Homemade Banana Stracciatella Ice Cream

An easy twist on a classic Italian stracciatella gelato. This recipe for creamy homemade banana stracciatella ice cream has streaks of chocolate shards throughout, which means that you get little bits of chocolate-y crunch with each bite. For best results, freeze the ice cream overnight before serving.

I had some leftover heavy cream from last week’s creme brulee recipe, so I thought I would put it to good use with an ice cream recipe. One of the benefits of living in California is that it’s good weather pretty much all year round. Some of my favorite ice cream flavors I’ve made in the past are my durian ice cream and my matcha ice cream. However, this banana stracciatella ice cream gives those a run for their money. It not only used up my leftover heavy cream, but also my leftover chocolate chips and overripe bananas. It’s sort of like my leftovers ice cream lol. Leftovers doesn’t mean not good though. This is perhaps one of my favorite, most unique ice cream flavors so far!

What is stracciatella?

I was first introduced to stracciatella at Italian gelato places. Originating from Bergamo, Italy, a stracciatella is a milk based ice cream with streaks of irregular chocolate pieces throughout. Personally, I prefer this to chocolate chip ice cream because I feel like the chocolate is more distributed throughout. I also think it is much harder to bite through chocolate chips than thin chocolate pieces in stracciatella.

This recipe is not a traditional stracciatella recipe because it uses a banana-flavored base instead of a milk-flavored base. However, I think the banana flavor gives the ice cream that extra something and makes it taste amazing. I bet it would even win over people who dislike bananas!

Ingredients

Ice cream is one of my favorite desserts because it is not only tasty, but also easy to make. The recipe for this banana stracciatella has 7 ingredients.

• Bananas – Make sure to use ripe bananas for this recipe because they are easier to break down.
• Egg yolks – Egg yolks add richness to the ice cream.
• Sugar – This ingredient adds sweetness to the ice cream.
• Whole milk – Whole milk adds creaminess to the ice cream. I would recommend using whole milk instead of reduced fat milk because it adds a richness to the ice cream. It also results in a better consistency and flavor.
• Heavy cream – Heavy cream adds richness to the cream.
• Vanilla extract – Used for flavoring the cream. A good substitute is 1 vanilla bean or an equal amount of vanilla paste. I would recommend vanilla paste because it has a ton of flavor.
• Chocolate chips – Chocolate chips are responsible for the chocolate shavings in the ice cream. It adds both taste and texture. I used semisweet chocolate chips but dark chocolate should work just as well.

Tools you will need

Most of the tools you will need for this recipe you can find in your kitchen. A few exceptions are an ice cream maker and an ice cream container.

1. Ice cream maker – An ice cream maker is essential to making any kind of ice cream. The one I use is the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Easily one of the best investments I made because I just love ice cream that much!
2. Ice cream container – I really like my ice cream containers because they keep my ice cream fresher for longer. I use the SUMO ice cream containers. They’re not only affordable but also really easy to clean.
3. Whisk – Used for stirring all the various ingredients together. A whisk is essentially when you combine your egg yolks and sugar because it helps you really incorporate both together really well.
4. Medium pan – Used to heat up the cream and milk.
5. Immersion blender – This was the first time I used an immersion blender for ice cream, but I am a believer now. The way it combined my pureed bananas with the ice cream base really impressed me. I got my immersion blender as a gift but here is one that has great reviews on Amazon.
6. Liquid measuring cup – I used a liquid measuring cup to stream my melted chocolate into the churning ice cream. I found that it is so much easier to do it this way because it created for a thinner more consistent stream of chocolate.

Making my banana stracciatella ice cream

Below are the steps on how to make this ice cream. It might seem like a lot of steps, but I wanted to write a more detailed recipe to make sure I cover all the nuances.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Roast bananas for 10 minutes until a deep brown color on the outside. Take banana flesh out from the skin and add to a blender. Puree flesh until smooth and set aside.
3. Add the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl. Whisk until a smooth consistency (~1 minute). Set aside.
4. Add whole milk, heavy cream and vanilla extract to a medium pan. Heat cream until hot and smoke is being emitted from the cream. Turn off the heat.
5. Add 1/4 cup of the hot cream to the eggs and whisk until it turns a smooth and uniform yellow color. The goal of this step is to raise the temperature of the eggs, so they don’t completely cook in the hot cream. Pour the eggs into the pan with the hot cream.
6. Turn the heat back on and heat the cream until it reaches 170 degrees F. A good way to test if it’s done is to coat the back of a spoon with the cream and pull your finger through the cream. A done cream should have a thick, smooth trail that doesn’t break. Take the cream off the heat.
7. Add the pureed bananas to the cream and blend using an immersion blender or in a regular blender. Pulse only a few times until the bananas and cream are well combined. Be careful not to over mix.
8. Cool the cream down to room temperature and then put it in the fridge to cool completely. The cream should be in the fridge for 6-8 hours. This helps produce a creamier texture.
9. Pour the cream into an ice cream maker and churn for 10-15 minutes.
10. When there are about 5 minutes left in churning time, melt your chocolate. Add chocolate chips to a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second increments in the microwave. Make sure to stir the chocolate in between each increment. It should take about 1-2 minutes for the chocolate to melt completely. Add the melted chocolate to a liquid measuring cup.
11. When there are 30 seconds left in churning time, stream the melted chocolate into the churning ice cream. The cold ice cream will harden the chocolate, so you get chocolate streaks throughout the ice cream.
12. Spoon the ice cream into an ice cream container. Freeze overnight and serve!

Tips on how to make the perfect banana stracciatella

1. Temper your eggs – Just like in creme brûlées, it is important to temper your eggs for the cream. Add 1/4 cup of hot cream to your egg and sugar mixture. Whisk until everything is well combined and no white streaks remain. Now, it is safe to add your egg mixture to the hot cream.
2. Make sure your cream is cold before churning – You will get better results if your cream is cold. Put your finished cream into the refrigerator for 6-8 hours to cool it down before adding it to the ice cream machine.
3. Be careful not to over churn – The maximum amount of time you should churn your ice cream is 20 minutes. The more you churn your ice cream, the harder it becomes. A done ice cream will have the consistency of something slightly harder than soft serve.
4. How do you get the chocolate shavings in your ice cream? – The chocolate shavings come from streaming in melted chocolate at the end of the churning process. The cold from the ice cream will solidify the melted chocolate, creating streaks of chocolate shavings throughout the ice cream.

Did you make this recipe?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

Follow Cooking Therapy on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @cooking__therapy and #beccascookingtherapy.

Stay connected and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for all my latest recipes.

Disclaimer: If you purchase anything through a link on this site, I may receive a small commission from the purchase at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products that I would personally use. Thank you so much for the support!