Fruit-Based Ice Creams and Sorbets

A first for Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream, for the June BSFIC challenge I was able to offer a prize for my favourite entry, courtesy of Philips. Although the weather has really not lived up the best June can offer, I set a theme of fruit in the hope of cooling recipes featuring nature’s sweet bounties. In the order they were posted, here are June’s delicious entries. Continue to the end to find out which blogger won the prize!

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Georgina’s blog, Culinary Travels, is one I have been following for a long time. I’ve long enjoyed her mix of content and writing style as well as the great banner design too. She was the first to enter this month’s BSFIC with her delicious and summery strawberry mascarpone ice cream. I’m in full agreement with Georgina when she says she cannot abide artificial fruit flavours which taste nothing like the actual fruit. The best way to avoid that is to use real fruit and keep the recipe simple, to allow the fruit to shine.

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When Jo from Comfort Bites read the June BSFIC theme she was determined to use a fruit that’s not normally used in making ice cream. And also one that would combine well with white chocolate, as she’s been enjoying cooking with it lately. As she pushed a squeaky trolley around the supermarket, inspiration came when she saw the nectarines and she imagined the sweet, scented fruit against cold, creamy white chocolate. Her white chocolate and nectarine ice cream uses a custard base with the white chocolate and pureed cooked nectarines rippled through at the end of churning.

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Julia from Something Missing came across BSFIC when searching the web for ice cream ideas and decided to get involved herself. Her blog came about when a friend had to alter her diet due to food intolerances and Julia set out to create suitable recipes. Her pineapple and coconut semifreddo is a dairy free recipe, using coconut milk instead of cream or milk and puts me in mind of a refreshing pina colada cocktail. She lifts it with the addition of fresh mint too. And this is a no-machine no-churn recipe, so ideal for those of you who don’t have ice cream machines.

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Inspired to learn that in East Asia avocado is more commonly used in sweet rather than savoury desserts, I found a recipe on the ‘net that I just had to try. As avocado is high in (mono-unsaturated) fat the finished avocado ice cream is beautifully smooth and creamy. Unusually (for me), I didn’t add any alcohol to the recipe, so it does freeze hard rather than remain soft scoop, but it feels wonderfully soft in the mouth. This one will definitely make you re-evaluate how you eat avocadoes!

Like us, Laura from How To Cook Good Food grows her own fruit and vegetables in her garden and allotment plot. The strawberries she planted last year have reappeared. Although hers aren’t ripe yet, they inspired her entry this month, for which she made strawberry and elderflower ice cream. For the ice cream, Laura used a Nigella recipe with a custard base and lots of ripe strawberries. To that she added homemade elderflower cordial, made using a recipe from Lavender & Lovage blog.

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Michelle from Food, Football and a Baby made me smile as she recounted her young daughter’s words of wisdom before sharing her recipe for mango lassi creamsicles. The recipe was a happy accident – Michelle had planned to make mango lassi ice cream, but on realising she’d forgotten to freeze her ice cream bowl in advance, she poured the prepared mixture into lolly moulds instead. She added a bit of spice by adding green cardamom to her base of mango pulp, plain yoghurt, cream, sugar and lemon juice. It sounds both luxurious and refreshing!

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After losing their sweet dog, Holly, Dom and his partner have been in mourning, grieving for a pet that was a much loved member of the family. After posting about his loss, Dom was overwhelmed by the sympathy and support he received from his online friends, and the first half of his entry is a heart felt thank you to all the comfort those voices have given. The rest of his post is a very pretty blueberry ripple ice cream. The blueberries give the ice cream such a pretty purple colour!

Strawberry and Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

Phil from As Strong As Soup has shared an adult version of the strawberry ice cream he loved as a child. His strawberry and pomegranate frozen yogurt promises a balance of sweet and sour flavours that better suits an adult palate, and it has the added benefit of being healthy too. He serves it with beautifully shaped home made tuiles, adding sesame and sumac to give a sweet and sour balance once again.

Clementine Granola with Pastis a l'ancienne

Solange from Pebble Soup offers another grown up concoction with her clementine granita with pastis. The final recipe was one of those serendipitous successes when a missing ingredient leads to a substitution which gives a result so delicious, it must surely be better than the original? Having no star anise in her spice cupboard, Solange turned to pastis instead, for a variation on aniseed flavour. A reduction in the volume of sugar lead to a solid block instead of a sorbet, but again, Solange adapted, and scraped it into a perfect granita instead!

