Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 28, 2015 // 41 Comments

What’s that? Winter you say? Sounds like the perfect time for ice cream to me! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s never too cold for ice cream. I know lots of you are covered in snow right now, and I bet ice cream would make you feel better about that! Don’t believe me? Try this super chocolatey ice cream full of banana sweetness and I’ll wait for you to tell me I’m right, I won’t even tell you I told you so – I’m nice like that!

I’m on a bit of banana kick at the moment. I keep buying them and just waiting for them to go over ripe in the fruit bowl, so I can make something yummy with them! With this batch of bananas I was torn between two ideas, so I did the only thing I could – made one of them and bought more bananas so I could make the other thing too! This yummy chocolate banana ice cream was the result of the first batch – creamy, chocolatey, sweet and oh so delicious!

Now I know you’ve probably heard about that healthy banana ice cream that is pretty much just mashed frozen bananas, but you’re not going to find any of that kind of healthiness here I’m afraid – this is proper ice cream, full of real cream! It still has bananas in though, so it’s entirely bad for you right? All that potassium totally negates all the fat and sugar I’m sure of it! Come to think of it, with all that potassium this ice cream is sure to be a hangover buster. See, I’m looking out for you guys 😉

I originally thought about just banana ice cream, but then I remembered everything is made better by chocolate so I had to add it! I use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate in this ice cream, to really give it that chocolate boost. It doesn’t over power the banana though, both flavours punch through beautifully alone while also complimenting each other! I put a little cinnamon in there too a) because I’m me and b) cinnamon really does compliment banana so nicely. You will need an ice cream maker for this recipe, but it’s a worthwhile investment if you love ice cream as much as me!

So let’s do a headcount shall we? Banana? Check! Chocolate? Check! Real cream? Check! Deliciousness? Double check! Yep, this ice cream really does have it all! You won’t be sorry you made this, and neither will your family/friends/random people who show up at your house to eat your ice cream. Serve it up with some fresh banana slices or even on top of a nice warm pie, and you’ll have one awesome dessert! Since it’s homemade it won’t last as long as your store bought ice cream, but trust me when I tell you it won’t have a chance to go bad – you’ll be lucky if it lasts overnight!

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Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

2015-01-26 21:49:11

Delicious chocolate banana ice cream, simple to make and oh so worth it

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Ingredients

4 Bananas, very ripe
1/2 cup brown sugar
60g chocolate finely chopped
1 cup double cream
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks

Instructions

Put the bananas and 1/8 cup of the sugar in a blender, and blend to combine. Only do a couple pulses if you'd like little chunks of bananas in your ice cream like me, otherwise blend until smooth. Set aside.
Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat 3/4 cup the cream until bubbles just start to appear and pour over chocolate. Leave to stand for 1 minute and then stir until smooth.
Pour the cream and chocolate mixture back into the pan with the milk, rest of the sugar, cocoa, salt and cinnamon. Heat on medium, stirring occasionally, until sugar is all dissolved and it just starts to steam. Remove from heat
Whisk egg yolks in a bowl. Ladle 1/4 cup of the cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs and whisk in. Repeat with 2 more 1/4 cups of the mixture - until egg yolks are warm to touch.
Pour egg mixture into the pan and return to a medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. It's ready when it coats the back of the spoon - it will be about 80C/170F on a candy thermometer. Do not boil!
Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the cream and the banana mix. Transfer to a bowl.
Fill a bowl slightly larger than the bowl your custard is in with ice water, place the custard bowl in the ice water. Cool in ice bath for 20 minutes, until room temperature (make sure no water can spill into the custard). Transfer to the fridge and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Once it reaches a soft serve consistency, transfer to your storage container and place in freezer overnight.
Leave at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before scooping and serving

Notes

Keep in airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the freezer
I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate will be good too - whichever you prefer.
Recipe makes about 1 quart (950ml)

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 1, 2015 // 40 Comments

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and 2015 is full of non stop awesome for you! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, especially diet related ones! I’m a baker and I’m very attached to my butter and sugar, dieting just isn’t for me even if I would like to lose a couple pounds. With that said, the first recipe I’m posting in 2015 is pretty healthy! I’m not a calorie or nutrition counter so I don’t know how healthy these are but they have no butter, the majority of the sweetness comes from the bananas with only a small amount of brown sugar supplementing it. They’re also made with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour – they’re practically a health food! These will also be dairy free if you use chocolate chips that don’t contain dairy (I use semi-sweet chips, which do contain traces of milk I believe). You could also potentially make them vegan with a little fiddling, replacing the eggs with applesauce would probably work but I haven’t tested that, so I can’t say for sure.

