peanut butter pretzel banana ice cream


i don't know who fist started making banana vegan ice cream, but whoever it was - thank you for your brilliance. i hadn't tried making it until recently and have been experimenting with flavors and additions. i honestly love just the blended frozen bananas, with a splash of almond milk and vanilla bean. maybe topped with some chocolate covered sunflower seeds (who else is addicted to those? anyone?) i've tried adding a scoop of peanut butter. awesome. but even better was the addition of crushed peanut butter filled pretzels. oh my! this is my new favorite treat for a hot summer day... 


peanut butter pretzel banana ice cream ~ serves 2
3 spotted ripe medium bananas 
1/4 cup or more vanilla almond milk (homemade if you like!) 
20 peanut butter filled pretzels, quartered or crushed 
(or 2 tablespoons peanut butter and 2 servings regular pretzels - or gluten free pretzels - crushed inside a ziplock bag) 

peel bananas and slice into small bites. spread banana bites out on a parchment lined baking sheet and pop into your freezer for 2+ hours or overnight. 

remove from freezer and toss frozen bananas into a high speed blender. add 1/4 cup almond milk to start. start on low speed, pushing down bananas often with spatula or blender tamper tool. once combined, blend at medium to high speed until smooth. add additional milk only if necessary, as it will turn into more of a smoothie if you add too much milk. (if using regular peanut butter, add 2 tablespoons and blend in just add the end). 

scrape the blended frozen bananas into a bowl and add chopped peanut butter filled pretzels (or just crushed pretzels if using regular peanut butter). toss to the mixture into the freezer for about 30 minutes to set. scoop and serve with a few additional crushed pretzels on top or a sprinkle of sea salt. note: do not freeze too much longer than 30 minutes, as it will harden into a blob shaped popsicle. the recipe can be halved, if you want to make just a single serving.