The markets are currently flooded with avocados. I bought some the other day at PHP60 a kilo that were supposedly flown in from Davao and they were beautiful, with a minimal amount of veins, creamy and flavorful. I decided to make a batch of avocado ice cream with three medium-large sized fruit.
Into a blender, I added the flesh of the three avocadoes, immediately add about a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice over the fruit so it doesn’t darken too quickly. Next, I added 1 cup of fresh milk, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, and 1/2 cup of pure cream (45% milkfat). Then about 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar, cover and blitz for about 30 seconds. Open and stir the top to make sure it is all mixing well and blitz for another 15-30 seconds. Pour this liquid into a glass or stainless steel bowl and place it over an ice bath to chill down the liquid quickly.
Once the mixture is well chilled (alternatively you could chill it in a cold fridge for a couple of hours), stick it in an ice-cream maker and churn until done. Recipes always say this last line so confidently, but honestly, I find most home ice cream makers are CRAPPY, and their blades often don’t make tight enough contact or scrape the sides of the rotating bowl properly, hence stressing out many a home cook. We have a large White mountain ice cream churner which works very well at the beach, but in Manila, a small Cuisinart ice cream maker purchased at a large discount is almost so bad I have nearly thrown it out the kitchen window on several occasions… First of all, the bowl needs to be put in the freezer overnight, and somehow doesn’t get cold enough for the warm Philippine weather. Second, ice cream has a tendency to freeze and stick to the walls of the bowl, so it’s best if you help it along and forcibly scrape the sides of the bowl a few times along the way…
But the wonder of freshly home made ice cream makes up for the hassle, and in about 25+ minutes, you have a wonderful, flavorful, natural ice cream that is nearly to die for. It is, after all, ice CREAM, so the more milk, heavy cream, pure cream you add, the richer and silkier your resulting ice cream. This one had absolutely nothing but the dairy, fruit, lemon and sugar. YUM! It made perhaps 1.5-2.0 pints, and with the high cost of milk and cream in Manila, this was roughly PHP230 to make, not counting the use of the ice cream maker. So for say 10-12 nice scoops, they would cost PHP20-23 per modest sized scoop, or have to retail at PHP70-80 at a restaurant to make sense. No wonder you don’t often find good ice cream at medium to low priced restaurants! Personally, would happily pay PHP80 for a nice homemade scoop of seasonal fruit ice cream, rather than say PHP50 for less appealing commercial ice cream…
Now as for many grocery style ice creams locally, you cannot imagine how much air, fillers, carageenan, and non-cream items are in them so that you get the impression of an ice cream at a lower price… If you want to compare quality of ice creams, one way that might work is to let two scoops of different ice creams (say Haagen Daz and Magnolia) of a similar starting size MELT into two bowls… then see how much liquid is left or how much the liquid weighs… it’s a bit of frozen hocus pocus, if you ask me. :)
38 Responses
Nom Nom Nom…..
my favorite. in indonesia, avocado is available all year round but have not tried making avocado ice cream.
I love Arce’s avocado ice cream.
that looks soooooooooo gooooooooood!!
I love this!! I usually order avocado smoothie…the closest i can get to an avocado ice cream. I love avocadoes in general but it has to be mixed with something else. For some reason, I don’t really enjoy eating it by itself. I gotta try making this sometime! =)
I also have an ice cream maker, an attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, which I had to get all the way from the States, and it does not work as well as I like either! It manages to get really cold, but the scraper leaves some of the ice cream on the walls of the bowl! I think It would be better actually if I manually scrape down the sides and mix it by myself.
My lazy version of ice cream is put the milky shake mixture and put it in a container, freeze it, then scrape if off as I eat it. Easiest done with avocado because it’s really creamy on it’s own already :)
I noticed you didn’t use any egg yolks, which may be part of the reason the mixture sticks to the bowl so much. I’ve used Cuisinart ice cream makers before and it didn’t give me too much trouble.
For a neat trick, you could crush some dry ice in a food processor, then put it in a mixer with the ice cream mixture. Add the crushed dry ice a little at a time, too much will cause the liquid to overflow. The ice cream will have a slight effervescence from the CO2, but that will go away if you mix it thoroughly.
I will keep on dreaming that one day you will offer home made avocado ice cream at zubuchon!!
Very off-topic and really sorry MM. The Secretary of Tourism is resigning end of the month. I nominate Marketman as the next Tourism Secretary!!!!
