Mango Ice Cream 芒果雪糕

Many of you would probably think fresh mango is the best choice to use in homemade mango ice cream. But contrary to that thought, freeze dried mango is a better option. Fresh fruits are best to enjoy when they are ripe and juicy. However, when they are used to make ice cream, the juice is your enemy. The more juicy it is, the worse it is to make ice cream. That may be the reason why watermelon is rarely used in ice cream even though it maybe good in making sorbet. Juice will turn into ice and make ice cream icy instead of creamy.

. 

You may wonder: how does freezing make fruits dry? It works by sublimation, meaning the fruit's water is frozen to a point that it vaporized without going to the liquid state under a very strong vacuum. The more water the fruit has, the more it takes to make freeze dried fruit. Take apple as an example: it takes 10 oz of apples to make a 1.2 oz bag of freeze dried apple (according to the information from Trader Joe's)

Other freeze dried fruits, such as apple, blueberries or pineapple, etc, are suitable to make this creamy ice cream.

很多自家製食物我們都會採用最新鮮的食材炮製，慕求真材實料。但做水果味雪糕卻萬萬不可用新鮮水果。為什麼？因為新鮮水果的水份太高，加入雪糕材料後再雪便會結晶成為冰，破壞雪糕幼滑的口感。所以要用經過冷凍弄乾的水果(不是曬乾的水果)，做出來的雪糕水果味濃，入口幼滑。今次我用上芒果，但其他的冷凍弄乾的水果如蘋果、藍莓、菠蘿等等也適合做啊。

Ingredients to make 1 quart:

2 cups/500g whole milk 全脂牛奶

1 cup/250g heavy cream 奶油

4 egg yolks 蛋黃

130g sugar 糖

40g freeze dried mango 冷凍乾芒果

1)  In a medium pot, heat heavy cream, 1 3/4 cups of milk, and half the sugar.

2)  In another bowl, whisk together yolks, sugar, and the rest of the milk.

3)  Remove the pot from heat when it comes to a boil. With constant stirring, slowly pour into the egg mixture.

4)  Return the mixture to the pot and stir using medium heat until it reaches 165F.

5)  Remove from heat and add the freeze dried mango. Let it cool in an ice bath and then refrigerate overnight.

6)  Use an immersion blender, blender, or a food processor to blend the mango.

7)  Churn in an ice cream maker following the manufacturer's instructions. 

Note:

If you don't like the hassle of tempering the egg yolks, here is an easier version: Use 1.5 cups whole milk and 1.5 cups heavy cream. Skip the egg yolks and dissolve sugar in the milk and cream mixture. Add the freeze dried mango and let it re-hydrate in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Churn in an ice cream maker after blending the mango pieces. 

1)  將奶油、一又四份三杯牛奶及半份糖煮滾。

2)  在另一碗內，放入蛋黃、其餘的牛奶及糖，攪勻。

3)  奶油滾後，慢慢倒入蛋黃內，邊倒邊攪。

4)  再倒回鍋內，煮至165度，熄火。放入乾芒果，冷後放雪櫃過夜。

5)  用攪拌器攪攔芒果，放入雪糕機內攪拌成雪糕。

注意事項：

如果有人嫌麻煩不想用蛋黃，可以參考這個比較簡易的方法：牛奶及奶油各用一杯半，直接將糖放入奶及奶油內攪至溶，然後放入乾芒果，放雪櫃幾小時或過夜，然後用攪拌器攪攔芒果，放入雪糕機內攪拌成雪糕便成。