Santa Cruz Banana Smoothie

I make banana smoothies quite often, but tonight was the jewel of the nile, or the icing on the cake, or pick your analogy. I have decided to name this recipe after the beautiful place in which I live, Santa Cruz County, California, USA.

This recipe makes 2 smoothies.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of whole vitamin D milk
• 1 ripe or over ripe banana
• 3 tablespoons of malted milk powder
• 8-10 medium sized ice cubes (from an ice cube tray)
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• pinch of cayenne pepper powder
• pinch of kosher salt
• 2 mint leaves (optional)

Preparation

In a blender add milk, banana and ice cubes. Blend on medium for 1 minute. Add vanilla, malt powder, cyan pepper and salt. Continue to blend on medium for 5 minutes. The goal is to blend until the milk starts to freeze up a bit from the coldness of the ice, and also to blend all the ice so there are no remaining chunks. After 5-6 minutes of blending, I pulse the blender on and off to grind up the final pieces of ice.

Presentation

Serve immediately in 2 tall glasses. Garnish with mint leaves if possible.