Chocolate Banana Nice Cream

Jun 29, 20242 min read

Healthful Ice Cream

There are regular ice creams high in saturated fats and sugar. There are also low fat ice creams, frozen yogurts, and non-dairy coconut ice creams that still have some fat and sugar, and sometimes an undesired taste.

If you're looking for an ice cream that is actually healthful without added sugar or saturated fat, you're looking for what has been termed "nice" cream. It's frozen fruit whipped into a soft serve like consistency with whatever mix-ins and toppings you'd like.

The most commonly used fruit is the banana based on its natural creaminess. (You can also use avocado for the same reason.) When bananas start to brown, instead of using them for banana bread, you can cut them into smaller chunks and freeze them in a plastic freezer bag to make nice cream later.

The best part is that you do not need an ice cream maker nor a frozen fruit dessert machine. You can use a Vitamix, Ninja, or other high-powered blender. Just place a few chunks of banana into the blender with whatever mix-ins you'd like (peanut butter and cocoa work well), and blend!

The result is a frozen dessert that not only avoids added sugar and fat, it provides nutrients. In this case, the banana provides potassium and fiber, while the peanut butter offers monounsaturated fats, and the cocoa is packed with antioxidants.

When I was a grad student, I worked on a food truck that made frozen fruit desserts. They had special patented machines and were able to make not just banana nice cream, but also berry, watermelon, and mango. They topped these cups of nice cream with melted peanut butter, hot fudge, nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips. (Just to give you some ideas!)

Here's the recipe for Chocolate Banana Nice Cream.