Best (And Worst) Fruit Choices for Ice Cream
Over the summer season fruit is everywhere. We get spoilt for choice and prices are low. It’s the best time to make ice cream.
Water is your enemy when making ice cream. It’s responsible for iciness.
The amount of water content in fruit varies significantly and it can have a big impact on your final ice cream. Here’s a quick run-down some good (and not so good) fruit to make ice cream with.
Top 3 fruit to make ice cream
These aren’t my favourite fruit ice creams. They are the easiest fruit to work with, due to their low water content. You’ll have better success creating a creamy textured ice cream.
The % shows the water content in the fruit.
- Mango 84%
- Fig 80%
- Banana 76%
You won’t have a problem making ice cream with these fruits. Although mango isn’t the lowest water content fruit around, it makes excellent mango ice cream or mango sorbet.
Bottom 3 fruit to make ice cream
- Strawberries 92%
- Watermelon 93%
- Peaches 90%
Listing strawberries in this list feels wrong because it is great when made right. If you can successfully make strawberry ice cream that has good texture, you should be proud, but here’s the issue. You can either blitz the strawberries, in which case you lose that burst of fresh strawberry flavour. Otherwise, use chunks of berries which turn into icy bits once frozen.
A solution to deal with water content is to roast the fruit before churning it. This reduces the water and can improve the texture. Check out this pear ice cream recipe to see an example.
If it’s summer where you live, enjoy it. Make the most of the in-season fruit available to you and don’t be afraid to trial new recipes.
