Banana Blueberry Swirled Ice Cream

Smooth and creamy homemade ice cream with real bananas and blueberries for a delicious banana blueberry swirled ice cream dessert.

I often purchase two bunches of bananas at the store just so I can make some of my favorite desserts; there’s banana bread, banana coconut cream pie, banana cake with cream cheese frosting, and of course this amazingly creamy banana blueberry swirled ice cream. The only challenge I have with this is stopping my husband from eating all the bananas. I tell him not to eat the overripe ones, but he says they are the sweetest and that is true.

I highly recommend you use overripe bananas when it comes to making any recipes with bananas. A ripen banana to the point of overripe, which might seem too mushy, is so sweet and flavorful and perfect for banana desserts.

This banana blueberry swirled ice cream has a cooked custard base using eggs. That might make a few of you nervous, it did me the first time, but trust the recipe and trust yourself. It takes a couple of extra steps but in the long run, you will have a very creamy ice cream with lots of flavor to enjoy.

 

INGREDIENTS YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE BANANA BLUEBERRY SWIRLED ICE CREAM

almond milk or whole milk
heavy cream
vanilla
eggs
sugar
bananas
blueberries

HOW TO MAKE A CUSTARD BASE COOKED ICE CREAM

In a saucepan, warm the milk, cream, and vanilla – bring to a simmer but not a boil, stirring regularly.  Separate the egg yolks from the whites, saving the whites for another recipe. (If you don’t have a recipe planned yet, you can freeze the whites but be sure to use them right after thawing in the fridge.)
Beat the egg yolks for a couple of minutes, then whisk in the sugar. Once the milks are warm, take 1/4 cup at a time and stir into the egg yolks. Continue to stir the egg yolks as you add an additional 1/4 cup of the warm milk. Continue this process until 1/2 of the the warm milk has been added to the egg yolks, this will temper the egg yolks and prevent curdling.
Add your additional ingredients, such as the mashed bananas, into the egg and milk mixture. Now you can stir this mixture into the other 1/2 of the warm milk in the saucepan. Cook and stir on a low medium until the custard reaches a temperature of 170 degrees. This can take 10 to 15 minutes. Using an instant read thermometer is helpful, checking every 5 minutes, and more often as the temperature rises above 160 degrees.
Remove from the custard base from the heat and pour into another bowl that you can cool and store the custard in. Let the custard cool on the countertop and no more steaming, then refrigerate for a miniumun of one hour but up to overnight.

HOW TO MAKE A BLUEBERRY SPREAD

 Place washed blueberries and sugar into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and spread the pureed blueberries over the parchment paper with a rubber spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to swirl into the banana ice cream.

TIPS FOR MAKING A CREAMY SMOOTH ICE CREAM
Start with cold ingredients. The custard base or milk base should come from the fridge to the ice cream maker.
Freeze the container you will be storing the ice cream in.
Cover ice cream with plastic wrap after putting in the storage container, to prevent ice crystals from forming.
Place in freezer as soon as possible after mixing and preparing ice cream.
Store ice cream toward the back of your freezer.

If you like our banana blueberry swirled ice cream, you will probably love our other banana ice cream too. There is banana peanut butter swirled ice cream and chunky monkey ice cream.

Banana Blueberry Swirled Ice Cream was first posted on September 24, 2013, pictures and recipe was updated on March 2020.