First posted: Nov 25, 2015

Banana-Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Candied Cashews

When you taste the velvety smoothness of this rich ice cream, you’ll find it hard to believe that it contains no cream or eggs, just an exquisitely simple (and relatively guilt-free) combination of blended frozen bananas, peanut butter and honey. It’s horribly delicious, but given it’s low-calorie content (as far as ice creams go), you won’t have to feel too bad about having seconds.

Serve this in bowls, cones or dolloped on top of little ginger biscuits with a dusting of the candied nuts to serve as a gorgeous finger-food dessert. If you’re feeling really decadent you could add in a spoonful of nutella along with the peanut butter for a little extra wow factor.

Ingredients

Cooks in:30 minutes (3 hours freezing time for the bananas) Serves:4

For the Banana Peanut Butter Ice cream

4 large ripe bananas, peeled and roughly chopped
2 Tbsp peanut butter, I use sugar-free
2 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
2-3 Tbsp cold milk/yoghurt or just water for dairy-free

For the Candied Cashews

100g cashew nuts, or nuts of your choice, either raw or roasted are fine
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp maple syrup (or ordinary syrup if you don't have maple)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

What to do

1. Place the bananas in a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least 3 hours.

2. Meanwhile, prepare your candied nuts as follows:
If not roasted, toast in a heavy-based pan over medium heat until golden brown.
Add the remaining mixture, stir until well coated and then stir over medium-low heat for a further 5-10 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove the pot from the heat and pour the ingredients onto a non-stick baking tray or silicone baking mat, then set aside to cool before breaking or chopping into rough pieces.

3. Once the banana pieces are frozen, place in a blender with the remaining ice cream ingredients and blitz until you have a smooth consistency.

For the ice cream: Blitz together until smooth