A tropical triple sundae created with all-fruit coconut, mango, and banana ice creams topped with homemade hot fudge and crystallized ginger. Happy Summer Solstice everyone! 

Recently, I came across a recipe for one-ingredient ice cream. As big fan of homemade ice cream, I was curious, so I clicked. Bananas! We used to freeze bananas and dip them in carob when I was a kid (the carob thing is a whole other story). I loved that refreshing summertime treat. This memory brought about other childhood memories of eating all-fruit popsicles. In all of my custard and milk based ice cream making adventures, I don’t know why it never occurred to me to try making an all-fruit “ice cream.” It certainly is more healthful to eat a banana than a cream-based, sweet frozen custard concoction, not that I’m planning to give those up!

I had bananas in my kitchen that were just past the perfect-to-eat stage, which made the banana flavor stronger and sweeter. I sliced the bananas into coins, laid them out on a baking sheet and froze them. After an hour, I popped the frozen pieces into the tall cup that came with my stick blender. It did take some work for the stick blender to smooth out the frozen bananas. But after a couple of rounds of stirring and puréeing with the stick blender, I scooped pure magic into bowls. The consistency of the banana ice cream was creamy and the flavor was sweet and rich.  One ingredient ice cream is delicious!

My culinary sense of adventure and curiosity got the best of me while eating this creamy frozen snack. A banana is a snack, after all. By adding one more ingredient to this creamy base, I could create chocolate banana or peanut butter banana ice cream. From here, my thoughts took off, adding many more ingredients. And toppings. This recipe is versatile!

I thought that since bananas worked so well, other fruits might prove equally appropriate. Here in Ulaanbaatar, we don’t get a huge variety of fruit. But I happened to see frozen mangos at the store. I work with what I can get. The frozen mango worked as well as the banana. The batch of frozen mangos I purchased was on the sour side, so I did add some honey and crystallized ginger to sweeten up the ice cream and give it some pizzazz. This was no longer a one-ingredient recipe, but I was experimenting. It was delicious and tropical.

A proper sundae needs three different flavors, in my opinion. I froze small cubes of coconut milk and processed the frozen cubes just as I had processed the fruit. The coconut milk came out icy, so I added a bit of regular milk to smooth the texture. And since coconut milk doesn’t have much natural sweetness, I added two tablespoons of powdered sugar. The resulting ice cream was tasty and perfectly complemented the mango and banana ice creams.

In order to create the ultimate all-fruit sundae, I whipped up some hot fudge (there goes the healthful dessert), sprinkled some crystallized ginger to finish it off and voilà, a cool, beautiful, tropical summertime dinner… I mean dessert. (Well, in all honesty, we did eat it for dinner.)

Frozen Fruit Ice Cream

Ingredients

• small chunks of fruit of your choosing, frozen
• (optional) other flavorings to enhance the fruit like vanilla, ginger, cocoa powder
• sweetener, to taste (if needed add honey, maple syrup, sugar, etc.)

Directions

1. Place frozen fruit in food processor or cup of a stick blender and process scraping down sides occasionally until fruit is thick and creamy and there are no chunks remaining.
2. Mix in optional ingredients.
3. Serve immediately.

Quick Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered milk

(or substitute the above with 14 oz sweetened condensed milk)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Place first 5 ingredients in the metal cup that came with your stick blender to make sweetened condensed milk.
2. Blend until well mixed and thickened. Set aside.
3. In medium pan, with medium heat, melt 1/2 cup butter.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Add milk mixture and stir until smooth and silky.
6. Store leftovers in covered container in the refrigerator.