Summer is the time to start churning homemade ice cream! I love making ice cream from scratch and aside from eating it, I love trying out interesting flavors. One such ice cream maker known for their fun concoctions is Ben & Jerry’s. They have quite a list of ice cream varieties and using them as inspiration, I recreated their Chunky Monkey Ice Cream at home…
One of my go-to ice cream books is Ben & Jerry’s. A majority of their ice cream recipes starts out with a sweet cream base to build flavors upon. Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream is simply creamy banana ice cream with chocolate and toasted walnuts swirled in. I have quite a bit of ripe bananas on hand so this was the perfect flavor for me to put the bananas to use!
The sweet cream ice cream base is one that involves using raw eggs. I’ve never had any problems with it and it certainly saves me some time from having to cook eggs and have it cool before churning (a popular method to making ice cream.) As for the texture, it’s creamy and smooth with the perfect mouthfeel. I’ve used both soy and 2% milk in the past for similar ice cream recipes and it’s made enjoying ice cream a little more guiltless but feel free to substitute the whole milk if desired.
recipe adapted from Ben & Jerry’s
Sweet Cream Base:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup vanilla soy milk
Sweet cream base:
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk in the 3/4 cup sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and milk; whisk to blend and chill for at least 30 minutes. Once chilled, transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Stir Ins:
2 large overripe bananas, mashed (black skinned bananas = overripe)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
Adding the Stir Ins:
In a large bowl, mash the bananas and lemon juice together. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. During the last 2 minutes of churning in your ice cream maker, slowly add the banana mixture and continue churning/processing until done.
Transfer your ice cream into a freezeable container and freeze for a few hours or overnight to allow flavors to meld.
That looks Good!!
I have been wanting to purchase an Ice cream maker… but was wondering if I would use it enough…I think I probably would… But this is one more recipe to the "must try" list!!
We LOVE our ice cream maker… though it might be single-handedly responsible for a few extra pounds! This looks scrumptious.
thank you for sharing! I just bought my husband a machine for father's day (he LOVES ice cream!) will have to try out this recipe!!
I was just going to ask if you owned that cookbook and reading down in your post you answered my question. 🙂 Yum.
Chunky Monkey is one of our favorites around here. Bought an ice cream maker for my husband (he used to make ice cream years ago) but he hasn't done anything with it except eat the ice creams I've made with it. LOL
I also just purchased an ice cream maker and have been researching new recipes to try. I have noticed that there are two types of ice-cream recipes; a custard base that requires cooking and no cook recipes. All of the custard base type of recipes call for just the egg yolks but I noticed your recipe actually calls for the entire egg. Is there a reason that you choose to use the entire egg? Also, does 'ripe' bananas mean almost black or all yellow? I know that almost black bananas make the best banana bread but Iwasn't sure about ice cream. Sorry for all my questions!
@nliscum – I used whole eggs since that is what the Ben & Jerry's recipe calls for and the recipe is a no cook recipe. Ripe bananas means bananas that are almost black on the outside since it has the highest sugar content, making it ideal for this recipe.