Barb Hodgens

Barb Hodgens loves to cook with alternative, healthy whole food ingredients, with a focus on gut health. Barb has overcome her own gut health issues through healthy eating. Share your ideas, comments and photos at the end of this post :)

Guilt free ice cream anyone? – or should I say, ‘nice cream’!

Banana ice cream, or better known as ‘nice cream’ is a huge craze right now and for good reason. It’s creamy, (just like ice cream), sweet and delicious! But, get this – ice cream with an N in front is fruit based and sugar-free, it’s also most commonly dairy free and vegan. Yep, it’s the healthiest kind of ice cream you can ever treat yourself to. Especially if one of the ingredients is homemade yogurt! Now you’re talking! Gut friendly ice cream too! Yes please.

The best news is you don’t even need an ice cream maker! The Vibe Blender System can transform slices of frozen banana into a whipped, soft-serve dessert in moments.

Now, this one’s for chocolate lovers. You might not choose to eat a real Snickers bar, but I bet you’ve had one once and I bet you can recall the yummy combination of flavours. This version has Medjool dates masquerading as caramel, plus homemade peanut butter and honey-candied peanut brittle. It’s oozing with deliciousness. Any homemade yogurt you fancy can go into the mix. This one has 24-hour cows milk yogurt but it is delicious with coconut or nut milk yogurt too.

NICE CREAM TIPS

Rule no. 1. Never run out of frozen bananas! When you see bananas on sale, buy up, so that nice-cream is only ever moments away.
Let your bananas ripen and get plenty of brown spots on the peel. Firm, un-ripe bananas result in an earthy, chalky taste, rather than the sweet, caramelised flavour they develop when the skins turn brown.
Once over-ripe, peel the bananas, cut into pieces, and freeze. Bananas last months in the freezer.

WATCH HOW IT'S MADE HERE

Serves 4 - 5
This recipe has a Vegan option & is GAPS friendly if cacao is tolerated

INGREDIENTS

NICE-CREAM

1/2 cup (your preferred) homemade yogurt
1-2 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
2 tablespoons of homemade peanut butter (or nut butter of your choice)
3 Medjool dates
¼ cup raw cacao powder
4 frozen, overripe bananas frozen, chopped

NUT BRITTLE
1/3 cup crushed peanuts (or nuts of your choice)
1 heaped teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
Pinch salt

METHOD

PREPARATION THE DAY BEFORE
Peel the bananas, cut into small pieces and freeze overnight.

NUT BRITTLE

1. Gently heat a heavy based pan on your stovetop.
2. Add the crushed nuts and lightly pan roast until brown.
3. Add the honey and stir immediately to thoroughly coat.
4. Stir continuously for approx. 30 seconds or until the nuts are caramelised but not burnt.
5. Remove from the heat and transfer the nut crumble to a plate.
6. Separate the nut clusters so that they do not cool into one solid clump.
7. Set aside until required. Note: the nuts will set to the plate. Use a knife to prize them off.

snickers nice-cream steps

NICE CREAM

8. Deseed the dates and chop into pieces.
9. Combine all the nice-cream ingredients in the Vibe blender jug in the order listed.
10. Insert the ‘tamper’ into the blender lid and secure it on.
11. Choose 'smoothie' mode and blend for approximately 50 seconds. Use the tamper to push the frozen banana down into the blades in a circular motion. You may need to stop once to scrape down the sides.

Snickers nice-cream steps

12. Once you have the soft-serve texture, scoop the nice-cream into bowls and sprinkle with nut brittle and eat immediately. Straight from the blender the your 'snicker' nice-cream will resemble creamy soft-serve. Enjoy it right away before it melts!!
13. For extra firmness, spoon the nice-cream into another container and put it in the freezer for an hour or so before serving. Note, if you leave it too long it will freeze rock solid.

For other delicious fruit and yogurt based ice-creams, try our cultured mango and coconut nice-cream or tropical Pina Colada nice-cream.

PIN THIS RECIPE

Instant healthy snickers nice-cream

Instant healthy snickers ice cream

Guilt free ice cream anyone? – or should I say, ‘nice cream’!

Banana ice cream, or better known as ‘nice cream’ is a huge craze right now and for good reason. It’s creamy, (just like ice cream), sweet and delicious! But, get this – ice cream with an N in front is fruit based and sugar-free, it’s also most commonly dairy free and vegan. Yep, it’s the healthiest kind of ice cream you can ever treat yourself to. Especially if one of the ingredients is homemade yogurt! Now you’re talking! Gut friendly ice cream too! Yes please.

The best news is you don’t even need an ice cream maker! The Vibe Blender System can transform slices of frozen banana into a whipped, soft-serve dessert in moments.

Now, this one’s for chocolate lovers. You might not choose to eat a real Snickers bar, but I bet you’ve had one once and I bet you can recall the yummy combination of flavours. This version has Medjool dates masquerading as caramel, plus homemade peanut butter and honey-candied peanut brittle. It’s oozing with deliciousness. Any homemade yogurt you fancy can go into the mix. This one has 24-hour cows milk yogurt but it is delicious with coconut or nut milk yogurt too.