Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Bananas Foster Ice Cream is a creamy, dreamy summer treat that tastes just like the famous dessert- full of buttery bananas, cinnamon and rum!

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For as long as I can remember Bananas Foster has been one of my all time favorite desserts. I first tried it in high school as a sauce poured over vanilla ice cream. I fell in love and have been finding ways to recreate those wonderful flavors ever since. In the early days of my blog I made Bananas Foster Blondies, and last year these Bananas Foster Pancakes became my new favorite breakfast!

Still, the delicious sauce made from butter, brown sugar, bananas and rum is my favorite served over vanilla ice cream. It was only a matter of time before I’d try to merge the sauce/base concept into one- creating a delicious, creamy ice cream that is full of my favorite flavors.

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The best discovery I made while working on this recipe was a fabulous custard base, which is creamier than any I’ve made, and has become my new favorite spring board for future ice cream flavors. Half of the bananas foster was blended into that to create a strong base ice cream, with the rest swirled in, giving each bite a full blast of foster-y goodness.

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Traditional Bananas Foster uses dark rum to create the perfect flavor, and you can get away with using a little of that in this recipe and still allowing your ice cream to freeze. Since you won’t find much booze in my kitchen these days, I used rum extract. (Though I would have felt OK using the small amount of rum since it gets cooked down a bit with the bananas.) Either option or a mix of both would work just fine.

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Yield: 1 quart

Ingredients

For the Custard:

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3 cups half-and-half cream
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Bananas Foster

  • 1/4 cup butter, half stick
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3 ripe bananas, sliced
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum, OR 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract

Instructions

  1. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream and half and half heating until just simmering, stirring frequently. Turn the heat down to low.
  2. Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
  3. Slowly and carefully pour about 1/2 cup of the cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture with one hand, while whisking constantly with the other. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hot cream, and whisk constantly over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens and will coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 8 minutes. Do not let mixture boil.
  4. Pour the custard base into a bowl and allow to cool while you prepare the bananas.
  5. In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and whisk together until the sugar as dissolved into the butter.
  6. Add the bananas, stirring to coat them in the butter/sugar mixture. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, until bananas are tender. Add the rum and cinnamon and stir well, simmering for an additional 2 minutes.
  7. Add half of the banana mixture to the custard base, using an immersion blender right in the bowl to pureé until smooth. (You can also carefully pour the custard and bananas into a regular blender and pureé that way.)
  8. Cover the custard mixture and chill in the fridge for 6-8 hours or overnight.
  9. Use a wooden spoon to slightly break the remaining banana pieces up, and store them in the fridge until after you churn your ice cream.
  10. When the custard is chilled- churn it according to your ice cream maker's instructions and layer it with the remaining banana mixture in your container. Freeze for a few hours to firm it up.

Notes

Custard base adapted from: All Recipes

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g

Did you make this recipe?

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26 Comments

  1. What a genius idea, I’ve never seen bananas foster ice cream anywhere! I will definitely be trying this before summer is over :)

  2. Oh I am a Bananas Foster LOVER and love that you mixed some into the base and then folded the rest – extra flavor!

  3. Looks delicious! Believe me or not, I’ve never heard of bananas foster dessert before! Now you made me curious so I can’t wait to try the classic version out as well as this one :)

    xo, Elisa

  4. yum! bananas fosters ice cream… who would have thought to create such an awesome flavor! Must try soon! Thanks again for participating this week in Frozen Treat week!

  5. I haven’t had bananas foster since I turned it into banana bread last year and so I think I’m long overdue for a revival! This ice cream sounds AMAZING.

  6. I used to work in a place that fired Bananas Foster tableside. OMG it was soooooo good. I’m totally making this! I haven’t had Bananas Foster in forever! And stuffing all that flavor into ice cream was pretty genius I gotta say.

  7. I loooove bananas foster and this ice cream sounds like it perfectly captures the wonderful flavor of classic bananas foster. I will definitely be giving this a try.

  8. I will pay you a million trillion dollars if you bring this to BSP :) *I don’t really have a million trillion dollars so if you bring me some ice cream please don’t hold me to the money part…

  9. Thank you for the good writeup. It in truth used to be a amusement account it.
    Glance complicated to far introduced agreeable from you!
    By the way, how could we keep in touch?

  10. This banana fosters ice cream sounds absolutely yummy. Can’t wait to try. Is there a functional reason you didn’t add vanilla extract, or just taste preference?

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