Banana and Green Tea Ice Cream

Bananas and Matcha Powder make a Delicious frozen treat. 

I have been in a relationship with Banana Ice Cream for sometime now, close to 5 years.  I felt quite silly when we were first introduced.  I had been a fan of frozen dipped bananas for longer than I could remember, how could I not have known that frozen pureed bananas were so right for me?

At the same time that I was enjoying my relationship with frozen dipped bananas, I was also having a love affair with Green Tea Ice Cream.  Our local Asian buffet had a cooler of self-serve options, but that Green Tea Ice Cream and I were meant to be.  I am almost embarrassed to admit that I paid the full buffet price only to consume more than my fair share of Green Tea Ice Cream - and on more than one occasion.

I am a food trend follower, to some degree.  I typically make a mental earmark for trends of interest, wait for the hype dust to settle, and then find reasonably priced ways to experience the products.  I think of my approach more like a DVR - I am not in on the action live, but not missing out on the experience.  Green tea powder, Matcha, is one of those waves that I am just now experiencing.

Taking up the hobby of product reviewing has opened doors to obtaining products that I may not have tried or purchased at full price previously.  I have been very fortunate to have been selected to review several brands of Matcha powder, which is one of my favorite products to test so far.

If you are new to Matcha, you will find that there are a couple of options.  Culinary Grade and Ceremonial.  I have used both for brewing beverages as well as cooking, and both have worked well for me.  To better understand the differences, and the various flavor profiles, you can read more about it here.

On to my Banana and Green Tea Ice Cream Experience

I have tried several recipes.  I have not found the perfect one for me yet, but OhHowCivilized.com has a pretty good recipe that I use as a foundation.

The issue that I continue to troubleshoot is the saturation of the Matcha powder within the recipe.  In my humble opinion, the Matcha powder has a better flavor once it has been dissolved into a moist or wet ingredient.  I made the banana ice cream according to recipe, freezing the bananas first, and found powder clumps in my finished product.  I love Matcha, just not a mouthful of dry powder.

I switched the process to pureeing bananas before freezing, so that I could add the Matcha powder during this step.  The trade off is giving up the creamy texture, as pureed bananas freeze in the same manner that a glass of milk would - full of ice crystals. 

 I am still struggling with the best solution for sweetening the mixture.  The original recipe called for sweetened condensed milk.  I assume the benefit of using sweetened condensed milk would be the creamy texture it adds to the finished product, in addition to the sweetness.

I have been fortunate enough to have bananas that are plenty sweet on their own, and have used Matcha that has sweet undertones, so I do not need a sweetener per se.  If I did, I would be content with adding a bit of honey or agave.

As for my efforts to achieve creaminess; I have decided that my next batch will leverage the moisture of coconut whipped cream to dissolve the Matcha, and then fold that into my frozen banana mixture.

My Banana and Green Tea Iced "Cream," which is more like iced crystals, but yummy still.

Screen shot of OhHowCivilized.com showing the creamy texture you can achieve when freezing the bananas prior to the puree process.