Senator Francis Pangilinan also believes that the next secretary should focus on Philippine food https://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2011/08/15/pangilinan-next-tourism-chief-promote-filipino-cuisine-173125
Avocados are sold at Php 20 per kilo here in Davao :) I’ve been on avocado shake overload the past few days!
Been enjoying my avocados with milk and sugar. It’s a taste that brings summer break back. This looks good though, and worth the added calories.
Have you tried Milky Way’s version? It’s a pretty good commercial ice cream, although dark green-ish in color.
I’ve never had homemade avocado ice cream like this so I guess I have to agree with @carmina on Arce dairy. Our version of homemade avocado ”ice cream” involves simply combining avocado chunks with lots of evaporated milk and sugar and freezing the mixture. That and the creamy avocado ice candy from our neighbor in the probinsiya are the stuff that make for glorious childhood memories.
You had the very low tech version of this for dessert tonight…mashed avocado with milk and sugar placed in the freezer! Since avocado is so creamy it’s a good “cheat’s” version, heehee :) Sigh…I think it’s time I spring for a nice ice cream maker!
I don’t have an ice cream maker (part of the wishlist, tho!) so I freeze my avocado flesh after scooping, then blitz with full-cream milk and a bit of muscovado. Good to the last drop!
Wow, I gave away my ice cream maker to my daughter, I think I will take it back to make this avocado ice cream especially that Filipino type avocado is now available here in Houston. Before, its only those Mexican type that I see here (the ones that we use for making guacamole). Thanks for the post.
a healthy choice! yummy….i wish i can find an ice cream maker here in davao city….i just love avocados..i usually make avocado shakes, but making an ice cream out of it is interesting and fun…
This is a timely post, MM, I love ice cream and I am also deep into literary research about ice creams during Jane Austen’s time.
Here is a link, maybe you’ll get some ideas for you also have a penchant for tools and vessels to serve food with. The ice cream pail in the page is gorgeous.
https://www.historicfood.com/Georgian%20Ices.htm
atbnorge, thanks for the link, the pail is utterly STUNNING! Artisan, have you lost your marbles? :)
Artisan, I second the motion! ;)
Ditto about lousy commercially available ice creams.
Would coconut milk work in place of milk/cream to make it “healthier” (with all the “healthy” fats of avocado and coconut) or vegan?
got veinless beautiful avocado at 30pesos per kilo in makeshift fruitstands along the road near the gate of caleruega church. and the manong selling fruits is very generous with dagdag. also, beaufiful sweet potatoes being sold at 20pesos per kilo.
avocado ice cream is my favorite!!!! =)
Mike: Coconut milk does work as substitute for dairy as we have done in our household. Though the oil in coconut milk is saturated fat it is of the medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) variety. The body digests MCFAs more easily and sends these fats directly to the liver where they are immediately converted into energy. And then, coconut is also rich in lauric acid known for its antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties and contains no trans fat.
I have used coconut milk/cream to make buko ice cream….just as yummy, and with quinoa ( instead of wheat based or corn cereal for breakfast). Out of concern for calories, I tend not to use coconut milk on a regular basis, plus the fact that coconut milk has gotten so expensive! nearly $2 for a 12 oz can, so we use store bought almond milk instead ( a little over $3 for half a gallon), unless you want to milk your own nuts, as mentioned in an earlier post in this blog. I still have to try almond milk though for making ice cream.
And yes, avocado ice cream is on deck! soon as I find good avocados for less than $2 for a teenie one.
Wonder why avocado isn’t more widely used in the Philippines in salads or as a garnish for savory dishes? Seem like it is thought of as dessert. Avocado, jicama, tomato and corn chile salsa pairs well with our rich meat dishes like sisig or lechon.
I made avocado ice cream (a la Joey @13) sometime ago and brought it to my former workplace. A small office that’s thoroughly international – half Asian, half ‘whites’, i.e., Aussie, Macedonian, Italian. The Asians loved it, the whites couldn’t get it. LOL!
