Satisfy your sweet tooth with this creamy and customizable one-ingredient Banana Nice Cream, including 7 of our favorite flavors.
If you’ve visited the world wide web at any point since 2015, you’ve probably heard of nice cream. You know, the frozen banana deliciousness that’s been giving ice cream a run for it’s money. Banana is naturally creamy and sweet, making it the perfect base for “guilt-free” ice cream. So today I’m showing you how to make nice cream, along with ways to customize it with your favorite flavors.
Which brings up a fun new series the tulip-man and I are working on…His & Hers! The thing is, we have pretty different tastes in dessert. When I go fruity, he goes chocolate. When I prefer something healthyish, he’s finding innovative new ways to fit multiple candy bars into an ice cream sundae.
So today we’re introducing the first in our series of His & Hers cooking videos! We both start with that classic nice cream base recipe, but take our nice cream sundaes in very different directions. Check out the video below (and let use know which is your favorite in the comments below!)
How to Make Nice Cream Sundaes Video
How to Make Nice Cream
Step 1: Get yourself some ripe (or even overripe) bananas. The riper the banana, the more sweet and delicious your nice cream will be.
Step 2: Chop your bananas into chunks and lay in a single-layer on a parchment-lined plate or tray. It’s important that you peel the bananas before freezing! Bananas will take about 2 hours to freeze.
Step 3: Let bananas thaw a bit (just 5 minutes or so), then throw them into a heavy-duty blender or food processor. I use a Vitamix blender for this, which powers through the frozen banana.
Step 4: To get the nice cream blending, you can do a few things. Either let the bananas thaw a bit so they’re not rock solid, or add a splash of milk (cow’s or plant-based) until things start moving. Scrape the sides and push the nice cream down into the blades of the blender or food processor until you get a smooth, soft-serve consistency.
Step 5: You can eat the nice cream straight out of the blender if you like the soft-serve texture. For a firmer texture, spoon the mixture into a deep dish and set it in the freezer for about 30 minutes until it firms up. Then just scoop, serve, and enjoy!
Step 6: To store banana nice cream, cover it in plastic wrap (or transfer to an airtight container), and freeze. When ready to eat again, let it soften on the counter for a few minutes before scooping.
Nice Cream Flavors
The best thing about making nice cream are all the flavors you can create! Here are a few of our favorites:
Vanilla Nice Cream: Use the base recipe below, adding 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
Tropical Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas, 1/2 cup frozen mango, and 1/2 cup frozen pineapple. Instead of using milk to blend, add a splash of orange or pineapple juice.
Mocha Nice Cream: Use the base recipe below, adding 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp instant coffee, and a handful of chocolate chips.
Strawberry Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas and 1 cup frozen strawberries (or cherries!)
Raspberry Basil Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas and 1 cup frozen raspberries, adding 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil.
Ingredients
- 4 ripe bananas
- Splash of milk as needed cow’s or plant-based
Instructions
- Freeze: Peel and chop bananas into chunks. Lay in a single layer on a parchment-lined plate. Freeze until solid (at least 2 hours).
- Blend: Allow bananas to thaw for 5 minutes, then transfer to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides and adding a splash of milk as needed.
- Flavor: Optionally add ingredients to make your chosen flavor (see ideas above).
- Serve: Serve as from the blender for a soft serve consistency. For a firmer texture, transfer to a deep dish and freeze for 30 minutes, until firm.
Tips & Tricks
- Vanilla Nice Cream: Use the base recipe below, adding 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
- Tropical Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas, 1/2 cup frozen mango, and 1/2 cup frozen pineapple. Instead of using milk to blend, add a splash of orange or pineapple juice.
- Mocha Nice Cream: Use the base recipe below, adding 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp instant coffee, and a handful of chocolate chips.
- Strawberry Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas and 1 cup frozen strawberries (or cherries!)
- Raspberry Basil Nice Cream: Use 3 frozen bananas and 1 cup frozen raspberries, adding 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil.
Nutrition Information
Banana Nice Cream FAQs
How long to bananas take to freeze? Sliced bananas should take about 2 hours to freeze hard enough for nice cream.
Can you refreeze banana nice cream? If you’re not ready to eat the nice cream right when you make it, transfer it to a freezer-safe container. When you’re ready to dig in, let it thaw for a few minutes before serving.
How long can you store nice cream? Banana nice cream will stay good in the freezer for a few months. If stored longer (or without being properly covered), you run the risk of freezer burn!
How can you make bananas ripen quicker? Using ripe bananas is important for nice cream. You can make them ripen more quickly by placing them in a paper bag, which will trap the natural ripening gasses and help them to ripen faster.
To make the His & Hers Nice Cream Sundaes
The tulip-man and I each put our own spin on this base recipe, creating our dream nice cream sundaes (seen in the video above). Here’s how we did it!
His: Make the base mixture and divide it in half. Mix 2 Tbsp of cocoa power into one of the halves and leave the other half plain. Make a chocolate sauce by whisking 1 cup of steaming hot milk into 2 cups of chopped Mar’s bars, finishing with a pinch of salt. Assemble the sundae by stacking: cocoa nice cream, plain nice cream, whipped cream, crushed Bueno bar (or your favorite chocolate bar), and Mar’s chocolate sauce.
Hers: Make the base mixture and divide it in half. Blend 1 cup of tropical fruit (frozen mango and/or pineapple) into one of the halves. Blender 1 cup red fruit (frozen strawberry and/or cherry) into the other half. Assemble the sundae by stacking: tropical nice cream, red fruit nice cream, whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and chia seeds.
GW says
This is awesome. “Hers” looks great yet super healthy.
Robbie says
I needed something that felt like a treat but was still healthy (and cheap). Your recipe turned out great! I haven’t tried the “refrozen” style yet, but the softer nice cream right out of the blender was very good, and it worked well as a shake with more milk like your other recipe says.
I used a low-sugar almond milk for this and didn’t run into any problems. Hardest part is finding the freezer room for these trays of bananas LOL.
Sarah says
So happy to hear you liked it, Robbie! My freezer is FULL of bananas, so I know the feeling, haha.
Andie Wilson says
Hi Sarah,
Just found your website by chance as I’m a heat transplant patient I need to eat healthy food and I love ice cream. As I have an A3500 Vitamix machine I made some mango ice cream using frozen mangos coconut milk dates and a drop of vanilla extract it tasted delish. My only problem is I don’t want to eat the ice cream ( nice Cream ) all at once so I put it in a plastic food saver container should I have taken all the air out of the container would that have stopped my ice cream from freezing solid. What would you recommend to stop my ice cream from being nice and creamy to a solid ice frozen desert?
Sarah says
Because there is no air churned into the nice cream (like with traditional ice cream), this is just going to freeze more solid regardless of how you store it. I like to take it out of the freezer 10 minutes before I want to eat it, then scoop it with a warm spoon. It should soften quite quickly! 😀
Prisha says
Though this wasn’t easy to blend in my Vitamix (it took some generous splashes of milk), it turned out fabulous! I made the mocha version and my family was quite surprised when I told them that it didn’t have any added sugar or cream! Loved that it wasn’t super sweet! Next time I might experiment a little and add chopped walnuts instead of chocolate chips. I look forward to having some for breakfast sometimes.
Sarah says
So happy everyone liked it! It can be a challenge to get it to blend sometimes, but the Vitamix will power through it! 😀
Dawn A Stiles says
I LOVE this!!! I will be making this all the time@
J says
FYI nice cream is “nice” because it doesn’t use cow’s milk- that’s why it’s nice! 🙂