By Alana Helbig -

As a little girl, in the heat of summer, my Mum would freeze fresh orange juice with grapes in cute ice-block makers. Seems I haven’t really grown up – I’m still making them. Sometimes I get inventive like these layered mango and banana guys, sometimes I fill ice-block makers with leftover smoothie from my morning breakfast and sometimes, when I’m feeling extra lazy, I just fill them with juice. Either way these cool cats blow that big bad heat to smithereens.

What You Need:

2 very ripe bananas
1 very ripe mango
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
5 tablespoons passionfruit (I used tinned but you could also use fresh)
Dash of soy or other non-dairy milk

How to Prepare:

1. Peel and chop the bananas into small pieces and place in a container in the freezer. Do the same for the mango. Allow to freeze completely.

2. Once frozen, tip the mango pieces into a food processor. Add the passionfruit. Blend until the mango becomes a smooth consistency, like sorbet. Place the mango sorbet into a container and put back into the freezer while you prepare the banana.

3. Tip the banana pieces into the food processor. Add the vanilla bean paste. Again, blend until the banana becomes sorbet-like. You may want to add a couple of dashes of soy milk to achieve the required consistency if needed.

4. Using some ice-block containers (clear ones are preferred so you can see the layers being formed) add a teaspoon of the mango sorbet to the bottom of the container. Then place a teaspoon of banana sorbet over the top. Continue to add alternative layers of fruit. You can make the layers as thin or as thick as you like. The trick here is to work quickly and not to let the sorbet melt too much. You want the sorbet to be soft enough to spread but not too soft that the layers will blend together. If you find the sorbet becomes too soft, place the sorbet back in the freezer for a few minutes before continuing.

5. Once the container is full, place a pop stick into the centre of the ice-cream and immediately put into the freezer to set.

Enjoy!!

Originally posted at TheLittleGreenhouse.net and OneGreenPlanet.org