Bananas, Chocolate, and Icecream, OH MY!

I recently shared with my three boys that I was participating in a challenge to create a new recipe with none other than ICE CREAM! Needless to say, they were ecstatic to offer their suggestions. After much debate, we settled on ice cream that would contain cookies, chocolate chips, vanilla ice cream, and bananas… Does this sound familiar? Sounds a lot like chunky monkey to me!

Traditionally, chunky monkey ice cream incorporates nuts in the recipe, typically walnuts.  Because of our peanut and tree nut allergies, we skipped the nuts and used a “copycat” secret weapon, pretzels!  We also navigate dairy and wheat allergies as well and used So Delicious vanilla flavored coconut ice cream.

Our family isn’t allergic to coconut.  According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, coconut is not a botanical nut; it is classified as a fruit, even though the Food and Drug Administration recognizes coconut as a tree nut. However, it’s always best to consult your doctor on his or her recommendations for your care.

To begin the journey into chunky monkey bliss, you’ll need the following:

6 gluten free cookies (similar to Oreo’s)

2 tsp of cold dairy free butter

¼ cup of gluten free pretzel twists pieces

1 pint of So Delicious Dairy free icecream

2 ripe bananas

½ cup of dairy free chocolate chips

2  4inch springform pans or cake pans

1. Scrape any cream filling from cookies and place in a large mixing bowl.

2. Crush cookies and mix 2 tsp of cold dairy free butter.

3. Separate half of the cookie mixture into each of the spring pans.

4. Place in the freezer.

5. Remove the ice cream from the freezer.

7. Crush gluten free pretzels and add to mixing bowl with cream filling.

8. Add one pint of ice cream to the large mixing bowl.

9. Mash both bananas and place in mixing bowl.

10. Mix ice cream in the bowl until well incorporated.

11. Remove the spring pans from the freezer and spoon half of ice cream mixture in each pan.

12. Freeze for two hours and garnish with bananas, sprinkles, and pretzels.

13. Top with chocolate chips and crushed pretzels

My boys LOVED these mini ice cream cakes and had a blast helping develop the recipe.  I do think the treat at the end was worth its weight in bananas.

**This post is sponsored by So Delicious Dairy Free in support of their #frozenfridays contest.  The recipe, photos, and opinions in this post are my own.