Banana Ice Cream

When in doubt, add machinery.

I have three different gizmos to mow the lawn. The trimmer mower for everything that's hard to get to. The weed whipper/edger for all the weeds that need whipping and for the edging. I also have a riding mower, a leftover from the days when we lived in Minnesota.

All these things are supposed to make the process of lawn care easier and faster. For the most part they do, unless I include all the time it takes to fill, clean and generally maintain the various moving parts. If you throw in the time it takes to clean and repair myself from the various bits of sticks, leaves and weed whipper strings that come flying off, well I'm not so sure I've made any real time gains.

That's a lesson I should have remembered before I actually bought the ice cream maker attachment for the KitchenAid mixer. OK, in truth I was buying the pasta roller-cutter attachment and they threw in the ice cream stuff for something like $10. Never pass up machinery when it's on sale.

I'm suspecting the main reason the attachment was on special is because the dang thing doesn't actually stay attached to anything. Sure, the bowl cools down to something approaching absolute zero - it's so cold I swear you could entomb a herd of wooly mammoth for a few centuries in this thing.

The bowl is not the problem. The problem is the worthless paddle attachment that connects the mixer motor to the paddle and therefore mixes the ice cream. Everything was fine, at first, however, once the batter started to thicken it was popping off every 30 seconds. The instructions said to churn the batter for 10 - 15 minutes; I gave up after 5 minutes and 6 detachments. No wonder they threw it in for $10.

Well if you have an ice cream maker that works, either electric or hand crank, here's a quick and tasty recipe. I'll warn you though, don't let the bananas thaw too much or they completely liquify and become impossible to work with. Otherwise, please enjoy...

Banana Ice Cream

adapted from Alton Brown

1 Ice Cream Maker

6 - 8 ripe bananas (about 2 - 2 1/2 pounds)

1 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice

3/4 cup light corn syrup

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Place the bananas in the freezer overnight.

Thaw the bananas for no more than 45 minutes.

Peel the bananas and put the flesh into a food processor. Add the lemon juice and process for 15 - 30 seconds.

Add the corn syrup and vanilla extract. Process until well combined.

With the processor running, slowly add the heavy cream. Process until smooth.

Chill the batter in the refrigerator until it drops to about 40 degrees, 30 - 45 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions, with my mixer attachment this took about 7 - 10 minutes.

Place the mixture in an air tight re-sealable container. I cover the mixture with a sheet of plastic wrap and then seal the container, squeezing out as much air as possible.

Freeze for 3 to 6 hours prior to serving.

Serving suggestions: toasted almonds, caramel sauce, whipped cream, any of the usual stuff you put on ice cream.

OK crablings, I'm done with the ice cream experiment at least until I forget how aggravated I was by this one. The sad thing is that the ice cream came out great, ah well, maybe next time...

Until next time, remember, you can do it , you can cook.