The frozen dessert miracle

If you’ve tried banana soft serve, you know. If not, prepare for a revelation.

4 min readJul 4

Soft-serve banana “ice cream” in a bowl.

I’m about to give you the instructions for making a delightful frozen dessert. I guarantee you will love its creamy texture, like your favorite fast food or buffet soft-serve, and its simple, sweet flavor.

Of course, you may need to do some shopping. To assist with this, I’m about to give you the full ingredient list for this magical dessert. Do you have a pencil and paper handy? Good. Here’s the ingredient list:

Bananas

That’s it. Bananas. No sugar, no dairy, no binders or thickeners or substitutes. You can, if you desire, add chunky mix-ins like nuts or chocolate chips. But for your first batch, try it by itself and see what you think of it on its own. I suspect you will be surprised.

The only downside to this amazing dessert is that, unlike ice cream, it is best made right before serving. If you have a large family or guests, you may need more than one batch.

Here’s what you do: Take, say, about 5 ripe bananas. They can be at the peak of ripeness, or you can use this recipe as a way of disposing of a few overripe bananas. Peel the bananas and slice them about 1/2 inch thick. Place the slices in a single layer on some sort of tray, baking sheet, platter or plates that will fit in your freezer. I recommend using a layer of cooking parchment or foil, which may make it easier to quickly remove the pieces once they have frozen.

Sliced bananas on parchment paper on a tray in the freezer.

Freeze the pieces solid; once they are completely frozen, quickly move them to freezer bags and put them back into the freezer until you are ready to go. If you need to make several batches, you may need to do a tray, then bag them, then do another tray, and so on, depending on the room in your freezer.

When you are ready for your frozen treat, get out your food processor. Use the blade, not the grating/slicing disk. Fill the work bowl of the food processor a little more than half full of frozen banana slices. Return any excess slices to the freezer and save them for your next batch.