An End-Run

July 03 2008 by Kristin at The Kitchen Sink in Dessert, Recipe

One of my greatest regrets of my short blogging career is that I blew through many of my favorite recipes right off the bat—before I learned to snap a decent photo or even really use WordPress. As I’ve mentioned before, patience really isn’t my strong suit. And while I kick myself for squandering quite a few recipes on bad lighting and poor formatting, I regret one recipe more than the rest: our banana bread.

I could write dozens more posts about it—about my continued experimentations with it (I recently cut the sugar in half … and liked it); about how we’ve taken to traveling with it, stashing a loaf deep in one of our suitcases (coughKevin’ssuitcasecough); about how my friend Emily, thanks to the recipe, has now contracted what she calls “a bit of a banana bread problem” that might actually rival my own (to put it briefly: it involves more than one loaf per week; enough said). But noooo, I can’t write about any of this because I already posted on the banana bread way back when.

(Click “more” for the rest of the story, more photos & the recipe.)

So I suppose it’s not all that shocking that I’ve found an end-run: banana-sour cream sorbet. It has all the flavors of banana bread, only colder. It was born out of the sour cream sorbet I adore at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants. I don’t usually make a habit of trying to emulate the creations of one of Chicago’s best pastry chefs—but if it meant a banana-bread-esque blog post, I was all for it.

I loosely started with a Marcus Samuelsson recipe and improvised as I went along (a glug of bourbon here, another plop of sour cream there)—knowing full well that I was headed for either disaster or delight. Happily, what emerged from the ice cream maker was delight. It was also lightly tangy, comfortingly banana-y, slightly boozy (I told you the bourbon would be back), and flecked with bittersweet chocolate shards. I could’ve eaten it for breakfast the next day, in lieu of my standard slice of (you guessed it!) banana bread, but it was all gone. Sniff.

Banana-Sour Cream Sorbet

1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
2 ripe bananas
juice from 1 lemon
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
pinch salt
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, water and corn syrup to a boil. Let cool.

Meanwhile, puree the bananas in a food processor. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the lemon juice, sour cream, vanilla, bourbon and salt; mix. Add the cooled water/sugar/corn syrup mixture.

Churn in an ice cream maker, adding the chocolate just before the churning is complete. Freeze until needed.

11 comments so far. »
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Emily says on July 03 2008 at 8:23 am:

Hey there!!!! Any advice as to what kind of ice cream maker to get? I am thinking of picking one up but have no idea what features/brands are best.
Amanda says on July 03 2008 at 8:41 am:

I think you should revive the old past posts. Brush the dust off of them!
Mia says on July 03 2008 at 10:14 am:

I am SO into bourbon right now - lately it’s been in vanilla ice cream and brownies….your sorbet looks fantastic!
Erinn says on July 03 2008 at 4:23 pm:

The icecream looks delectable, but I had to click the link to the banana bread recipe. Is it a conicidence that I happen to have a bunch of bananas that for some odd reason haven’t been eaten and are on the verge of going bad? I think not! I’m soooo excited. Thank you for your love of banana bread!
brilynn says on July 03 2008 at 4:38 pm:

You know how I love ice cream! I’ve bookmarked this one to try as soon as I get get my bananas to ripen!
Kristin at The Kitchen Sink says on July 04 2008 at 6:41 am:

Emily: I received this one as a gift, so I didn’t do any shopping around. That said, I’ve been very happy with this one. It’s got a 2-quart capacity which is plenty big for me. And the bowl is a nice size to fit into even my very narrow freezer. Actually, that’s my biggest ice cream maker tip: keep the bowl in the freezer at all times . There’s nothing worse than going through the trouble to make and chill the ice cream/frozen yogurt/etc mixture and having to wait for the bowl to freeze.

Amanda: An excellent idea. Perhaps I’ll do that come fall (many of the recipes were fall/winter-y, given the time).

Mia: Oooh, bourbon in brownies and vanilla ice cream? Swoon.

Erinn: Hope you like the banana bread! Let us know.

brilynn: I hope you like it! Let us know how it goes.
Emily says on July 05 2008 at 9:13 am:

I have to comment on the banana bread again… I made it for my family this week, and they continued to ask for it every day that I was home. So good. Now I have to get brave and try making sorbet!
Kristin at The Kitchen Sink says on July 05 2008 at 9:24 am:

Emily: That’s so great to hear! Thanks for reporting back. Good luck with the sorbet. If you try it, let us know …
Polly says on March 30 2009 at 11:47 am:

I have FINALLY replaced my missing ice cream maker after several years and this recipe is first on my list. I however did not see in the instructions at which point to add the chocolate? Thanks!
Kristin at The Kitchen Sink says on March 30 2009 at 11:54 am:

Polly: Sorry about that — just updated the recipe. I throw the chocolate in at the very end of the churning (letting the ice cream maker distribute the chunks in the ice cream, which will still be a bit soft at that point). Alternatively, you could stir the chocolate in by hand once you are done churning.

Congrats on the new ice cream maker! And let us know how the sorbet turns out for you.
Polly Rice says on April 19 2009 at 7:24 pm:

Hmmm,,,,,the taste of this sorbet was exactly what I was hoping for, but the consistency once it sat in the freezer was just shards of ice. I think my mistake was using low fat sour cream, perhaps. But I just made a batch of coconut sorbet with coconut milk, shredded coconut, a bit of sugar and unsweetened powdered cocoa which turned out great so I am looking forward to exploring more flavors with a coconut milk base.