Banana Coconut Sorbet

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After telling you to not forget the coconut flakes I forgot them in the photos!

This banana coconut sorbet comes together easily with or without an ice cream maker. The recipe is flexible. I’ve used the coconut water from one Thai coconut, which has varied from 1 1/2 to 2 cups, and from 2 to 4 ripe bananas ripe enough to have some freckles. As written, the recipe will yield a sorbet with a flavor that’s nicely balanced between banana and coconut. Don’t leave off the coconut flakes: their contrasting texture makes this a lot more interesting.

Purchased coconut water can be expensive: you’ll probably do better buying a young coconut from an Asian grocery, and then you’ll have the coconut meat to use, too. See my directions for how to open a young coconut in my Thai young coconut smoothie recipe. This could be made with light coconut milk if you can’t find or don’t want to buy coconut water or a young coconut.  It would be richer and would have a stronger coconut flavor.

I’ll give you the directions for making this with a high-speed blender or a food processor first, then directions for making it with an ice cream maker or with a regular blender.

Freeze the coconut water in an ice cube tray and the peeled, chopped bananas in a zip-lock bag. I used a BPA free stainless steel ice cube tray which releases the cubes very easily without breaking them.  If it never breaks for the rest of my life I might get my money’s worth out of it and keep a few pieces of plastic out of the landfill.

coconut water ice cubes still in the tray

frozen bananas and coconut water ready to go in the high-speed blender or food processor

coconut banana sorbet on brown rice pudding square

Once the bananas and coconut water are frozen, put them in your high speed blender, such as a Vitamix, with a little vanilla. I blended the ingredients for about a minute, stirring vigorously with the tamper until the sorbet was smooth. The sorbet will be a soft -serve consistency. If you want it firmer, put it in the freezer for half an hour or so to firm up. I served the sorbet with a little unsweetened flaked coconut on top, which I recommend.

I’ve seen recipes using only frozen bananas and a food processor to make sorbet, so I feel confident you could make it in a Cuisinart. With a food processor the ingredients may need to be a little softer. If the frozen ingredients are too much for your food processor, you could microwave them for a short time to soften them, or add a little milk (almond milk would be good in this) to the recipe.

To make this with an ice cream maker or blender, you won’t need to freeze the ingredients first. Blend the ingredients, then put them in the ice cream maker. Or with no ice cream maker, put the blended ingredients in a large, shallow baking dish and put the dish in the freezer, stirring and breaking up the sorbet once every 45 minutes or so to promote a good texture. You should only have to do this a few times.

If you want to make the rice pudding square the sorbet is shown on, cruise on over to my brown rice squares recipe. This time I switched up the rice squares by blending the meat of one young coconut in the Vitamix along with eggs, maple syrup, and a little almond milk, and adding it all to the rice. Between the squares and the sorbet I used both parts of one young coconut. Still have another on the counter for the next project.

Banana Coconut Sorbet

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

Author: Mary Saylor

Recipe type: dessert

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 medium bananas, chopped and frozen overnight
• 1½ cups frozen coconut water ice cubes
• ¼ tsp. vanilla
• unsweetened flaked coconut (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine ingredients in high-speed blender (Vitamix and the like) or a food processor. Vitamix directions: turn on at the lowest variable speed setting, quickly raise speed to high and flip the switch to the highest power setting. Blend for about a minute while stirring vigorously with a tamper.
2. Food processor directions. Put bananas, frozen coconut water, and vanilla in food processor with the cutting wheel attached. Blend or pulse until smooth, stopping to scrape down ingredients from the sides as needed.
3. Serve plain or with a little unsweetened flaked coconut on top.
4. The texture will be a soft-serve consistency. If you want it firmer you can put it in the freezer for an hour or so. If you leave sorbet in the freezer all day or overnight it may become too hard.

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coconut banana sorbet on brown rice pudding square

Tagged as: banana, coconut