Caramelized Fig and Banana Cinnamon Ice Cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl gently combine bananas, figs, melted butter, and dark brown sugar. The fruit needs to be well-coated with the melted butter and brown sugar.

Pour fruit mixture onto the prepared baking pan. Spread fruit around the pan into a single layer. Place pan on a middle rack in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time. Remove pan and stir the fruit once more. At this point the fruit can be left on the pan to cool or it can be transferred to a plate or bowl for cooling. I chose to transfer the fruit to a plate for quicker cooling.

After the fruit has cooled, assemble the base for the ice cream. In a separate bowl, mix together the half-and-half, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Whisk until the ingredients are well combined and the sugar has dissolved.

Transfer the fruit to a blender. Pour a little of the ice cream base into the blender. The liquid ice cream base will help the fruit to puree more easily. Pulse-blend the fruit until smooth, adding a little more ice cream base if necessary.

Transfer the contents of the blender back into the bowl with the remainder of the ice cream base. Stir well to combine. Pour the mixture into the bucket of your ice cream machine. Process according to the manufacturer’s directions for your machine.

After processing in the ice cream machine, the ice cream will be very soft. Transfer it into a bowl or other container, cover, and place in freezer for about 8 hours to allow ice cream to ripen.

Note: Ripening ice cream is the process of letting the ice cream harden in the freezer. For my freezer, this took about 8 hours. We ate some of the ice cream after only three hours in the freezer, but it was pretty much the consistency of a thickened milk shake at that point. No problem, it tasted great. Know, however, that if you want to have firmer, scoopable ice cream, it takes several hours to achieve a solid consistency.

Makes about 1.5 quarts.