Chocolate Cups with Black Forest Banana Ice Cream

Chocolate Cups with Black Forest Banana Ice Cream

Even though summer is now officially over and posts of soups, curries, pies and porridge are saturating the various social media platforms, I think ice cream can never be out of season. Have you ever seen a restaurant menu that doesn’t feature ice cream on the dessert menu? No! There is always room for ice cream regardless of the time of year.

Chocolate and ice cream are my favourite two treats. There is no question in my mind that they taste even better when paired together. 

These chocolate cups with black forest banana ice cream are perfect as a post dinner treat, especially at a dinner party. Why serve ice cream in a normal bowl when you can serve it in a bowl made of chocolate that you can also eat? Once you try serving ice cream in these chocolate cups you’ll never want to go back to serving it in a boring old bowl! 

What makes them so perfect as a post dinner treat is how light they are. They taste sweet and decadent but instead of heavy cream, they’re made of frozen bananas! Now I know most of you aren’t new to the concept of blending frozen bananas into a smooth heavenly mixture that tastes like ice cream, but have you tried black forest banana ice cream? 

Still a super basic recipe but with added chopped chocolate and fresh (or frozen) cherries. Need I say anymore?

There are a few tips and tricks that are important to consider when making the chocolate cups. They’re not difficult, but if you skip one of the steps, the process may not go as smoothly as you would expect. For example when I was experimenting with the recipe, I naively didn’t allow the melted chocolate to cool down completely before dipping one of the balloons in. It wasn’t hot, or even warm to touch, but it was still warm enough to interfere with the delicate material of the balloon. Needless to say it popped and I ended up with chocolate all over my kitchen cupboards, ceiling and floor! It was’t fun to clean up. Only took me one hour! 

So the moral of the story is: make sure you read the instructions carefully before you proceed in order to avoid any hiccups. 

Chocolate Cups with Black Forest Banana Ice Cream

Serves: 4

For the chocolate cups:
4 small water balloons*
70% organic Love Cocoa dark chocolate
A but of oil to grease the balloons

For the black forest nicecream:
4 ripe frozen bananas
A splash of milk (use any milk you prefer)
10 cherries, chopped
40g 70% organic Love Cocoa dark chocolate, chopped

To make the chocolate cups: Melt the chocolate in a small bowl – you need enough chocolate to dip the top of the balloons in to create a small chocolate cup.
Make sure you allow the chocolate to cool down completely before dipping in the balloons.**
Grease the top of the balloons (the part that will go in the chocolate) with a bit of oil.***
Create four chocolate circles on a piece of baking paper. This will make the base of the chocolate cups. Make sure the circles are spread out to allow enough space between the balloons.
Dip the balloons in the cooled chocolate and place on one of the chocolate circles on the baking paper.
Refrigerate for 2 hours while you make the banana ice cream.
To make the nice cream: Add the frozen bananas along with a splash of milk to your blender/food processor. Blend until smooth.
Transfer into cake or loaf tin and fold in the cherries and chopped chocolate.
Freeze for 1-2 hours.
Take the chocolate cups out of the fridge and make a cut at the knot to allow the balloons to deflate slowly. This will also help the balloons come away from the chocolate more easily.
Scoop the nicecream into the chocolate cups and top with more chopped/shredded chocolate and fresh cherries.
Enjoy!

*I tried using ‘normal’ balloons but they were too big and they stuck to the chocolate. Water balloons are the right size and seem to have a texture and thickness that works perfectly for this recipe.
**Even if the chocolate is slightly warm, the balloons might pop and you’ll end up with chocolate all over your kitchen!
***If you skip this part the balloons may stick to the chocolate and you won’t be able to peel it off.