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Karen from Lavender and Lovage has been enjoying home grown redcurrants and blackcurrants lately, and decided to use some to make this vibrant blackcurrant sorbet. Although this recipe can be made with just a freezer, a container and a fork Karen is very happy to have an ice cream machine to make the job easier! Her recipe also includes an optional measure of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) for a more decadent adult version.

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For her delicious recipe, Sarah from Sarah’s Kitchen Diary has not only specified the fruit, but which variety to use too. Her pink lady apple sorbet makes full use of this sweet, juicy variety and also results in a beautiful pastel pink colour which looks beautiful against the sprig of mint she added for presentation. If you use other varieties of apples, you may need to adjust the quantities of sugar and lime juice added, to achieve your preferred balance of sweet and tart.

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Victoria, the author of Eat Tori, likens the idea of her frozen cherry soufflé to “images of  butterflies, gambolling through sun deckled woods and women [..] dressed by bluebirds”! The recipe (minus a call for cochineal) comes from her grandmother’s 1937 fantasy menu found in a hand written recipe book Tori kept after her grandmother’s passing. To add a little retro glamour, Tori finished the frozen soufflés with cherries and chocolate biscuit crumbs.

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The recipe submitted by Sharon from Smithy Craft also came about somewhat serendipitously. After making proper ginger beer, she was left with a bowl of sliced lemon and chopped ginger that was crying out to be used rather than thrown away. She added sugar and water, simmered it for a few hours until thick and put it into the fridge to use later. Inspiration came when she was making some vanilla ice cream and thought to add some of the syrup to make it into a lemon and ginger ice cream instead.

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Miss South, one half of the sister-brother team who write North South Food, has taken another trip down memory lane to find inspiration for her rhubarb surprise ice cream sandwiches. She tells us all about the sliders (ice cream sandwiches) of her childhood, remembering with particular fondness the one with a flake embedded in the ice cream. Wanting to make a more grown up version, but retain that element of a hidden surprise, she put a stick of poached rhubarb inside each ice cream sandwich.

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Liz from Me And My Shadow has been thinking of ways to use the elderflower and rhubarb cordial she made recently. One such idea is her refreshing elderflower and rhubarb granita. This is a great recipe for those without ice cream machines as all you need is a freezer, a container, a fork and a little patience! Also in the post are recipes for elderflower and rhubarb custard tarts and elderflower and rhubarb Turkish delight!

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Ren from Fabulicious Food is all about simple, seasonal recipes which deliver on flavour. Her very berry cherry sundaes combine a fresh cherry compote with strawberry ice cream for a quick and elegant dessert, but the compote could also be rippled through your chosen ice cream before freezing or enjoyed with natural yoghurt for a healthy but decadent breakfast. I love the way Ren’s added some fresh cherries to the sundaes too.

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Bree recently founded the Goldtoast Supper Club and blogs at her site of the same name. In her post she laments the lack of use her poor ice cream machine gets, whilst she dreams but never makes anything in it! Her first thought for this challenge was a green apple sorbet but instead she settled on lime and pomegranate ice cream. Pomegranate is a fruit I love but have never seen in an ice cream, and I love the idea of balancing it with the lime. Topping the ice cream with fresh pomegranate to serve looks so pretty.

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It’s no secret that I love mangoes, especially alphonsos (and kesars and other honey mangoes). I’m not such a fan of the big fat round ones, though I’ve used them to good effect when I’ve been given them. But the ‘lesser mangoes’, as I’m wont to think of them, can be made to shine by using them in desserts, just as Caroline from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking has done in her bright mango and passionfruit sorbet. As she says, it’s a guaranteed way to bring a little sunshine into your kitchen! Her post is also a great introduction to Lola’s Ice Creams and Sundaes by Morfudd Richards.

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Kristin from Kapora’s Journey has never entered a blog event before, so I’m honoured she’s chosen this one as her first. She’s submitted her recipe for banana peach frozen yoghurt which she made without an ice cream machine, so once again, a reminder that you don’t need fancy equipment to take part. With a cold doing the rounds, everyone in the house was feeling a little stuffy and tired but this healthy fruit and yoghurt dessert went down well.

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Jenny from Bake has a boyfriend who insists that only Kentish strawberries should be bought and consumed in their household, so committed is he to their superior taste! So, to make absolutely sure of the provenance, a trip to a local pick-your-own farm was on the cards. With her ruby red haul, Jenny first made a Heston ice cream recipe before rippling strawberry sauce through it. The result is her vanilla and cinnamon ice cream with spiced strawberry ripple.

