Don’t own an ice cream machine, but still want speculaas banana ice cream?

Here is a simple speculaas banana ice cream recipe that is a favourite in the Dotsch household, in particular with the younger, sometimes vegetarian-minded generation.

Ingredients:

- 2 (over-) ripe bananas

- 1 teaspoon of vandotsch speculaas spice

Optional:

- 1 tbsp baking cocoa or powdered chocolate

Directions:

- Chill an empty freezer-safe bowl or container and its lid in the fridge

- Cut your bananas into "coins" and freeze for at least one hour

- Put your frozen banana coins into the food processor, and start chopping.

- It takes a while for it to get smooth, so be patient; make sure to scrape down the sides as necessary.

- Before your mixture gets smooth add the vandotsch speculaas spice (and baking cocoa or powdered chocolate - optional).

- You are finished when your mixture is smooth

- Put the mixture in the container, sprinkle some of the speculaas spice mix on top, close and freeze for 20 minutes.

Now let’s make some ‘real’ ice cream!

Speculaas spice infused banana and peanut butter ice cream

This is the first real ice cream which I made without using an ice cream machine. The second one is the vandotsch speculaas spice infused ginger ice cream.

At the end of many ice cream recipes it says “refer to your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions”. Well, I wasn’t going for that. So, here is my 4-step, 'no ice cream machine in sight', plan:

1, Chill an empty freezer-safe bowl or container and its lid in the fridge,

2. Mix the ingredients together, as per our recipes,

3. Transfer the mixture into the cold container. Close it and put it in the freezer,

4. Every 30 minutes for upto three hours (so, at least repeat five times), take the container out of the freezer, open it, quickly stir or churn (with a whisk, spatula, and finally a fork) to break up the (partially) frozen mixture, close the container, and return to the freezer, until it is completely frozen.

Makes about 1 litre of ice cream

Ingredients:

- 2 frozen bananas (chopped into "coins" before freezing - see above

- 460ml cold double (for USA, read: heavy whipping) cream

- 379g (1 can) sweetened condensed milk

- 2 table spoons of light brown sugar

- 2 teaspoons of vandotsch speculaas spice

- 1 spoon creamy peanut butter

- 1 teaspoon of chocolate powder

- (optional) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

- Chill an empty freezer-safe bowl or container and its lid in the fridge

- Mix the ingredients together, using a hand mixer. Add the peanut butter and chocolate powder last, and mix thoroughly till smooth

- Transfer the mixture into the cold container. Close it and put it in the freezer

- Every 30 minutes for up to three hours (so, at least repeat five times), take the container out of the freezer, open it, quickly stir or churn (with a whisk, spatula, and finally a fork) to break up the (partially) frozen mixture, close the container, and return to the freezer, until it is completely frozen.

To serve:

Take out of the freezer a few minutes before serving. Serve on its own or combine with summer fruits.

The taste of this concoction was a bit of a revelation to all of us, with opinion quite polarised between ‘superb’ and ‘hmmm, I am not sure about that’. So, I am afraid I have to leave it up to you to test it out on unsuspected guests.