Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Baguio is the summer capital of the Philippines, because of high altitude it has much cooler temperature compare to here in Manila. So when the summer temperature here in Manila is unbearable, people pack up and goes to Baguio! With it's amazing cool temperature, there are abundant of flowers, vegetables and fruits grows there locally. Baguio is more popular known for it's sweet succulent strawberries. Whenever a friend or any family member is going to Baguio, people automatically ask them to bring back loads of strawberries. My recent Baguio trip is different, instead of bringing home strawberries, I got myself a bundle of fresh passion fruit. This is so cool! I was so excited cannot wait to get back to Manila.
First thing that pops into my mind is I would make pavlova or an ice cream? Hmmm.. Tough choices but in the end, ice cream won by a landslide! For ice creams, I go to my go-to ice cream guru David. This is my first time handling passion fruit so I'm tried to savor the moment and be open minded about it. Splitting it open with a sharp knife is already an experience, it was like cutting into a Styrofoam board and lo and behold passion fruit! Its a bit odd that it looks different from what I see online. I was expecting a yellowish goo with black seeds but what I got are transparent goo and black seeds. Though don't let the term "goo" offend or turn you off. It's just that I have no idea what to call it. Odd though when I tried to smell it, I didn't get any distinct aroma from it unlike other fruits like mangoes or strawberries. Eating a spoonful of it, I was pretty surprise that it taste a lot like Soursop or guyabano, only mellower and very crunchy because of the seeds.
Extraction time! Extracting the juices from passion fruit isn't exactly difficult but it takes a little bit of patience since the seeds are wrapped around a slimy substance. With the back of the spoon, I carefully but decisively press the fruits against a wire mess strainer to extract as much juice as I can. I even let it stand in the fridge for an hour to really get as much juice as I could. I got a whole cup of juice from my bundle. I use half of it for my ice cream and the rest, I put it in a Ziploc bag and put in the deep freeze. Most of the seeds I discarded and left a hefty tablespoonful to be incorporated in the ice cream later on.
I've been making ice cream for quite sometime now but often I find them too hard and icy which is no fun at all and a bit disappointing. Got fed up with my passed failures that this time instead of using a local brand cream, I went all out and got myself an imported whipping cream. When I was making the custard base it looks the same but the smell is different and the end product is definitely not the same. It's soft and silky! Very creamy! To add a bit of crunch, I added a little bit of the seeds just for texture. My only complain with this is that the yield is so small that there is hardly anything left.
PASSION FRUIT ICE CREAM
Adapted from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop") 
  • 1/2 cup passion fruit puree (I used a mix of fresh and frozen)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 6 tbsp (90ml) whole milk
  • 8 tbsp sugar (I added 9, in future I will reduce to the original 8)
  • pinch of salt
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • grated zest of one orange (optional)
  • 1 tbsp (or slightly more) passion fruit seeds (optional)
  1. Mix together passion fruit puree and 1/2 cup cream in a large bowl. Set a strainer over the bowl.
  2. Heat milk, sugar, salt and remaining cream till warm. In separate bowl, whisk yolks, slowly pour warm mixture into yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed yolks mixture back into the saucepan.
  3. Over med heat, whisk the mixture constantly, cooking till the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
  4. Pour the custard through the strainer. Stir well to combine custard, passion fruit puree and cream. Add the grated orange zest if using, stir till cool over ice bath.
  5. Chill in fridge overnight, then churn in ice cream maker for about 20 minutes (depending on your ice cream machine).
  6. Add passion fruit seeds to the custard at the last 5 minutes mark of churning. Transfer to container and store in freezer.

nikcreate

I'm a nine to five pencil pusher who loves to play with flour and paper during my free time. Dreams of going to Europe and eat croissants and make pastries all day long!

2 comments:

  1. Man I'm so jealous. I can't find passion fruit here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. THIS LOOKS AMAZING.
    And I love your photos. I've never seen orange passionfruit before!

    ReplyDelete