QUICK BANANA ICE CREAM SANDWICHES
Bake peanut butter cookies and blitz frozen bananas with cream and vanilla to make this impressive speedy dessert. Kids will think they’ve hit the jackpot
We all cherish our days off and, if you’re like me, you’ll want to spend those precious days enjoying good food and good times with loved ones.
Cooking for friends and family at the weekend is such a joy – gone is the midweek stress of getting something edible on the table as soon as you walk through the door and the weekend gives me time to try a new recipe, make an effort with the table and crack open a bottle or two.
Having said that, I don’t want to spend hours sweating over hot pans, leaving little time to chat and relax. In light of this, I’ve come up with a handful of easy, speedy, but still impressive recipes for you to try out this weekend.
A simple bread to serve with homemade butter, smoked salmon and cucumbers for a light lunch, a delicious chorizo lasagne, and an indulgent but deceptively easy ice cream sarnie for dessert.
All ready in just 30 minutes. 200g peanut butter (crunchy or smooth is fine)
175g golden caster sugar
½ tsp fine table salt 75g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
1 large egg
RECIPE TIP
FOR THE ICE CREAM
3 bananas, peeled, chopped and frozen in advance
2 tbsp double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence 1 Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line two large baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the peanut butter, sugar, ½ tsp fine table salt and chocolate chunks in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Crack in the egg and mix again until the mixture clumps together and forms a dough. 2 Break off chunks of dough (about the size of a cherry tomato) and arrange them, spaced apart, on the sheets. Press the cookies down with the back of a fork to squash them a little. (The cookies can be frozen for up to two months – to cook from frozen, add an extra 1-2 mins to the cooking time). Bake for about 12 mins until golden around the edges and paler in the centre. Leave to cool on the trays for 5 mins. 3 Meanwhile, put the bananas, cream and vanilla in a food processor and blend until they make a thick ice cream. Scoop into balls with an ice cream scoop, and sandwich between the cookies. Serve immediately.
Make sure the bananas are frozen solid before blitzing. If the ice cream consistency is too soft to scoop, put it back in the freezer for 10 mins.