These chocolate banana muffins are also delicious, way more delicious than they are healthy which is my kind of muffin! They’re a nice dense, moist muffin, I hate those muffins that are like biting into air, I want some substance in my muffins – leave the light and airy for the cupcakes! They’re equally chocolatey and banana-ry, with a hint of cinnamon to give them a nice flavour depth. The chocolate chips are definitely a must too, they add little chunks of chocolatey goodness and a little extra sweetness,

These muffins came about because I had a few way too ripe bananas – my first idea was, naturally, banana bread, but I only had three bananas so it would have been a very small loaf! Muffins seemed like a great idea and they really were! Over ripened bananas are so great for baking, never ever throw away those brown bananas okay! They look pretty nasty and aren’t fun to eat, but the riper they get the sweeter they are, so when they’re all brown and mushy, there’s so much natural sweetness in them that’s perfect for baking, you can even cut down on your sugar usage because of all the natural sweetness. Next time you have some bananas getting a bit too comfy in your kitchen, you should definitely turn them into these muffins, you’ll love them! They’re worth buying bananas especially to make these muffins, you’ll have some waiting time but they’re so yummy it’s worth the wait.

Because of all the natural sweetness, you really can have them at any time. Grab one for a quick and tasty breakfast in the morning, pack one in the kid’s lunchbox for a snack or treat, or even pass them out as dessert after dinner – everybody will love them any time of the day. They have those wonderful domed and chewy muffins tops that are essential for a good muffin! The best way, I find, to get a good muffin top is to fill the paper cases up until they’re almost full and then bake on a high temperature for 10 minutes before lowering it to bake throughout – I never fail to get a great muffin top with that method!

So, 2015 is finally upon us! The year of my golden birthday, the rugby world cup, the year of general elections in the UK and, assuming she’s still reigning towards the end of the year, Queen Elizabeth II will be our longest reigning queen, beating Queen Victoria! And lots more yet to be determined I’m sure. I haven’t made any proper resolutions but I do plan on a few changes this year to help make it a good year – and of course, there will be lots of baking! Do you guys have any big plans for 2015? Have you made any resolutions?

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Spiked Black Forest Milkshake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 22, 2014 // 8 Comments

This Spiked Black Forest Milkshake has the classic taste of Black Forest Gateaux with chocolate, cherries and kirsch. It’s the perfect festive milkshake!

Happy Monday! It’s Day 8 of my Countdown to Christmas Recipes! And here’s a confession, I’m a little unorganised with this, tomorrow may or may not be the last recipe I post in this countdown to Christmas. I haven’t baked Day 10 yet and really it all depends on when I get them baked! So watch this space I get. If this is your first encounter with my Countdown to Christmas, it’s pretty simple, I have just been posting one festive recipe a day in the lead up to Christmas. Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies and Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow. And today I bring you this Spiked Black Forest Milkshake.

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Chocolate Peppermint Puppy Chow

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 17, 2014 // 19 Comments

Whether you call it Puppy Chow or Muddy Buddies, this Chocolate Peppermint Puppy Chow is the perfect Christmas snack! Full of festive flavours and totally addictive!

It’s day three of my Countdown ’til Christmas – I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until, and including, Christmas Eve. Yesterday I posted this Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, is it weird to have 2 peppermint recipes in a row? Maybe, but it’s such a festive flavour you can’t really have too much of it this time of year can you? So I bring you Peppermint Puppy Chow!