On a separate but related issue, I caught the episode Ice Cream Palaces on TV a few days ago and one of the top ‘Ice Cream Palaces’ along with Haagen-Dazs, etc. was Mitchell’s in San Francisco CA. What’s so special about this place? Other than being a small ice cream manufacturer, hand-packing what they make? They carry Filipino flavors such as buko, avocado, mango, langka, guava, macapuno and ube (being sold as such and not translated). The main ingredients are imported from the Philippines. How cool is that? :-)
For more info…
https://www.mitchellsicecream.com/html/index.htm
This looks yummy Mr MM! I find that avocado as an ice cream flavour is very much peculiar to our Filipino tastebuds, in exactly the same way as cheese ice cream is a big favourite for us as well! (And thought of as rather strange by other cultures lol). Me, i can’t get enough of either of them :-)
Great suggestion to use coconut milk as a substitute for the dairy, Mike and Connie C. And for the record Connie C, you don’t need to worry about the calorie content of coconut oil or coconut milk – as you said yourself, due to the MCFAs, the calories are converted immediately by the body into energy, in much the same way as carbohydrates are used as fuel by the body. So the fat doesn’t get stored in the fat cells and therefore doesn’t contribute to weight gain, unlike other fats and oils which have Long Chain Fatty Acids or LCFAs. In fact coconut oil has the lowest calories of any fats and oils, it’s actually the world’s only natural, low-calorie fat! And on top of that, because it’s used as fuel, it boosts our metabolism, so the body burns up more calories. It seriously is the fat that can make you thin! Since I’ve been taking 4 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil everyday, and substituted all my cooking oils for it, I’ve been feeling lots more energy, lost weight, and I never catch colds and flus! (Coconut oil has antibacterial properties). So let’s stop being misinformed about coconut oil, stop being afraid of it! It’s actually extremely good for us, if not the best thing out there for our health and well-being (heck they’ve been adding it to baby formula for decades). For more info about this wonderful stuff go to
https://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/article10065.htm
https://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/article10612.htm
Lol sorry for waffling on. Mr MM what do you think? Perhaps you can do a post on coconut oil or milk, do you have a lechon dish cooked in gata in your restaurants for instance? Cheers ;-P
” Artisan, have you lost your marbles? :)”
I think the santol juice had something to do with it! LOL ;-)
Sharon: Thanks for the links.
I wonder tho if a gram of fat , short, medium or long chain would yield less than 9 calories a gram. Maybe it has more to do with its metabolism and its not being stored (MCF’s) as fatty cells in the liver, unlike carbohydrates, the major major culprit in the so called “metabolic syndrome” of world epidemic proportions.
Our much maligned coconut oil has been vindicated and its growing use explains the rise in prices ( has actually doubled in cost recently ) along perhaps with the natural disasters, tsunami, weather change that have affected production in countries growing them.
There was a discussion in this blog on the leche flan post and making the distinction between filled milk ( the less expensive formula substitute for milk in developing countries for many many years and we were warned about its inferior nutritional value) which is coconut based and full cream evaporated milk, the “real milk” .
For making ice cream, or leche flan however, I’d pick the full cream evaporated milk if I had to vs. the filled milk for better palatability and flavor.
I have that same ice cream maker here in cebu and have the same problems with freezing, have not tried enough methods to understand if a solution is possible, will try the ice bowl method you mention here….
Nahurot na hinuon among avocado. Tsk. I just love the idea of making ice cream again. I haven’t made any in almost a year. Oh, well, I guess these fresh bananas from the farm will have to do.
By the way, my auntie Bing says “hi.” Cheers~
when i’m too lazy i just add some heavy cream and condensed milk to the mashed avocado – works for me too! this would be heavenly with iloilo’s barquillos with casuy, or topped with macapuno balls (preserved macapuno in ball form, not strings). i love the chewier texture and soft centers of the macapuno balls.
no, no, no cabinet position for MM, please! that’s when we’ll really lose this blog. and MM won’t be allowed to make rants anymore!
millet, and I would have to stop opening restaurants… :(
Artisan Chocolateir’s suggestion makes perfect sense, Secretary MM. You’ve already trained your staff at the 2 Zubuchon branches, opening more branches can wait…But then again, you probably will have to fire the entire manpower pool of DOT to start all over again..sigh..but it was good to dream for a minute or 2….
Anyway, @Mindanaoan, I am green with envy. yesterday I paid 4JD (almost $6) for 2 small, veiny avocados… the hubby was craving for avocado salad so I had no choice…
What do you mean by pure cream? Is it the nestle cream?
This looks very yummy! I want to make it this weekend.
miren, what it says, cream that is at least 45% milkfat, rich and unctuous… no, not nestle cream… :)
I am not familiar with that, I guess I just haven’t seen it but will look for it. Actually, I will call the local supermarkets now to see if they have it. Thanks.
I purposely left 3 liters of Magnolia Chocolate ice cream on my kitchen countertop for almost 4 hours. Suprisingly, it didn’t melt. Imagine a sponge, there’s something wrong there.