Ice-creams are my all time favorite and I love to experiment different flavors of it. It is always our favorite food, regardless of the weather. This longan vanilla ice-cream has the goodness of real fruit and a mild flavor of vanilla too. You can never say no to this, can you?!
Recently, I have been trying different ice-creams and also sorbets. So, this longan vanilla ice-cream is another trial of mine. It was very successful and the ice-cream tasted really yummy.
I don’t know if this longan fruit is familiar with most of you. I have heard the name before, but I have definitely not seen or had it, until now. In my place, this is sold as ‘Thai lychees’. I love lychess, so I thought, why not give this too a try.
The outer covering of longan was different from that of lychees. Other than this, most of it is common for both longan and lychee. It has a thin brown outer skin covering the flesh of the fruit. It has a black seed and looks similar to lychee but not the same. I felt like it tasted similar to palm fruit (commonly called as nungu in tamil).
Apart from its look and taste, longan fruits are also packed with a lot of health benefits. It is lower in calories and is a very good source of vitamin C. It is also high on water content and helps in weight loss too.
I wanted to try some recipe with a seasonal fruit and post it for all of you. But, I couldn’t do so until now. When I saw these longan fruits, I thought of trying something new and posting it. Also, I missed on this year’s lychees. So, I thought maybe I could compensate it with these longan fruits.
To be fr4ank, it obviously did not compensate for the lychees. But, I did enjoy having the longan vanilla ice-cream more than the fruit alone. Anyways, at first I thought I wouldprepare a pudding recipe with longan fruits. But then, for the first time, I got these best whipped cream available around my place that I was intimidated to buy one then and there and try something with it.
I love seeing whipped cream beaten to stiff peaks. But, for a long time time, I was not able to do it as I did not get proper whipping cream available near my place. So, when I saw that it was available I immediately changed my decision from pudding to ice-cream. I am also planning to make a cake. I hope that i get the time to try and post a new cake recipe. *Fingers crossed*
So anyway, To have the flesh of these longan fruits, we need to peel the skin off and deseed them. For this longan vanilla ice-cream, I had all these flesh of the longan fruit pulsed for a few seconds so that I would get the juice of it while also having some bits of longan fruit. You can also chop a few and grind the rest to a juice consistency and then use it.
This way, every bite of the longan vanilla ice-cream you take, there would be small pieces of longan fruits for you to bite one. You can totally avoid this by blending everything to a juice consistency. I like some pieces of fruits on the ice-cream and so I made it that way.
However you make it, it is ice 0cream at the end of the day and no one can deny ice-cream. Enjoy this longan vanilla ice-cream with your loved ones. Stay safe; stay healthy. Happy cooking and eating!
While you are here, do checkout my snack recipes for a spicy combination to go along with the ice-cream. Also checkout my other dessert recipes too!
Has meal planning been a little bit difficult during this lockdown? Look through my No Veggies, 21-Day Lockdown Series for ideas on what to cook during this lockdown.
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Longan vanilla ice-cream
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups whipping cream
- 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 300 grams longan fruit, de-skinned and deseeded
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Remove the outer skin and the seed of the longan fruit.
- Pulse it for a few seconds in a blender such that there are still tiny bits remaining. Keep it aside until further use.
- Place the bowl and the beater in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
- Pour 1.5 cups of whipping cream in the chilled bowl and beat in a medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Keep beating until stiff peaks are formed.
- Add condensed milk, pulsed longan fruit along with its juices and the vanilla extract. Beat it just until well combined.
- Pour it in a freezer safe container and freeze for 8 hours or overnight.
- Serve the ice-cream with some chocolate sauce or as desired.
Notes
- If you do not like tiny bits of fruits in the ice-cream, then blend the fruit well and strain it to remove any tiny bits.
- While beating scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- After adding the rest of the ingredients to the beaten whipped cream, just beat until fully combined and do not over mix.
- Freeze for atleast 8 hours for the ice-cream to set properly.
