One for the icrecream addicts woohoo!!!

Hello fellow icecream lovers have I got a recipe for you........the kids will love it too!

Some of you may be on to this already or heard of it and havent tried it anyway this for those who love the texture and experience of eating a cold frozen dessert but rue the kilojoules that go with it.

It essentially is frozen fruit (stop rolling the eyes peoples!!) I can make creamy icecreams and sherbety sorbets that are not watery or remotely like fruit other than the flavour which can be manipulated also.

This is a recipe you will see around the net (I discovered mine in my local paper) and essentially the basic recipe uses bananas to make icecream I think they are a good starting place and then you can experiment from there. I have been slowly building my repertoire over the last 3 months. I now offer my husband (and critic!) a varied range of icecreams and sorbets some of his favourites are banana, fig and walnut and his latest is rockmelon and white peach which combines sherbet taste with creamy texture.
Other popular combinations are banana and blueberry and raspberry sorbet.

So if I still have you with me Ill press on with what you need in terms of equipment.

EQUIPMENT
stick blender, bowl blender, bowl food processor.
sealable freezer bags or containers good long handled spatula
a freezer
chopping board, sharp knife,

Preparation
Its all about preparation that is the success to making the icecream /sorbet. You need to be organised have everything at hand.
As once you begin the process of turning fruit to cream to eating it all happens pretty quickly! Doesnt take long to work out a process though.

INGREDIENTS
any fresh fruit (I say fresh because I havent tried the can variety yet but may give it a go when I have exhausted all fresh options)
It can be overripe but not rotten! in fact I have found if you love the banana taste the riper ones are more flavoursome and if you arent that keen on banana flavour normal ripeness is the go.
Try to pick good quality fruit that is more flavoursome than coldstored supermarket ones which are okay but not as flavour packed.
Frozen berries are great I wait for them to go on special then buy up big.
I use small amounts of yogurt, soda water, champagne, skim milk, plain yogurt, cream to add texture (we are talking a tablespoon amount here as too much liquid will turn your icecream to slop!)
*optional artificial sweetner if you need it, vanilla is good also in some combos

INSTRUCTIONS
okay ready for the incredibly easy process?
Rule of thumb I find that 1 and a 1/2 cups will do 2 small bowl serves or 3 cone scoops

1. peel bananas and melons
2. remove stones from stone fruits
3. chop fruit up into small bitesize pieces
4. Freeze for a MINIMUM of 2 hours

When you are ready for dessert:

5. Take fruit out of freezer
6. Put chopped fruit combo into blender
7. Blend/chop on high (*Note fruit will go crumbly first this is fine keep blending it will turn creamy all of a sudden)
8. You will need to stop blending and push the fruit down to the bottom of the bowl so that it contacts the blades use the spatula for this and keep blending until the fruit begins to cream.
9. When it has creamed sufficiently its ready to serve spoon into bowls or cones
10. EAT!!!!!!!! straight away you cant refreeze the whipped fruit.

Its fun and fascinating even as a one-off thing to try but my husband and I are addicted now we have it as desserts most nights and its really great that we are eating essentially a piece of fruit each but getting as much enjoyment out of it as if we were eating icecream.

I think involving kids in the process as well could be good getting them to chop up their fruit, freeze it and watch it become icecream. a fun process that gets them eating fruit with no additives.

I love also that I never throw away overripe fruit anymore as I store the fruit in sealable bags all chopped up ready to blend. It seems to be okay storing the fruit in the freezer in its unblended state Im not sure for how long we keep eating ours! but a week seems to be okay.

I hope you enjoy if you havent tried it and if you have tried it I would be interested to hear about other peoples blends!!!

So whats on tonights dessert menu banana, peanut butter and honey mmmmm!