the best ice cream I never made

I was in the bathtub today, watching a documentary about Pavarotti, whose father was a baker. My bathroom is an open space and attached to my bedroom. On the other side of my bed is a double window that opens left and right to give me a clear view of the mountains of Mallorca. This is what I had in mind when I designed and built it, just a few short years ago.  

At the same time my phone rang, I was called by a dear friend from many, many years ago, who also happens to be an amazing writer, and has been helping me with a couple of projects. And in a moment of conversation, my lovely Sandy came in to the bathroom with some ice cream she just made for me, whispering that ice cream makes everything better. A beautiful surprise.  

Let me just say, we are vegans, so ice cream for us takes on a somewhat different meaning with ingredients than it does for others. The common vernacular for vegan ice cream is "nice cream." Over the many years I have always thought I perfected this and made amazing nice cream, until today, those words held true. 

Before I left Basel, I had a couple of friends over for dinner. I cooked a starter, a main, and prepared ice cream for them for dessert. At that time, five years ago, my ideals were not matched with my ability to make it taste great, along with an elegant texture. My base has always been bananas. I would slice and freeze them, and then blend them up with other things, like dates and a little cacao powder. Inevitably, by the time it came to serving, it would have crystalized in the freezer and the experience just wasn't the same. A couple of years later I found that mixing the non-essential bananas first, then adding them and serving fresh, would yield a nice creamy, and tasty dessert. Often, I would add berries, and a few nuts for variety, but I never really experimented.

As a child, I loved ice cream. I would get the banana boats and eat the insides first and then the bananas at the end. Actually, as I recall, I would really eat them in this order. First, all the whipped cream, then the vanilla, then the strawberry, and then finally the chocolate. My only variation to this would be when I wanted to mix the chocolate and vanilla together, which mean the strawberry came first. And then the bananas. I would always consider the plastic boat clean once I licked it and dropped into the bathtub with me for playing.

I knew the ice cream she made would melt so I took a small spoon my mouth, as quietly as I could to not alert my friend on the phone of my multitasking. Also, who really wants to listen to someone eat while they are talking on the phone? But how could I let it melt? A conundrum of sorts. During the call I managed to eat the softest six, or eight spoonful’s, problem solved.  

When I got off the phone, I called for Sandy, I had to tell her how I felt about the ice cream, but as she came into the room it wasn't so easy for me to speak as it was filled with such love that I admit the ice cream came first. Who could blame me, it was the best homemade ice cream I have ever eaten? Such simple ingredients, and just an idea that Sandy had in her mind. 

The details of what she presented to me: 

Removing the frozen bananas from the freezer, three full size bananas. I recommend that you make sure they are ripe, but not brown on the inside, just the outside. Toss them into your blender, include one who avocado, dates, a pinch of salt, and a dash of water here and there to just get the bananas to start to cream. 

Blend until a beautiful cream has formed and toss in some nuts, she used cashews today as they were the only nuts we had in the house. You could use almonds or just about any other you like, or not at all.

The recipe
3 frozen bananas
6 cashews
1 small avocado
7 dates (if using medjool dates you can use 5-6)
a pinch of salt
very little water

What is easier, simpler, and tastier than this? I cannot imagine that being many things. Imagine you are sitting on your balcony, listening to the wind blow through the trees as summer is approaching, and in your hands is a bowl of love, soft, creamy love.