Bananas Foster Ice Cream And The WWII Ice Cream Caper
Last month we had a small family crisis. My Grandparents, who winter like the little snowbirds that they are, in Arizona. Grandpa got sick and then found out that their insurance will not cover after-care unless they are in their primary residence, in Oregon.
My family was rightfully worried about them making the long drive back alone so guess who was the available person to fly down to Arizona and drive them back J?
Since I am in my 50th year and still have THREE grandparents, I considered it an honor and adventure….and after 1000 miles or so grandpa was somewhat convinced I would not crash his car. He did, spend the next week telling all his friends “We would have been home Sunday instead of Saturday, but Ginger was driving…” (referring to my speed.). Humph.
One of the many stories we shared on this trip came from Grandpa and is definitely one of my favorites.
Grandpa flew bombers and P-38’s in WWII. At one point he was stationed in Italy.
Things were tough then, and many things we take for granted were not available to soldiers unless they became inventive. That was how the Great Ice Cream Caper came about.
The P-38’s sometimes came in damaged. (It was, after all, a war…) After they were repaired, a test flight was required to make sure they were safe again to fly.
Our guys wanted ice cream….Ice cream was a luxury not to be had as there was no mechanisms to freeze it.
Enter American ingenuity.
One of the mechanics made a nice stainless steel tub out of an ammo case. It fit nicely in the cargo hold…..where at a high enough altitude, it freezes.
The mess cooks got in on it and made a batch of ice cream custard (really some kind of liquid made with powdered milk…).
When it came time for a test run of a plane. The mess cooks would run out and load the ice cream liquid in the stainless tub.
The pilots would take the plane to 25,000 feet and circles around Italy until the ice cream froze, about the same amount of time it took to determine the plane was flight worthy.
They would then make a fast dive to the runway where the mess cooks were waiting to grab the ice cream and serve it before it melted!
….and you wonder why we won the war? Because we rock.
- 3 bananas
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup brandy
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cups vanilla ice cream base (I buy mine at Cash & Carry but you can make your own.)
Blend up the bananas. (I froze the bananas overnight and then put them in the blender but I am not sure this was a needed step.)
Put the bananas and ice cream base in your ice cream machine and do what you are supposed to do with it. It’s your machine so I will assume you know how it works!
When it gets to ice creamy stage, add the brandy.
When that is nice and blended, add the carmely brown sugar stuff.
Let it go for as long as your machine will allow or until you are tired of hearing it .
Pack it in containers and stick it in the freezer for 4 hours.
