Caramelized Fig and Banana Cinnamon Ice Cream

I was talking with a co-worker recently about my blog and cooking and eating; pounds lost and pounds gained and hopefully pounds lost again.  I made a really stupid, completely inaccurate statement about how I don’t really post a whole lot of sweets on this blog.  Right after the words came out of my mouth, my mind said “Liar!” in that screechy Carol Kane voice from Princess Bride.  Then that other part of my mind said, “Umm.  What have I posted on my blog?”  It’s the old lady part of my brain that really doesn’t have any business being in public, so I try to keep it locked away in the cellar.  Once in a while, though, I forget to lock the door and out she comes…looking a lot like Carol Kane in Princess Bride.

Anyway, I came home from work that night and looked at the recipes on my blog.  I was relieved to find that I have a fair amount of chicken, vegetable, and salad posts.  Although not all of the recipes are uber healthy, I felt a lot better in general that the good outweighs the bad…I think.

You may have noticed, that as far as sweets go, there is one thing that is suspiciously missing from this blog, chocolate.  I don’t have a single post that has anything to do with chocolate.  There is a reason for this.  It is a stinking, rotten, no good reason:  over the past year and a half I have developed an allergy to chocolate.  That is a major inconvenience.  The last time I accidentally had chocolate, my lips and eyes swelled.  “Well,” I said to my interesting reflection in the mirror, “I guess it’s for certain.  I really and truly have a chocolate allergy.  So, get over it and move on.”  I took 50 mg of benedryl and sat on my bed to wait for the swelling to go down.  Beds are bad places to sit after taking benedryl because pretty soon I wasn’t sitting anymore, I was sleeping.  Peaceful sleep, too.  Still had fat lips and eyes when I woke up, but I felt good.  I hung out at home that day, talking like Mic Jagger or Meg Ryan after she had her collagen injections.  If you weren’t born with them, fat lips are really hard to manage.

It’s kind of interesting, though, (I’m rambling back to my opening paragraph now) that after I made that “I don’t have a lot of desserts on my blog” statement, desserts seem to be all I have been able to think about.  That’s okay.  I’ll get over it soon enough.  Right now, however, I am having a serious ice cream frenzy.  I have been brewing up all sorts of ideas about different flavors of ice cream, but lucky for me I have extraordinary self-control…and some swamp land in Florida for sale.

I saw some figs at Costco last week and had to buy them.  Figs are a staple from my childhood memories in South Carolina.  While not everyone owned a fig tree, those who did have one were more than willing to share the figgy bounty with those who did not.  My Granny would make fig preserves which were so amazingly delicious on toast and peanut butter sandwiches.  Figs in dessert–heaven.  Figs all by themselves fresh from the tree–biggest heaven.  Caramelized figs and bananas with cinnamon in ice cream–will there be decadence in heaven?

Print Recipe

Caramelized Fig and Banana Cinnamon Ice Cream

Fresh figs and bananas are first carmelized and then are blended into this delicious ice cream.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Processing and Freezing8 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time10 hours hrs

Servings: 1 1/2 quarts ice cream base

Author: Terri @ that's some good cookin'

Ingredients

• 2 cups half and half
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 bananas, peeled and cut into approximately 1-inch slices
• 6 large figs, peeled and halved
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl gently combine bananas, figs, melted butter, and dark brown sugar. The fruit needs to be well coated with the melted butter and brown sugar.
• Pour fruit mixture onto prepared baking pan. Spread fruit around the pan into a single layer. Place pan on a middle rack in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.
• Remove pan and stir the fruit once more. At this point the fruit can be left on the pan to cool or it can be transferred to a plate or bowl for cooling. I chose to transfer the fruit to a plate for quicker cooling. Cool completely before proceeding with the remainder of the recipe.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the half and half, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Whisk until the ingredients are well combined and the sugar has dissolved.
• Transfer the fruit to a blender. Pour a little of the ice cream base into the blender. The liquid ice cream base will help the fruit to puree more easily. Pulse blend the fruit until smooth, adding a little more ice cream base if necessary.
• Transfer the contents of the blender back into the bowl with the remainder of the ice cream base. Stir well to combine.
• Pour the mixture into the bucket of your ice cream machine. Process according to the manufacturer's directions for your machine.
• After processing, the ice cream will be very soft. Transfer it into a bowl or other container, cover, and place in freezer for about 8 hours to allow ice cream to ripen (see notes).

Notes

Ripening ice cream is the process of letting the ice cream harden in the freezer. For my freezer, this took about 8 hours. We ate some of the ice cream after only three hours in the freezer, but it was pretty much the consistency of a thickened milk shake at that point. No problem, it tasted great. Know, however, that if you want to have firmer, scoopable ice cream, it takes several hours to achieve a solid consistency.

Source note: Process of caramelizing fruit in oven from Our Best Bites