Chocolate Cups With Nice-cream

It's homemade, healthy, delicious and cold - banana ice cream has been nicknamed "NICEcream" for a reason. Put it in a cup made of chocolate and you've got a perfect frozen summer treat! Let's get started.

nICE CREAM

• 4 bananas
• Knife and spoons
• Blender
• Freezer
• Optional - peanut butter (1 tablespoon), cocoa powder (2 teaspons), berries (1/2-1 cup) etc. for flavor variations

CHOCOLATE CUPS

• Muffin pan
• Paper cupcake liners
• Paper OR silicone cupcake liners for serving
• Bowl for melting chocolate
• 200 g (7 oz) chocolate for melting (can be half dark, half milk chocolate or other proportions)
• Microwave OR pot and bowl
• Spoon or spatula

DECORATIONS

• Parchment paper
• Piping bag OR ziplock bag and scissors
• Sprinkles, berries, chocolate chips etc.

Peel and cut bananas into slices and spread evenly on a tray that fits your freezer. Add leftover berries or fruit for different flavors.

Freeze bananas overnight or until completely frozen.

Brake the chocolate into small pieces and put into a bowl. Melt it in a microwave for 1 minute or in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, mixing with a spoon or spatula.

TIP: You can melt all chocolate at once OR if you have milk and dark chocolate, melt one of them first - your chocolate cups will have different layers.

Place cupcake liners into the muffin pan. Put chocolate into the cupcake liner with a spoon and spread evenly, coating the base and sides. Avoid having see-through spots. Use half of the chocolate you have and put the rest aside.

You can see me using silicone liners as well as the paper ones in the photos - they show the coating well but please DON'T use silicone liners. I learned it the hard way.

Chill the chocolate covered liners in a freezer.

While the chocolate cup base hardens, make some pretty decorations. Scoop some teaspoons of chocolate into the piping bag or cut off a small corner of a ziplock bag. Place a sheet of parchment paper on flat surface and draw with chocolate - make leaves, hearts, letters, dots, spirals and so on.

Carefully place the sheet into the fridge of freezer.

Take out the chocolate cups and apply second coat of chocolate. It will not run as smooth as the first one, because already frozen base will make it to harden faster. My first coat was done with dark chocolate, then I melted milk chocolate and you can see that the cups have two colors (and flavors). Use all the chocolate. Put the cups back into the freezer.

Take out the frozen bananas and put them in a blender. If your blender has trouble blending the pieces smoothly, add a bit of milk or water and mix the mass until it gets smooth and creamy.

TIP: try different flavors. For every two bananas (or another amount as you like) use:

• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder,
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter,
• cup of strawberries or another berries
• etc.

Place the nicecream in the freezer for a bit while you free the chocolate goodness. Take chocolate cups out of the freezer and carefully peel off the paper liners. Don't worry if something brakes - you can use those chunks for decorating later.

Take out the nicecream and scoop into the chocolate cups. Take out your chocolate decorations and take them off the parchment paper (they come off pretty easily). Decorate your treat with berries, sprinkles, chocolate decors and chocolate cups that broke in the process (oops!).

Store in freezer for later or enjoy immediately!

Some advice:

• don't use silicone cups. Maybe it is just me, but I broke all of the chocolate filled silicone cups while trying to separate them; however - silicone cups were perfect for holding the ready made treat, because the chocolate slowly melts when you hold the cup;
• be generous with the chocolate for the sides of the cups - the only cup that broke from the paper ones was the last one that was too thin and didn't had enough chocolate on the walls;
• buy ripe and overripe bananas when they're really cheap and freeze for using later.

Have you tried another flavors? Let me know! :)