I'm a firm believer that truth is strange than fiction. As a result I love to watch documentaries and a few years ago I learned something rather interesting watching a documentary about ice-cream.

Did you know that before Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, she worked at a company where she helped devise a way to inject air into ice-cream as a means of making it cheaper to produce and to give the public less bang for their buck? No? If you Google 'Margaret Thatcher Ice Cream Whippy', you can read all about the sordid situation. Somehow I don't think Mr Whippy vans would do so well with her face emblazoned on the side...

Ever since then, I have looked at mass produced tubs of ice-cream differently. I still love a scoop of Blue Ribbon but it is more for nostalgia value. After learning that tidbit, I made my first ice-cream and compared it to a supermarket tub. They were vastly different and the homemade version was infinitely better.

For starters, ice-cream that hasn't been injected with air doesn't seem to melt as quickly, and apart from the lack of additives and indecipherable preservative numbers, you can completely control the quality of your flavour.

Faux flavours to me are a matter of taste. They never seem to taste quite like the ingredients they are supposed to represent. The two biggest offenders in my humble opinion are probably banana and cherry, as the artificial flavours for both do not taste even remotely like the fruit.

My husband loves banana-flavoured items yet all we can find are faux banana flavours (in a lurid yellow of course), so I decided to make a real banana ice cream inspired by the Chunky Monkey ice cream of Ben and Jerry's, the famed US ice-cream company now beginning to operate in Australia. There are no chocolate chunks in this blend, although feel free to add them in at the end.

I won't lie, using a churner does help with getting a smooth texture. There are ways around this, like beating the ice-cream several times while it is freezing to prevent the formation of ice crystals. But this ice-cream is entirely achievable without the churner.

The recipe is easy as you don't need to make a custard. You can also get the kids in on the act and get them to make the caramel bananas - they can slice the bananas with a butter knife and mix the caramel sauce together before you pop it in the oven. No caramel spitting or burnt fingers, I promise.

I'm sure you're all well-versed about bananas and how good they are for you as they contain potassium, fibre, vitamin C and manganese and many kids seem to love them. One thing that I learned recently was that bananas are also a good source of vitamin B6, which is good for stabilising moods and calming - which can only be a good thing for both adult or child.

This ice cream is creamy, light and full of sweet banana. The kids liked the chunks of banana, which, once frozen actually taste rather ice-creamy. And there wasn't a skerrick of faux banana ice-cream flavour there. Just fruit and caramel and ice-cream.

Recipe: Caramelised Banana Ice-Cream

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, chopped up
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
1 tbs unsweetened apple or orange juice
50g butter, melted

500ml cream (if you are using an ice cream maker, you can use 250ml cream and 250ml milk)
150/5 ozs icing sugar

Method

1. Make caramelised bananas: Preheat oven to 190C. Get your child to chop up a ripe banana with a butter knife and place in an ovenproof bowl. Melt butter, cool a little and get them to mix the brown sugar, juice and butter together until combined and then pour over chopped banana. Bake for 20-25 minutes until banana is soft. Cool and place in fridge until cold.
    
2. If using an ice cream maker:
   Whip cream until soft and voluminous peaks are formed but not stiff peaks. Add sifted icing sugar. Place cream, milk and cold caramelised bananas (reserving the liquid caramel sauce to pour over later) and churn for 25 minutes. You can break up the banana pieces with a spatula as they're very soft if you prefer to have less banana chunks or you can leave it chunky. Once finished, place in freezer proof container and freeze until set. Take it out of the freezer 20 minutes or so before you want to eat it to soften it.
    
3. If using the freezer method:
   Whip cream until soft and voluminous peaks are formed but not stiff peaks. Add sifted icing sugar. Place whipped cream mixture and cold caramelised bananas (reserving the liquid caramel sauce to pour over later) in freezer proof container and freeze for a few hours. You can break up the banana pieces with a spatula as they're very soft if you prefer to have less banana chunks or you can leave it chunky. Once an hour, break up the ice cream with a fork to prevent ice crystals from forming. Take it out of the freezer 20 minutes or so before you want to eat it to soften it.
    

About Lorraine Elliott

Lorraine Elliott is the founder of the popular food blog Not Quite Nigella, which features a new story every day alternating between a cooking story, a restaurant review, store visit or interview. Focussed in Sydney but with a posts from across Australia and the world, Not Quite Nigella has received awards and media attention both locally and internationally.