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NEXT MAIN MENU PREVIOUS Vanilla Banana Soft Serve with Trail Mix Bananas make a fabulous frozen confection and are a delicious replacement for sugar and additive-laden commercial ice creams: creamy, naturally sweet and thrifty, the frozen banana confections provide a great canvas for all kinds of flavor add-ins, from seasonal fruits to nut butters. We have played around with frozen bananas before and it never gets old, especially as we are deep in July; this most recent creation was inspired by that perennial summertime favorite, trial mix. Whether on a road trip or an actual hiking trial, trial mix offers a simple solution for caloric needs: with the mixture of dried berries, nuts, chocolate chips, shredded coconut and whatever else you like, it also is a great topping for banana soft-serve. Here, I kept the frozen banana flavorings simple to offer a blank (but tasty!) canvas for the trial mix. Use whatever trial mix you like, including a favorite that is already packaged. The real trick here is to use ripe bananas – meaning that they are speckled with some brown spots – freezing them for at least 24-hours and picking the trial mix blend that you like most. There is a machine out there that can turn your frozen bananas into easy ice cream (and I have it because I found it in a thrift store) but I have found that a food processor works just as good or better.     Vanilla Banana Soft Serve with Trail Mix Serves three 3 large ripe bananas, cut into pieces and frozen for at least 24-hours ¼ cup plain dairy-free milk 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Trail mix for sprinkling, packaged or DIY Add your frozen bananas to a large food processor and pulse until the pieces are chopped up into smaller pieces for about 30 seconds. Add the milk, maple syrup and vanilla. Run the machine until the frozen bananas are smooth; add more milk if necessary. Scoop out, top with trial mix and serve immediately. © 2013-2016, Vegan Street