Rolled ice cream with banana and hazelnut spread
Ripe banana and chocolate hazelnut spread chopped into the base — thick, sweet, nutty and chocolatey.
Banana and chocolate hazelnut spread are a tried and tested pair. The banana thickens and smooths the mix, the spread adds fat and a chocolate flavour. The base has no vanilla — banana and hazelnuts are enough.
Type: Rolled ice cream · Servings: 3 · Difficulty: Moderate
Equipment
Ingredients
- 120 g whipping cream 33 %
- 140 g whole milk 3.5 %
- 80 g sweetened condensed milk (sweetened, from a tube or tin)
- 120 g banana (ripe, peeled) (1 ripe banana)
- 45 g chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella-style) (about 3 tablespoons)
- 20 g hazelnuts (roasted) (for topping or folding in at the end, toasted, chopped)
Making the mix
- Whisk the cream, milk and condensed milk (plus the sugar or vanilla, if the recipe has them) until smooth — don’t whip it into a foam; the mix should stay liquid.
- Peel the banana and cut it into thin rounds. Keep the spread at room temperature so it stays spreadable.
- Put the mix in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the fridge for at least an hour — the colder it is, the faster it sets on the pan.
Method — Ice pan for rolled ice cream
- Take the ice pan or tray out of the freezer only just before you start and set it on a dry tea towel so it doesn’t slide. Have two flat metal scrapers and all the add-ins ready.
- Pour about a third of the mix (about 130–150 ml) onto the pan. Add a third of the banana and a tablespoon of the spread and chop it right into the mix with the edges of the scrapers until it starts to thicken.
- Quickly spread the mix into a thin, even layer 2–3 mm thick, in a rectangle about as wide as a scraper.
- Let the layer set — 2–5 minutes on a home ice pan. It is ready when the surface stops being glossy and the layer is firm but still flexible.
- Slide a scraper under the edge of the layer at an angle of about 45° and push it firmly away from you — the layer curls into a roll. Transfer the rolls straight into a glass or bowl.
- Return the pan to the freezer for at least 20 minutes until it is cold again, then make the next portion. Keep the mix in the fridge in the meantime.
Professional pans are cooled by a compressor to about −30 °C and a portion is done in 2 minutes. A home ice pan with a cooling gel or a tray from the freezer only reaches about −18 to −20 °C and warms up quickly — hence a small portion, a thin layer and fast work. Freeze the pan according to the manufacturer’s instructions; a tray for at least 12–24 hours in the coldest part of the freezer. On a tray the layer often won’t set on the worktop: in that case spread it out, put the tray back in the freezer for 10–20 minutes and only then roll. Don’t scratch a non-stick surface with a metal scraper.
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Stages
- Preparation
- 10 min
- Cooling
- 30 min
- Processing in the machine
- 15 min
- Freezing
- 40 min
- Total time
- 1 h 35 min
Serving and storage
Put the rolls in a bowl, drizzle with warmed spread and sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts. Serve straight away.
Not for storing — thin rolls stick together, harden and frost over in the freezer. Eat them straight away. Unused liquid mix keeps, covered, in the fridge until the next day.
Tips
- Chop the banana until almost all of it is smeared into the mix — bigger pieces tear the layer. A ripe banana with brown spots is best: it is sweeter and softer.
- The recipe contains hazelnuts, milk and soya (lecithin in the spread). If you are allergic to nuts, replace the spread with, for example, cocoa and a little sugar.
- The most common mistake is a thick layer or a pan that isn’t cold enough: the mix then won’t set, and when you start rolling it tears. Better a smaller portion and a thinner layer.
Why it works
For a fruit, banana has little water and plenty of sugar, starch and fibre, which bind water — so the mix freezes more pliable and less icy than with strawberries. The fat in the hazelnut spread firms up in the cold and strengthens the rolls, which is why this version has less cream and condensed milk.