The in-a-jiffy icecream which saved my bacon

One day recently, I was walking home from school with two little boys (aged five and six). There was the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth (largely from my son, not the impeccably well-mannered neighbour’s child) about the prospect of walking up the two hundred and something steps to get home. Understandably.

Eventually they cheered themselves up by turning to toilet humour. My own mood started to go downhill. In an attempt to raise the tone of the conversation, I started talking about what we could make for afternoon tea.

“How about instant ice cream?” I said

“What is instant ice cream? Does it come in a pottle?” they said.

“No” I said, “we can make it, in the blender. With mango, and banana and coconut.”

“That will take too long!”

“No it won’t, it will be ready in a jiffy” I said.

So we got home, and they set about doing whatever it is that makes boys of that age giggle so much. I got the blender organised, found the frozen bananas, and immediately spotted problem #1.

There was no coconut milk, Or coconut cream. Or coconut water. Or anything vaguely in the coconut family.

That’s fine, I thought to myself; we have almond milk.

Then I found the mango. Problem # 2.

The mango was Definitely. Not. Ripe.

Just then my son called out “is the ice cream ready?”

“Not yet”, I said.

“But you said it would be ready in a jiffy”, they said. “What is a jiffy? This is taking a really long time.”

I am up a stinky creek with no discernable way of steering this vessel, I thought to myself. Not having two out of the three ingredients in a recipe is…well….less than ideal.

But no – as anyone who knows me is aware, I hardly ever follow the same recipe twice. I can Make Do. And this is what I came up with.

In-A-Jiffy Blueberry Icecream

2 large or 3 small frozen bananas (see notes)

1 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 – 1 cup milk of choice (I used almond)

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blitz. Eat immediately.

Notes:

To freeflow freeze bananas, do not simply throw whole bananas in the freezer, no sirree.  Find bananas which are desperate to be frozen, the riper the better. Peel and slice. Place banana slices in a resealable bag in a single layer, close and freeze flat. Believe me, your food processor/blender will thank you for your efforts. (Mango and pineapple cubes can be frozen in the same way).

Vary the amount of milk according to whether you want firmer ice cream (less milk) or a slushy (more milk).

As an aside, when my neighbour came to pick up her son, I told her what we had eaten for a snack.

Oh that’s funny, she said. He doesn’t really eat blueberries.

Well he did that day!

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here – scroll down and click “print” on the right.)