Fresh Peanut Butter Ice Cream

(1 vote)
As you'll see, the base for this ice cream is always the same, and while you can use strawberries, peaches, or any other fruit, white nectarines reign supreme. The key is to keep a freezer full of fruit. Right now I have 5 bananas, 3 bag of nectarines, 1 bag of cantaloupe, 1 bag of peaches and 1/2 bag of strawberries in the freezer all ready to go. Peaches and strawberries make for a creamy ice cream but for some reason the regular and white nectarines make this ice cream incredibly creamy - move over Ben & Jerry's. Fruits like pears, plums and apples are tasty but the resulting ice cream has more of an icy texture. I can't explain why certain fruits work except that they seem like more "creamy" fruits, if that makes any sense.

Ingredients:

1 banana
1 (or more) white nectarine (peaches, strawberries, cantaloupe, etc..)
1/2 cup Trader Joe's nonfat greek yogurt (or cottage cheese)
2T Trader Joe's creamy natural peanut butter (omit for nonfat ice cream)
2-4T vanilla soymilk (as needed)

2-3T cocoa powder (optional)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional, for the gym rats like myself)

Instructions:

1. Prep the fruit. Peel the banana, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze until rock-solid, about 4 hours but preferably overnight. Wash nectarine and remove pit, cut into at least 4 chunks and freeze in a sealed plastic bag for 4 hours or preferably overnight. If using a fruit other than nectarines, wash thoroughly and remove any pits, seeds or stems and cut into small chunks before freezing.

2. Break the banana into 4-6 chunks and drop into the blender. Add the yogurt, peanut butter, 2T soymilk and any of the optional ingredients. Process until a smooth consistency is achieved. You may need to stop the blender several times to mix or scoop down the sides with a spoon.

Note: The more room-temperature optional ingredients you add the thinner the mixture gets. Therefore, you'll need to add more frozen fruit to thicken it which will lead to a larger batch of ice cream, not a bad thing really. You can freeze any excess, but you need to let it thaw for about 20-30 minutes to achieve an edible consistency - but even then it's a little bit icy. Best enjoyed fresh.

3. Add the frozen nectarine chunks (or whatever fruit you are using) and process until smooth and consistency is very similar to soft serve ice cream.

Note: Stopping the blender several times to help the process along is normal. If the fruit is pureed and the mixture is too thin and melted, add more frozen fruit to make it thicker. Add more milk only if the mixture is too thick to process (shouldn't be the case, you want it really thick).

4. Pour into a large mug and eat with a large spoon (it should be so thick that it isn't really "drinkable"). Top with crunchy cereal or granola - I use a mixture of 1/2 Kashi GoLean and 1/2 Kashi GoLean Crunch.

Original recipe from The Peanut Butter Boy

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