - how to make it that is. But is this new?

Well not to the Americans I think. They seem to think it's been around since the early 2000s, but then that's where all the health food thing seems to come from and this is a vegan thing. No dairy products or animal stuff in this. Just bananas, and maybe some kind of milk to make it blend easier. Though the milk the vegans use of course is not milk but almond milk or any of those other 'milks' I talked about a while back. Non vegans can, of course, use milk - or even cream.

The English barely seem to mention nice milk, and the Australian website Taste only seems to have Coles recipes, so maybe Coles is a trailblazer here. But then I know next to nothing about the vegan scene here in Australia and for all I know it's been big here for a long time anyway.

Anyway I could find no inkling who first thought of doing this - it will have to remain a mystery. The lady with the video says she doesn't like bananas but she is able to cover the taste with other things. She also maintained that she always has bananas in the freezer - and if you only have an 'ordinary' blender, you need to chop the bananas into smallish bits, and try to keep them separate in the freezer. No messing about with an ice-cream machine - it's already frozen and can be served immediately. The consistency is like a soft ice-cream I believe. And then, of course you can do all sorts of things with it.

Here are some of Coles' ideas.

The healthy breakfast bowl thing is shown here in a Strawberry version. You freeze the strawberries too and then put it in bowls with all the other healthy things you might like to add. This one looks a bit pink to me, but it does have healthy oats as well.

Or try layering two different kinds of nice cream in a sundae glass and top with fruit and honey - they have a Raspberry and Rock Melon version of this.

The most tempting looking one for me was one they called Pina Colada Nice Cream which was made with pineapple and coconut.

And for the way out and slightly weird - there is Turmeric Chai Latte Nice Cream although why it has this name I don't know as there is no chai tea in it - just coffee powder.

As I say though, just Google 'nice cream' and you will get dozens and dozens of ideas.

I might try it because David has a tendency to buy too many bananas and they go off before we can eat them all often. So if you just freeze them at the right time you've got a dessert ready to go at any time.

It's just so American somehow and so health freaky. But then bananas are one of those super foods.