Julian and I went to Julian’s dad’s house to have an ice cream making morning. I wanted to try this flavor because we recently went to The Scoop, which has this flavor and it’s just THE BEST. I looked up a recipe and found this one from David Lebovitz. The most important part of making this ice cream is caramelizing the bananas (like bananas foster).

The ingredients:
3 ripe bananas chopped into chunks
2/3 cup brown sugar
Brownies, chopped into small chunks
1. Preheat the oven to 390F. In a pan or cookie sheet, coat the bananas in brown sugar. Bake for around 40 minutes, and flip after 20, or until the bananas are caramelized and golden.

2. While doing that, make the custard.

3. Here is where we changed the recipe a little. They said to “put the bananas and all the other ingredients (except brownie chunks) in a blender and whizz until smooth,” but instead we folded the bananas into the ice cream mixture while it was in the ice cream maker, and put the brownie in towards the very end (when it’s almost done).

It’s blueberry season, and guess who went blueberry picking-for the first time ever, I might add. We had so many blueberries left over, so I instantly got the brilliant idea to make ice cream. Better yet, blueberry cheesecake ice cream. So, I went to allrecipes (one of my go-to sites) and adapted the recipe from there!

BLUEBERRY MIXTURE

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (It said this, but It’s okay if you don’t have any)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

GRAHAM CRACKER MIXTURE:

• 2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

ICE CREAM:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant cheesecake or vanilla pudding mix
• 1 quart heavy whipping cream (heavy cream works too)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a small pan, combine sugar and cornstarch (I didn’t use any and it was okay). Gradually stir in water, and when sugar is dissolved, stir in blueberries until smooth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes and then refrigerate until chilled.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Stir in butter. Now you have two options:

2a. If making an ice cream cake pie, then follow these instructions: pat into an ungreased pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool.

2b. If you only want to make ice cream, just put the graham crackers in a bowl (or anything oven-safe) and put in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the ice cream ingredients. MAKE SURE ALL INGREDIENTS ARE COLD BEFORE PUTTING IN ICE CREAM MAKER (this is the key to having a nice texture). This means that if you are making ice cream only, you must wait for the graham crackers to be cold (put them in the freezer if you’re in a hurry), but if you are making the ice cream cake pie, then go ahead and make your ice cream mixture, and put it in your ice cream maker right away.

4a. If making your ice cream cake pie, swirl the blueberry mixture into the ice cream and gently place into pie pan and freeze. Ta da!

4b. If making the blueberry cheesecake ice cream: swirl the ice cream, graham cracker mixture and blueberry sauce together and freeze. Viola!

As I said before, I had a lot of blueberries left over from berry picking, so I decided to make a pie! It turned out great and my family ate most of it in one sitting!!

For the pie filling: