Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Tropical Fruit Ice Cream and Sorbets

I was the joyful recipient of a brand new ice cream maker for my birthday. So, for the Farm to Table dessert, I crafted a longan sorbet, a jackfruit sorbet, and a passionfruit ice cream.

Longan Sorbet

Longans are similar in taste and texture to lychees, although they are milder, and almost floral in flavor. The longans came from Sawmill Farm and Red Dragon Fruit Company. Both Holly and Roger Washington generously donated the longans.

I was inspired to make this sorbet by a recipe from Tinkering with Dinner. However I added some ingredients per Bill’s recommendation. The sorbet was light and refreshing, although regretfully, some of the ginger bits were not chopped fine enough, making for a biting surprise. This makes a great palette cleanser, as well as a dessert.

There is no going around it. Peeling the longans and then extracting the flesh from the large pit is at least an hour and a half of work.

The finished product. My weakling fingers were sore for a couple of days.

I added about ½ can of coconut milk, some ginger, and two tablespoons more of lime juice to Bill’s recipe. I also replaced his simple syrup with about ¾ cup of agave nectar.

I blended the longans and ginger and then mixed in the other ingredients. I let the mixture chill in the refrigerator over night.

The next day, I used my ice cream maker to churn the ice cream. I let it go for about forty minutes, to err on the side of caution.

I quickly poured the sorbet into a flat container and put it in the freezer to ripen for four to six hours.

Jackfruit Sorbet

This is the largest fruit in the world. I bought chunks of Red Dragon jackfruit at Whole Foods. Its texture is strange, kind of stringy. The jackfruit has a wonderful taste, like a combination of mango, banana, and pineapple. I decided to try this sorbet with cinnamon. The sorbet came out tasting like a pumpkin pie ice cream, which was delightful.

I removed the husk and seeds from the fruit. You have to squeeze at the pulp to feel for the seeds and then extract them. It’s not too hard.

I blended four cups of jackfruit with ½ cup of water. Then I mixed in 7 ½ tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice.

I chilled the mixture overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, I churned the mixture. This time the sorbet was clearly done in about 20 minutes.

I transferred the sorbet to a flat container and ripened it for 4-6 hours.

The jackfruit sorbet came out much harder than the longan sorbet. This is probably because I used no alcohol in this recipe. This version takes about ten minutes to soften enough to serve.

Passion fruit Ice Cream

The passionfruit is so aromatic. This ice cream recipe is from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop retains the entire delightful flavor of the fruit. One of my guests, who does not care for passion fruit, loved this ice cream. The challenging part of this recipe is extracting the pulp from the seeds through a strainer. You need about 6 passionfruits to get enough pulp for the ½ cup of pulp required for the recipe. I got mine from Red Dragon Fruit Company. The eggs came from Bee Heaven Farm.

I mixed the pulp with ½ cup of cream in a mixing bowl. I set a colander over the bowl, since I didn’t have a mesh strainer.

I separated the egg yolks of 3 eggs…

and whisked them together.

In a stockpot, I heated 6 tablespoons whole milk,

7 tablespoons sugar,

A pinch of salt,

And ½ a cup of cream over low heat.

Once this was hot and starting to smoke, I poured it slowly into the egg yolks. I whisked constantly, lest my custard turn to scrambled eggs.

Then I poured the whole mixture back into the warm stockpot, stirring the whole time.

David Lebovitz’s test for the custard is to run his finger across the spatula. If the custard “trail” does not flow back together, the custard is ready.

Pour the mixture through the strainer into the bowl of pulp and cream. You can see I got some scrambled bits on the bottom, but they remained safely stuck to the bottom of the pot.

I stirred this together and then set over the ice bath.

You must continue to stir until the mixture is cool.

I poured the mixture into a container to chill in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, I churned the mixture in my ice cream machine for about half an hour.

I let the ice cream ripen in the freezer for 6 hours.