Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Passion Fruit Ice Cream is perfect balance of sweet, creamy, and tropical fruit flavors. It’s a custard based, churned ice cream that can use either whole passion fruit or a puree. It’s the perfect frozen dessert for hot day!

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Passion fruit it one of my favorite tropical fruit flavors. In fact, it’s a travel goal of mine to make it to make it somewhere that I can pick a passion fruit and eat it fresh from the vine. And a bowl of passion fruit ice cream brings a taste of the tropics right to your dessert bowl.

Since most passion fruit is grown in South America, I’ve got a long flight to Brazil or Argentina in my future. I’ll have to pack my ice cream maker to make a batch of this passion fruit ice cream.

Passion fruit, also called lilikoi, is a tropical fruit renowned for its unique flavor and vibrant appearance. The passion fruit features a thick, wrinkled purple or yellow skin, depending on the variety, concealing a juicy and gelatinous pulp filled with numerous small black seeds. It has a distinct, aromatic flavor profile is a delightful combination of tartness and sweetness, making it a popular flavor for many different desserts.

Ingredients

Ice cream recipes are a delicate balance of sugar, fat, and liquid to create a creamy, smooth texture. If anything is out of balance, you’ll have an icy, unpleasant scoop.

In this recipe, I’ve added an extra egg yolk more than my basic vanilla ice cream recipe.

• Whipping Cream — cream is the bulk of the ice cream, as well as the main source of it’s delightfully creamy, luscious texture.
  
• Whole Milk — any milk will do, but the more fat the better.
  
• Egg Yolks — yolks adds even more richness and fat to the ice cream. I’ve added an egg yolk more from my usual recipe to balance out liquid from the passion fruit juice. Without the fat to balance out the extra liquid, the ice cream would have an icy texture.
  
• Sugar — in ice cream, the amount of sugar adds not only sweetness, but helps create a smooth texture.
  
• Salt — it enhances and adds depth to the flavors, and rounds them beautifully.
  
• Passion Fruit Puree — You can use whole passion fruits if you’d like. Each passion fruit contains about 2 Tablespoons of pulp, so you’ll need approximately 4 passion fruits. If you’re planning to remove the seeds, you’ll need about 8.
  
  Alternatively, you can use passion fruit puree. I use this brand and purchased it from Amazon, and love that it’s only passion fruit juice and a bit of sugar. It’s been great from a multitude of recipes, from passion fruit syrup to panna cotta.
  
• Vanilla — vanilla helps round out and enhance flavors.

Tools and Equipment

• Medium pot — preferably with a heavy bottom to prevent scorching.
• Rubber spatula
• Wire Whisk
• Fine Mesh Sieve
• Bowl for Chilling the Custard
• Ice Cream Maker –this is a specialty piece of equipment that you’ll need for churning the ice cream. There are several different types, with various price points.

Different Kinds of Ice Cream Makers

The most affordable is a bucket style ice cream maker. The custard is placed in a cylindrical container, which has a paddle inside that stirs the ice cream as it turns. You have to keep ice around the sides, topped with rock salt to lower the melting point of the ice.

These are affordable, efficient little machines that require a bit more attention during churning.

A Freezer Bowl Ice Maker is another common style that’s a bit more expensive, but it’s incredibly low maintenance! This is the model I have, and it’s served me well for nearly a decade (I feel old now).

With this type, you have to place the bowl in your regular freezer for several hours before churning the ice cream. Then, when you’re ready to churn, set the bowl in the machine and pour in the custard. Turn it on and it will work it’s magic in about half an hour.

The simplest machine (and the most expensive option) is this one that requires no pre-freezing or ice. You just pour the custard into the machine, turn it on, and it makes the ice cream for you. Nothing could be easier!

How to Make Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Preparing the Ice Cream Maker

If you’re lucky enough to have a no-freeze ice cream maker like this one from Whynter, you can skip this step entirely! but if you have a maker that requires the bowl to be frozen ahead of time, put the bowl in the freezer for at least 6-8 hours, but overnight is better.

I have this Cuisinart model with a freezer bowl, and it’s served me well for years! KitchenAid has a similar model that you can use with your mixer.

Making the Custard

Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place the yolks in a small mixing bowl. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the milk. You don’t have to add an exact amount, just enough to prevent the yolks from drying out.

In a medium pot, combine the rest of the milk and whipping cream. Add the sugar and salt, then heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Continue to stir until the milk and cream are steaming and the sugar is dissolved, then remove the pot from the heat.

Once the cream is hot, use a ladle to scoop some of it into the egg yolks. Whisk the entire time to slowly heat the yolks up. Continue stirring more hot cream into the eggs until they are warmed through. This process is called tempering, and helps prevent scrambled eggs in your ice cream.

Pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the pot with the milk and cream. Add the passion fruit pulp, then return the pot to the heat.

Cook the custard over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. As it cooks, it will thicken. Continue stirring until there are slow, thick bubbles on top. Once you see these, cook and stir for 1 more minute, then remove the custard from the heat.

Pour the custard through the waiting mesh sieve. This will remove any bits of egg that may have formed while cooking.

Whisk in the vanilla extract and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the custard. Refrigerate it until it’s chilled completely through, for about 4-6 hours. It will get thicker as it cools.

Freezing the Ice Cream

Once the ice cream custard is completely cooled, it’s ready to churn. Set up your machine according to it’s instructions, then add the custard and churn.

Depending on the machine, it typically takes 20-30 minutes to reach a soft serve consistency. If you’re using the bucket-style ice cream maker that requires ice and rock salt, it may take a bit longer.

You can either serve it as soft serve ice cream straight from the ice cream maker, or you can place it in the freezer to harden to a scooping consistency.

How to Store Passion Fruit Ice Cream

You’ll want to get your ice cream to the freezer pretty quickly, since it will be icy and hard if it melts before freezing. All you need to do is pour it into a container with an airtight lid, then place it in the freezer for 4-6 hours to freeze solid.

You can use any container to store the ice cream in the freezer. But if you enjoy making ice cream, I would recommend investing in these reusable ice cream containers. I didn’t purchase them for years, but now I’ll never look back. They are so easy to scoop from and use!

Passion fruit ice cream will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer.

Tips for the Best Ice Cream

A smooth, creamy ice cream requires a balance of fat, air, and sugar. Those balance the liquids (like the passion fruit puree and milk) to keep your ice cream from being a block of solid ice.

Since home ice cream machines don’t incorporate as much air as an industrial machine, we have to nail the custard quantities for the best texture. To do that, I added an egg yolk more than my regular ice cream recipes, which gives a creamy, silky texture.

Other Passion Fruit & Fruit Recipes You May Enjoy

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