Roasted banana ice cream with choc fudge sauce

It’s also very fun to put together – set out the ice cream, fudge sauce and chopped nuts and let everyone create their own sundae!

Another alternative for the fudge sauce is to turn it into truffles. If you continue to cook the sauce until it’s as thick as butterscotch, then chill it until completely set, you can roll it in cocoa powder, shredded coconut or chocolate sprinkles and you’ll have yourself a much less sweet version of brigadeiros, the classic Brazilian chocolate truffles made with condensed milk.

GF, V, VG

SERVES 4

PREP 10 minutes

COOK 49–54 minutes

FREEZING TIME overnight plus 6 hours

INGREDIENTS

ICE CREAM

• 5 extra ripe bananas, pelled and roughly chopped (540g)
• 150g maple syrup
• 200g coconut cream (you'll need another 200g for the sauce)
• 30g white miso paste
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• ½ tsp instant coffee powder
• 50g dark chocolate, very finely chopped
• Spiced caramelised nuts 
• 100g pistacho kernels, shelled
• 100g whole hazelnuts
• 25g soft light brown sugar
• 1 ½ tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp mild olive oil
• ½ tsp ground coffee
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt 
• freshly cracked pepper

CHOC FUDGE SAUCE

• 200g coconut cream
• 100g maple syrup 
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (100% cocoa solids)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 ½ tsp white miso paste
• ½ tsp instant coffee powder (or coffee grounds)
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C fan/210°C.
2. Line a baking dish with parchment paper, then place the bananas and maple syrup in the dish. Mix and bake for 25–30 minutes, gently stirring halfway, until the bananas are soft and browned and the syrup has reduced a little. Leave to cool, then lift the parchment, along with the bananas and syrup, into a container and freeze overnight.
3. Lower the heat to 160°C fan/180°C.
4. Chop the nuts roughly into halves (you want nice chunks, so don’t chop them too much). Line a flat baking tray with parchment. Put the nuts on the tray along with the sugar, maple syrup, oil, coffee, salt and pepper and mix well. Bake for about 17 minutes, stirring halfway, until well browned. Set aside to cool, break the clumps of nuts apart, then store in an airtight container.
5. The next day, break up the frozen banana and solidified maple syrup and put into a food processor or blender with the coconut cream, miso, vanilla and coffee. Blitz until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Transfer to a container and freeze for 2 hours, or until set but still soft. At this point, fold in the chocolate, then return to the freezer until set but still scoopable – about another 4 hours.
6. Put all the fudge sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan and whisk until smooth. Place on a medium heat and cook, stirring often, until thickened to a pourable fudge sauce consistency, about 7 minutes (it will thicken more as it cools).
7. Serve the ice cream with the warm fudge sauce and the spiced nut crumble.

NOTES

• The roasted banana will need to freeze overnight, and then you’ll need another 4 hours to freeze the ice cream once it’s been blitzed, so make sure to factor that in.
• Once the ice cream has frozen solid it will need about 40 minutes at room temperature to come back to scooping consistency before serving.

CREDIT LINE: Extracted from FUSÃO by Ixta Belfrage (Ebury Press, $65.00). Photography by Kim Lightbody