Malted Banana Ice Cream

4 large, ripe unpeeled bananas
1 cup low-fat buttermilk or low-fat kefir
1 cup half-and-half
1/3 cup malted milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Place unpeeled bananas in large baking dish, and bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until blackened and soft. Set aside 20 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.
2) Remove and discard banana peels. Place bananas and any liquid from baking dish in blender along with remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Transfer to covered container, and refrigerate overnight.
3) Pour chilled ice cream base into ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Review:  I found this recipe and read it, getting excited that I could make ice cream without an ice cream machine.  We bought all the ingredients over the weekend and I went to make it Sunday afternoon.  I reread the directions and *this time* saw the step where you put all the ingredients into an ice cream maker.  I didn't own one.  Fortunately, Mike had been planning on buying one for my birthday and it was sitting in his amazon.com shopping cart.  So, I got an early birthday present this week.  Yay!  Now I'll get to make ice cream allllllll the time.

So, malted milk is most commonly known as Ovaltine.  We had chocolate malt flavored Ovaltine in the cabinet and didn't feel like buying a $4 jar of regular Ovaltine.  And, how could you go wrong by adding a little chocolate?  This was pretty delicious and may not last longer than tonight . . .