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It’s lovely to read that Donna from Beating Limitations has completely migrated away from store bought ice creams in favour of home made, as a result of participating in my monthly challenges. Donna really likes knowing exactly what’s in the treats she consumes, such as the 400 grams of sugar in the salted caramel she made recently! But her strawberry froyo recipe is far less full-on, and very easy too, made from just two ingredients – strawberry jam and Greek yoghurt.

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Deb from Supper and Scribbles has gone for a seasonal affair in her rhubarb, strawberry and anise sorbet. Like many of us, she is determined to enjoy British fruits in their season, and she picked up her two main ingredients directly from a local farm. The addition of star anise gives a light and fragrant extra flavour without overpowering the fruit. As Deb and her husband are regular ice cream and sorbet makers, I’m looking forward to more entries from her direction in coming months.

The competition closed at midnight (GMT) on the 28th but I am including 2 late entries for the event in this round up:

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Archana from Tangy Minds created a strawberry ice cream with pistachios for her daughter using this no-machine recipe.

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Jennie from Things I Eat made not one, not two but three fruitastic recipes: mango and chilli sorbet, coconut ice cream and lime sorbet.

 

And the winner is…

Phil from As Strong As Soup and his strawberry and pomegranate frozen yogurt! I asked Pete to help me choose a winner, which was tough, as the competition was really strong! Both of us agreed that we liked Phil’s recipe ideas, his photographs and the simple clear way the recipes are presented.

Phil, please drop me an email with your full name and postal address so I can arrange for the Philips Aluminium H1861/00 Juicer to be sent to you.

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Thanks again to all the wonderful bloggers who participated in the June Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream event.

July’s challenge will be announced tomorrow; I do hope you’ll join in!

Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!
16 Comments to "Fruit-Based Ice Creams and Sorbets"

  1. @milliepaw

    Lots of really lovely entries. I wish the pictures could be scratch and sniff.

    Reply
  2. kaveyeats

    Yes I was thinking that, I have some conical moulds but want the traditional type!

    Reply
  3. Lynne

    Fab round up Kavey, I just couldn’t get my act together to join you but maybe another time.

    And thank you very much for a competition that is judged by Proper Judges, taking their own criteria into account, and making a considered decision, not just a random draw out of the hat.

    Reply
  4. Phil in the Kitchen

    Wow. Thank you so much. There were so many really fine recipes this month that I really wasn’t expecting to win. I’m looking forward to some exciting juicing efforts now. Oh and I’d like to thank my producer, the director and all the rest of the cast…. hang on, that’s the wrong speech.

    Reply
  5. Miss South

    So many things here that I want to try, especially the fro yo recipes after my previous attempts have all been brick like and I really want a lolly making kit now too!

    Congrats to Phil. Mild annoyance at everyone else being so brilliant as none of my trousers will fit at this rate…

    Reply
  6. Dominic

    I think this is one of the most concise round ups I’ve ever read. Fab entries and a brilliant theme. Can’t wait for the next one!

    Reply
  7. laura weiss

    These all look fabulous. Can’t wait to try some of them. It’s wonderful to see so much creativity but I wanted to let everyone know that daring flavor combinations go way back in ice cream history, all the way to the 17th century. Back then, confectioners were making ice cream with eggplant, Parmesan cheese, and even pine cones!

    Laura Weiss
    author
    Ice Cream: A Global History

    Reply
  8. Michelle

    What a lipsmacking combination of flavours and so many ideas! And a huge congratulations to Phil, I can’t think of a nicer person to win, he’s such a darling.

    I have conical lolly moulds, but I wanted some traditional ones too, cause they take better pictures (hehe) I found mine for a very reasonable price at Amazon. I like the metal top, its a bit hard to remove, but some warm water does the trick. I also like the removable moulds as well.

    http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-International-PLP-1-Freezer-Maker/dp/B0000CF7H6

    Reply
  9. Ren Behan

    Too many amazing recipes. Strawberry and mascarpone, rhubarb surprise ice cream sandwiches….I am positively drooling looking at them all! Lots to go away and explore!

    Reply
  10. Liz Burton

    Such amazing recipes.

    I really enjoyed taking part and have already got my thinking cap on for this month!

    Well done to Phil. x

    Reply

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