Mango Ice Cream

I love tropical fruit. And I love making ice cream. Why not combine the two? I'll tell you why not. It doesn't seem to work very well. In fact, I daresay tropical fruit has a hard time working well with dairy. On the plus side of things, I did learn a few things, and that can't be a bad thing, right?

Mango Ice Cream

1 pint milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
juice of a lime
6 egg yolks
4 oz cream cheese, softened
pinch salt
1 mango, pureed (about 1 cup)
1 mango, cubed

Now, I want you to compare the above ingredient list with my ginger ice cream. Notice how the only difference is ginger vs mango? I decided to try a different technique this time around. Remember when I made lemon curd? Go back and read it. Okay, finished? First thing I did was put the milk and cream together over medium heat. I set up a double boiler over high heat, as with the curd. I added the sugar, lime juice and egg yolks, and even the salt, and whisked to combine. Then I added the cream cheese, cut into pieces, and continued to whisk. It started out lumpy and then evened out. This is when I added the mango puree. As I whisked, it began to tighten into a mango curd. Who woulda thunk? By that time the milk and cream had begun to simmer, so I slowly whisked it in. I didn't have to worry so much about tempering the eggs, since they were pretty much already tempered, but I still went slowly so as to integrate the dairy smoothly. When it was all combined, I continued to whisk until it was smooth, and voila: it was already the proper consistency! I moved the bowl to an ice water bath and whisked slowly until it cooled down, and then I moved the mixture to a plastic container and into the fridge, to sit overnight. When I was ready, I added the mixture to the churn along with the cubed mango, and froze according to directions.

I did notice a few things on this. First of all, when I pulled it out of the fridge and moved it to the churn, I noticed a funky smell. It tasted the same, but it smelled weird. Second, the mango flavor never really seemed to come through. That is, in fact, why I ended up adding the cubed mango at the end. It was an attempt to boost flavor. The resulting ice cream had perfect texture, as with the ginger ice cream, and it tasted good, but I really wanted a bigger, bolder mango flavor. I think next time I decide to go with mango, I'll either go for a sorbet, sherbet or maybe even gelato. Maybe it's the milk fat that's masking the flavor. Or maybe there's just some other secret waiting to be discovered.