Nearly Instant Homemade Ice Cream
Posted by Deana Gunn at 8/18/2009 
Categories: Vegetarian and Vegan ,Food Recipes
Tags: frozen fruit mango homemade ice cream strawberry
Categories: Vegetarian and Vegan ,Food Recipes
Tags: frozen fruit mango homemade ice cream strawberry
The trick is to use frozen fruit and to combine it with half-and-half or with heavy cream in a food processor. When processed together for a few minutes, the result is a soft ice cream, made with any fruit flavor you like. Eat it right away, or if you like hard-frozen ice cream, put it in the freezer for about 2 hours. The texture is not exactly the same as commercial ice cream or that made in an ice cream maker, but it's pretty close. My kids like their ice cream soft, so we eat it right away and freeze any leftovers.
The best thing about this method is making ice cream with different fruits and experimenting with unique combinations. For this entry, I made two batches - one mango and one strawberry - but the possibilities are endless. You can start with any of the frozen fruits available at Trader Joe's: strawberry, cherry, mango, papaya, tropical blend, mixed berries, peach, etc. If you get bored with those, you can even buy fruit, freeze it, and then follow the recipe.
If you make your own ice cream at home (especially if you do it without an ice cream maker!) I'd love to hear your tips and favorite flavor combinations. The other method I've used is the plastic bag method,a.k.a. "shake, shake, shake," which was very popular with my kids for awhile. It's fun, they do 100% of the work, and can instantly enjoy their own single servings of ice cream.
Homemade Mango Ice Cream
12 oz (about half the bag) Frozen Mango Chunks
2/3 cup half-and-half (or heavy cream, but I prefer half-and-half)
1/4 cup sugar
1.) Combine half-and-half and sugar and stir for 30 seconds or so until sugar starts to dissolve.
2.) Do not thaw mango; for this recipe it should be frozen hard. Add frozen mango to a food processor, and process just to chop it up roughly. Add heavy cream and process until mixture is smooth (1-2 minutes).
3.) Serve right away. Or, for a hard-frozen ice cream, pour into a freezer-safe container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. I like to stir it every 30 minutes or so until it freezes, helping to break up ice crystals that may form.
Variation: For the strawberry ice cream, I used a 12-oz bag of Frozen Organic Strawberries and I substituted heavy cream for the half-and-half. Process the same way.
Makes 4 1/2-cup servings (double the recipe for a larger batch)
My six-year-old and I just made this with frozen fresh blueberries. (That is, fresh blueberries that I put into the freezer.) It's wonderful! Thanks for this, and I love your book.
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It's wonderful! Thanks for this, and I like so much your book.
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Thanks for this GREAT recipe! What a GREAT idea--and a great and simple way to beat late summer heat! Thanks, girls!
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This looks really good! I wish I knew about this last summer.
Mango sound good. I think blueberry would be another nice one.
Thanks for the tip.
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i was reading somewhere recently about using greek yogurt to make fro yo at home. do you have any tips on how to sub the cream with for it?
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Hi Robin,
Yes, in fact we wrote a post about how to make Strawberry Frozen Yogurt.
http://blog.cookingwithtraderjoes.com/2009/06/15/strawberry-frozen-yogurt.aspx
I'm pretty sure it would work just fine using frozen fruit and the food processor method here. If you try it, let us know how you liked it!
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Oh my mouth is watering now.....and I am on a conference call
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I have done this with the light coconut milk, and agave..AWESOME
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I love this idea. The Light Coconut Milk at TJ's is great - used here in this recipe, it sounds like it would be light, creamy, and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
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I wonder if you could use the frozen mango and mango juice/puree instead of the half n half? I LOVE mango, and prefer the sorbet type flavor without the dairy.
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Another great idea to try. Dairy free and fat free. In the past, I've had a pineapple sorbet made using this blender/processor method, but I'm not sure if they added a gelatin to make it smoother. If you try this, I'd love to know how it turned out.
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PS - Another person mentioned adding frozen bananas to their dairy-free sorbet version. Sounds like it would give a nice consistency.
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I JUST made this, but used TJ's unsweetened vanilla rice milk instead. YUM!! The consistency is a little more like a thick smoothie right now, but I have it in the freezer for dessert tonight. Thanks for the idea!
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Yes, rice milk will definitely give a looser consistency right after blending since there's not nearly as much fat in it as there is in cream or half & half. But if you put it in the freezer like you did, it will set up. If your freezer is very cold, you might have to let it soften a little before serving.
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Yummy! I didn't have enough strawberries so I just added a banana. We'll see how it turn out after it comes out of the freezer.
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This is my first time i have visited here. I found many interesting stuffs
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