Up until I made my own I’d never had Puppy Chow, aka Muddy Buddies, before. It’s definitely an American thing, or at least not a UK thing. But man, us Brits have really been missing out. I don’t know what makes this stuff so addictive, but it’s so hard to stop eating this stuff! In the US it’s generally made using Chex Mix, I used Shreddies. Usually, puppy chow is made with chocolate and peanut butter but I wanted to be festive so peppermint it was! I also made another festive version which I’ll post soon! I’ve yet to try the traditional chocolate and peanut butter, but I’m definitely going to try it soon!

Christmas is so nearly upon us guys, 8 days to go! I’m pretty much done with my shopping, I’m mostly just waiting for things to arrive because I’m lazy and do all my Christmas shopping online! Are you guys already done with yours? If you celebrate Christmas in your house that is of course! How about Hanukkah? Anybody doing anything nice for Hanukkah? Whatever you’re celebrating this year, or if you’re not celebrating anything, I hope you have a wonderful season! This puppy chow will be great to have out to snack on throughout the day, while you wrap presents or even when you have guests round – kids especially will love it!

And the best part, of course, is how is easy it is to make. You can have this ready to go in 30 minutes, and the majority of that time is just waiting for the chocolate to set up – then it’s puppy chow city! It’s called puppy chow because apparently looks like a brand of dog food in the US, but please don’t feed this to your dogs – I’m sure you already know not to give dogs chocolate, but just in case!

Come hang out with me on social media, I’d love to share what I’m up to this holiday season and to see what you guys are doing too! You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

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Peppermint Puppy Chow

2014-12-17 15:40:00

Cereal with chocolate and peppermint makes for the most festive and addictive holiday snack!

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Ingredients

500g Malted Wheat Cereal (such as Shreddies, Chex Wheats etc)
175g dark chocolate
75g white chocolate
1/4 - 1 tsp peppermint extract
180g Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
5 candy canes, crushed (optional)

Instructions

Melt the chocolates separately using your preferred method, I like to do it in the microwave in 30 second blasts, stirring in between.
Add the peppermint extract to the melted dark chocolate, start with 1/4 tsp and test, add more as needed. A little peppermint goes a long way so it's always best to start off with a little and gradually add more until you get the desired taste. I used 1/2 tsp + a few drops total, you may use more or less.
Measure out the cereal into a large bowl. Pour on the melted dark chocolate with peppermint and stir to cover the cereal as best you can. Pour on the white chocolate and stir to cover
Transfer the mixture to a large container with a lid and add the icing sugar. Secure the lid and shake the container well to coat the mix in sugar.
Stir in the crushed candy canes if using.
Spread out on a lined cookie sheet to leave to cool and set.

Notes

Store in a lidded container

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

Bounty Coconut Chocolates

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 3, 2014 // 57 Comments

Hello from Atlanta! Well, technically Kennesaw these days, but I’m not here to fuss around on technicalities! I love the city, I love cities in general, I’m definitely the kind of person that prefers to be surrounded by tall buildings and lots of people over countryside and nature! But as much as I love the city, I have to admit it is beautiful up here in the ‘burbs. I’m staying at Leah’s mum’s house and it’s gorgeous, it’s a beautiful house in beautiful surroundings – hopefully in my next post I’ll include a few photographs for you, because it is lovely up here. The weather has become much warmer than it has been here too, I’m choosing to believe I brought the warmth with me as the temperature has apparently dropped a lot in the UK since I left on Monday!

I did intend for this post to be out on Wednesday, but I was having a bit of bloggers block and combined with how exhausted travelling had left me (I was travelling for 20 hours, no fun!) it just wasn’t happening. But it’s all worked out in the end, because today is Fiesta Friday which is the best day of the week! It’s even better this week (for me, that is) because I am co-hosting the party for the first time! When Angie asked me if I’d like to co-host, I pretty much tripped over myself to say yes! I can say with all honesty that Fiesta Friday is the best link party out there, and if you haven’t joined yet let today be your first, I guarantee fun! Fiesta Friday is a great way to gain exposure for your blog and posts, lots of bloggers link up every single week who will be coming over to see your wonderful posts – but I think the best thing about Fiesta Friday is how social it is, everybody is so friendly and welcoming whether it’s your first link up or your 45th! We’re not just here for exposure, we’re here to make friends and have fun!

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