Ice cream is absolute essential at any birthday party in my opinion, but it’s usually made with dairy and eggs, and often features soya. This dairy free Neapolitan ice cream is creamy, delicious and free from the 14 major allergens.
Grab a nonstick tray - when picking a size, bear in mind that it needs to be able to sit flat in your freezer.
Add the banana slices to the tray with the strawberries to one side. Aim to place them in a single layer but it's ok if they overlap a bit, you just may have to break them up a bit once frozen. You may need to use more than one tray.
Freeze your fruit overnight.
Tip the frozen bananas into a blender. Keep the frozen strawberries to one side for now.
Blitz. The bananas will look chunky/sandy at first, but keep going until you have a pale, creamy mixture. If you don’t have a strong blender, you may need to do this in batches. If your bananas simply won't blend, they may be too cold let them defrost for 5 minutes, until they are soft enough to blend.
Divide the banana mixture between three freezer-safe bowls.
In the first bowl, add the vanilla. In the second, add the cocoa. In the third, add the strawberries.
Stir the cocoa and vanilla into their respective bowls. Pop the strawberries and banana bowl back into the blender and blitz until smooth. You now have your three flavours.
Depending on how fast you worked, you may find that your ice cream has become quite loose. If necessary, cover all three bowls and place in the freezer for an hour to firm back up.
Once the three flavours are firm enough to hold their shape, transfer into a 1 litre tupperware in the traditional Neapolitan pattern.
Pop on the lid and freeze for another hour, or until firm enough to scoop, then enjoy whenever you like!
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Notes
This Neapolitan ice cream needs to be kept in the freezer. It's best enjoyed a couple of hours after making, once set, but still easy to scoop.Unlike dairy-based ice cream which has other ingredients that help keep the ice cream scoopable, once this ice cream has been in the freezer for more than 12 hours it will probably become a solid block and be hard to scoop straight out of the freezer.If this is the case you can leave it on the side for 5-10 minutes to soften slightly before serving.