Almost-instant Raspberry Ice-cream

Dear hubby has been perfecting his technique at making Almost-Instant Ice-cream, using frozen bananas.

I do believe he cracked the formula with this last lot - so I asked him to write a guest post, telling you all about it :

Now, this ice cream recipe is very flexible. It's possible to use more cream, less yoghurt, more fruit, different fruit, booze, anything really (not too much booze though or it won't freeze). The only crucial ingredient are the bananas, which must at the very least, be fully ripe or even overripe. This is a fantastic way of using up bananas which otherwise would have ended up in the dusty bin.

The other optional element is the ice cream maker itself. It's perfectly fine to not use one at all but I do because I own one and I have to justify its existence :-)

The banana base is almost infinitely adaptable and is hugely better for you than a litre of double cream and eggs. It tastes fantastic and at less than a quid for four bananas, it's very cheap to make - gowon, give it a go. Oh, by the way, if you have any of those plastic moulds (molds?) then this type of ice cream would make brilliant and healthy lollies for the kids - even the worried looking kids with the mortgages and the cash guzzling cars.
 
So, to make 1 litre of scrummy RASPBERRY ICE CREAM you will need :

A 1 litre plastic lidded tub
A full sized food processor
An ice cream maker (optional).

Ingredients :

4 ripe (or even overripe) bananas
290g tinned raspberries in fruit juice (not in syrup)
50g double cream (optional)
150 - 200g of Greek yoghurt (or any other natural yoghurt).

Method :

1.  The first step involves freezing the bananas in small, bite sized chunks. I do this by peeling and chopping them, then laying each piece onto a baking sheet and laying the sheet flat in the freezer overnight. There are probably other ways to do it but you must ensure that the chunks are separate and frozen very solidly indeed.

2.  The next morning, get the bananas and drop them, chunk by chunk into the food processor (which should be switched on!). The food processor will make an ungodly racket at first and will need hanging on to as it will try to throw itself around the worktop a bit. 

3.  After you've added half of the chunks, drop in the cream, yoghurt and the juice from the tin of raspberries. Things should be a lot calmer now so you can go ahead and add the rest of the banana chunks.

4.  The mixture should quickly become smooth and resemble very soft ice cream. Now is the time to transfer it to the ice cream machine or, if you're omitting this step, into the plastic tub. If you're going down the tub route, add the raspberries now and mash them into the ice cream with a fork, to whatever consistency you require. If, on the other hand, you have an ice cream machine then churn the mixture for 15 - 20 minutes, adding the raspberries just before the end and then decanting the lot into your plastic tub.

5.  Place the tub into the freezer.  If you've not used an ice cream machine then you'll need to get it back out of the freezer every hour or so and give it a good mix with a fork to break up any ice crystals.  Even if you have used an ice cream machine, do this every two hours.

6.  Assuming you've done all of this in the morning, the ice cream should be ready to eat after dinner on the same day.  Serve into bowls, drizzled all over with raspberry syrup, chocolate sprinkles or whatever takes your fancy.  Crushed nuts you ask? No ma'am, it's just the way I walk :-)