I made two fruited ice-creams for my ice-cream party on Sunday. Apple, at the insistent request of my best friend, and banana frozen yoghurt. The apple ice-cream is from Nigella's Forever Summer, while the banana frozen yoghurt is adapted from Nigel Slater's banana ice-cream recipe in Real Food.
I bought a big bag of apples from Yering Farm on the weekend, when I was up in the Yarra Valley for the Grape Grazing festival. They were fantastic; really sweet, crunchy, and more intensely apple-y than supermarket apples.
I needed a kilo of these apples to make ice-cream. Peeled, cored, chopped, and cooked with sugar until soft and mushy. Don't be afraid to cook the apples until quite dry - the higher the water content of an ice-cream, the harder and icier it is. Then you need to combine the apple puree with the usual egg custard, and churn.
The banana frozen yogurt is even easier. I'm not in the habit of posting entire recipes on this blog, but I'm posting this one because it is so easy to make, and doesn't require an ice-cream machine. And more importantly, I hope that this will encourage some of you to buy Nigel Slater's wonderful book! Go Nigel.
Banana Ice-Cream (Nigel Slater's Real Food)
4 medium-sized, very ripe bananas
the juice of half a lemon
200g golden caster sugar
500ml whipping cream
Peel and roughly chop the bananas and whizz them in a blender or food processor with the lemon juice and sugar. Pour in the cream and continue to blend until well mixed. Pour into a rectangular freezer box or a loaf tin. As the mixture starts to freeze, ice crystals will form around the outside. Carefully stir these into the centre. Depending on your freezer, it should be ready in about five hours. You will need to remove it about fifteen minutes before you intend to serve it.
I substitued half the cream with Greek yogurt, and I did use my ice-cream maker instead of manually breaking up the ice-crystals. However, Nigel says that this ice-cream works particularly well without an ice-cream maker, and I have no reason not to believe him.
I tasted both ice-creams before freezing - and so far they seemed good. I will give the verdict of the finished products tomorrow, along with photos.
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