Banana marlow is a vintage recipe from the ’30s that creates an ice-cream-like dessert with a wonderful creamy texture, using marshmallows in the base.

Often, when I try a recipe I’ve never heard of, I love to jump into its history.

I was especially interested in marlow, an ice-cream-like dessert that was wildly popular for decades but fell out of favor sometime during the 1960s, when people had access to electric ice cream makers at home and no longer had to use the old, hand-cranked models.

I highly recommend an article by Andrew Coletti on “Atlas Obscura.” He goes into grand detail about marlow, which I was happy to dive deeply into.

He explains that before people could make ice cream at home very efficiently, marlow became popular, thanks to the use of marshmallows, which helped to keep the mixture a creamy, ice cream consistency, rather than letting it become rock hard in the freezer.

“The proliferation of mass-produced gelatin marshmallows in the early 20th century allowed for lots of recipes made with them, and marlow became a home ice cream favorite,” he writes.

You can read his entire article at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vintage-marshmallow-dessert.

So the real question: was it good?

Oh. My. Goodness. You guys. It was fabulous.

The marlow recipe I tried comes from a post by influencer B. Dylan Hollis. If you’ve never heard of him, look him up. He’s great. He makes a ton of vintage recipes and has a couple cookbooks out, too. He’s a fun watch. I figured out the proportions of some of the add-ins and added peanuts to my version below.

Print Recipe

Banana Marlow

Banana marlow is a vintage recipe from the ’30s that creates anice-cream-like dessert with a wonderful creamy texture, using marshmallows in the base.
Course: Dessert
Keyword: banana, heavy cream, lemon juice, maraschino cherries, marlow, milk, mini marshmallows, no-churn ice cream, peanuts, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup milk I used skim
  • 32 regular-sized marshmallows
  • 1 banana mashed (I used an overly ripe one)
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 10 ounces maraschino cherries chopped
  • 1/2 cup peanuts chopped

Instructions

  • Add the milk and marshmallows to a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring regularly to keep the milk from scalding, until the mixture is smooth.
  • Remove it from the heat and let it set until it cools to about room temperature.
  • Stir the banana, lemon juice and vanilla into the marshmallow mixture.
  • In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form, and then fold it into the marshmallow mixture. Finish it off by folding in the cherries and peanuts, and spread the mixture into a nine-by-13-inch dish. Put the dish in the freezer and let freeze over night.
  • Serve like you would any other ice cream, and enjoy.

This was creamy and super banana-y, and the added pops of sweet from the cherries and crunch from the peanuts were perfect. The texture was better than any other no-churn ice cream recipe I’ve ever tried.

And, according to both Coletti and Hollis, there are tons of other flavors you can make. I’m definitely going to be making a chocolate version before the summer is up.

There are plenty of very weird vintage recipes that should probably stay in the past (Jell-O aspics, anyone?), but it’s time to bring this one back.

This piece first appeared in print Aug. 20, 2026.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.