Fro-Ba!

I am a firm believer in "good things come to those who wait" and "delayed gratification", which is why I enjoy making breads and pastries that require multiple steps and a looot of waiting time.  The end product just tastes that much sweeter!  Another one of these time-commitment-good-eats is ice cream.  First, you must gingerly make the custard.  Then, you must wait at least eight hours for it to thoroughly chill in the fridge.  Then, you must wait for your ice cream maker to churn and freeze that delicious cream.  And finally, you must wait for the ice cream to further firm up in the freezer.  It's a long process, but oh so worth it in the end.  Today, I started making an agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream from David Lebovitz's blog.  While melting the 70% dark chocolate and stirring the custard, I began to have a major major craving for chocolate ice cream.  The only way to get rid of a craving is to satisfy it.  Ignoring it (or trying to) will only make matters worse.  Thus, I decided to make "instant" ice cream, which is really not ice cream at all but rather frozen banana.  If frozen yogurt can be nicknamed "fro-yo", then this concoction certainly deserves to be called "fro-ba", just like its cool cousin.  The great thing about bananas is that if you freeze them and then blend them, they turn out to have a consistency similar to that of ice cream.  Leave the bananas plain or dress them up a bit with other fruits, cocoa powder, or nut butter, and you have instant ice cream!  While not quite as luxurious as real ice cream, it will temporarily satisfy any craving until you can actually dive into your own homemade ice cream, keeping you sane and well-fed.  And it's nutritious to boot!

When you freeze your bananas, you want them to be super duper ripe so that that sweetness really comes through in the final product.  Most people peel and cut up their bananas before they freeze them, but in my family, we are a little too lazy for that: we freeze them whole, peel on.  If you choose to freeze them whole like I do, just run the banana quickly under hot water after you remove it from the freezer, and then using a sharp knife, slice off the peel.  Then, you can slice the frozen banana into large chunks.

Ingredients:

• one frozen banana, cut into large chunks
• 8 or so frozen cherries
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Place the frozen banana chunks, frozen cherries, and cocoa powder into your blender (or food processor will work, too).
2. Blend until smooth and creamy, scraping the sides of the blender as needed.  Do not over-blend because the friction from the blades is constantly warming up your frozen treat, and you don't want to end up with soup!  If your blended fro-ba comes out a little too soft/un-frozen, just pop it into the freezer for a few minutes.
3. Serve the fro-ba in a pretty bowl with a little garnish (optional, but always encouraged).

Banana chips make everything just that much cuter.

The agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream custard is chilling in the fridge...tomorrow it will complete its ice cream journey...ending in my belly.  Stay tuned!