Lychee Ice Cream

One of my favourite fruits in creamy yumminess! You got to try this. Do not have any fresh lychees available? No problem, this delicious Lychee Ice Cream is made from the canned lychees, how about that for convenience? Another bonus is, there's no egg yolks used in this recipe. Even better!

This recipe is from an ice cream book "Scoop" by Ellen Brown. There are not many pictures in this book, but lots of delicious recipes that I can't wait to try. "Scoop" is all about the best flavour recipes from America's favourite ice cream shops. Lychee Ice Cream was adapted from Mitchell's San Francisco, CA. This is a great book to have if you are an ice cream lover, even if you've already own "Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz, as the recipes in "Scoop" are totally different with many delicious combination of flavours. 

There's no egg yolks in this ice cream, but contains some cornflour as a thickener. And there's no additional sugar, as the sweetness comes from the corn syrup and the syrup from the canned lychees. I got more than a quart of churned ice cream, and got to divide the cooled mixture (before churning) to churn it twice, as my ice cream maker can only churn a quart of ice cream at a time. The first churn took almost 45 minutes and it is still not getting any thicker, so I just went ahead to freeze it. I then freeze the churning bowl overnight and churned the second batch the next day.  The ice cream turns out  delicious, with delightful lychee flavour. Ellen Brown describes this as "light and luscious ice cream".  A definite keeper and will be repeated again and again!

I'm sharing this with :

Sweet Tooth Friday at Alli n Son
Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies

Lychee Ice Cream

(adapted from "Scoop" by Ellen Brown)

2 (15-ounce) cans lychee fruit, drained with syrup reserved

1-1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pour the reserved syrup from the lychee fruits into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer the syrup until reduced by two-thirds.

Add the cream, corn syrup, and salt to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to steam; watch it carefully and make sure it does not come to a boil.

While the mixture heats, combine the milk, cornstarch, milk powder, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a small bowl, and stir until smooth and both of the powders have dissolved.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan, and bring to a boil over low heat. Whisk until smooth, and simmer the mixture for 2 minutes, or until thickened. If the mixture is lumpy, strain it through a sieve.

Look over the lychee fruits carefully to make sure that all traces of the pits and tough shells have been discarded. Puree the lychee fruits with 3/4 of the custard in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in a blender. Stir the puree back into the saucepan.

Transfer the hot liquid to a storage container and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate the mixture uncovered until it is completely chilled (below 40F), or quick-cool it (refer **).

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately for a soft ice cream, or transfer the mixture to an airtight storage container and freeze until hard. Allow the ice cream to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving if frozen solid.

 **

While the custard is heating, chill a metal mixing bowl in the freezer, and have a larger mixing bowl into which the chilled one will fit when the larger bowl is filled with ice. Then you're going to replicate the environment of an old-fashioned cranked ice cream maker by placing ice cubes and salt in the larger bowl, and stirring the custard in the smaller bowl set over the ice until it has chilled. You must be careful, however, as the ice melts, that you do not inadvertently get salty ice water into the custard.