Mangoes and Cream Ice-cream

Mangoes and Cream Ice-Cream
Home Cooking 

Tasked with bringing some food to my family Christmas dinner last weekend, I jumped from a lazy "can I just make a salad" to whisking up 3 items in a cooking fit. One of these contributions was a mango ice-cream (original recipe from Not Quite Nigella; click here). My ice-cream machine is something I have used only a handful of times but don't at all regret buying because I get a sense of domestic satisfaction from owning one. Just knowing I can whip up my own imaginative concoction of ice-cream flavours is really, bloody awesome.

I decided to give the old girl a whirl last week by making my mango ice-cream in it. This is actually a bit of a fail story because I had just finished making my ice-cream mix, put the machine together and then realised... "wait, where is the whisk component??"

The answer to that is: I still don't know.

I ended up making the mango ice-cream in the supercooled ice-cream machine barrel, keeping icicles at bay by hand-whisking every 20 minutes and it turned out exceptionally well. I suspect the whisk part of my machine was left behind during one of my 50 house relocations in recent years.

If you have a working, fully fitted ice-cream machine, feel free to process the following recipe in your machine according to the manufacturers instructions. Alternatively, you can freeze the mix in a tub and whisk every 20-30 minutes, ensuring you gather all the solidified bits from the sides of the tub every time you whisk.

Mangoes and Cream Ice-cream
Approx 1 x 500ml tub

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/3 cup mango flesh (I used the cheeks of 2 large Calypso mangoes)
• 2/3 to 1 cup sugar (depending on your preference for sweetness)
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 shot of triple sec (alternatively use 2/3 cup orange juice
• 2/3 cup thickened cream

Procedure:

1. Place all ingredients besides the cream in a blender and whizz until smooth.

2. Stir in the cream.

3. Pour mixture into ice-cream machine or churn for about 25 minutes.

4. If you prefer a firmer texture, scoop the ice-cream into a container and freeze.

I really enjoyed this ice-cream. It made me think of a Weis bar in scoop form. Even though I've successfully homemade ice-cream a few times now, I'm still always blown away with how good the consistency is. Done right, homemade ice-cream is just as creamy and smooth as the store stuff. You just have to make sure you whisk away ice crystals by keeping the mix on the move until it's firm.

The ice-cream was fine on its own but I also liked it served as a simple sundae with some diced, fresh mango. My dad has a major sweet tooth and thought the mix could have been sweeter. I disagree but if you know you like things on the sweeter end of the spectrum, maybe increase the amount of sugar to 1.5 cups. I included the shot of triple sec because I had some lying around and my vague scientific understanding allowed me to believe it would improve the texture. Did it? I don't know but it did no harm anyway :p.