Sunday, April 3, 2016

3 Apr 16 (Sun) - Avocado Ice Cream

Suddenly had craving for avocado and bought three from the NTUC last Friday. At the same time also bought a bottle of gula melaka syrup and a pack of oat milk. Initially I wanted to get the HL milk but my colleague recommended the oat milk by Magnolia, saying that the milk has the oat fragrant which is really nice. My first reaction was that it may not go well with what I intend to make, but then I decided to give it a shot. My plan was to make avocado milkshake. Then I went on to explore the idea of making it into an ice cream. Didn't google for avocado milkshake, but I did a search on avocado ice cream. Read a few which looked similar and then decided to use my previous beetroot ice cream recipe as a base.


Started off with the ice cream and the first step was to make the avocado puree. Didn't follow the amount of the ingredients per the beetroot ice cream recipe. Instead, I used my own estimations on the amount of avocados to use, the amount of gula melaka syrup to add, and so on. The puree turned out to be rather good on its own. Then the final step was to add in the whipping cream and pulsed it with the avocado puree for some twenty seconds before sending the mixture into the freezer.

Ingredients for Avocado Puree
180g avocado flesh, chopped
120ml gula melaka syrup
1-2 tsp lemon juice
130ml oat milk

Method:
1.  Add all ingredients in a blender and process till smooth
2.  Sieve the mixture to remove any bits and chunks that are still present


Ingredients for Avocado Ice Cream
350g avocado puree
200g whipping cream

Method:
1.  Pour avocado puree and whipping cream in a blender
2.  Process the mixture for about 15-20 seconds
3.  Pour mixture into a container of your choice and put into the freezer
4.  Remove from freezer after 2 hours to churn** with a fork
5.  Repeat step (4) for another three times before freezing it overnight

** Try to churn the mixture in a whisking manner to try to incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible


Next up was the avocado milkshake. This was easy because it was simply a matter of blending the avocado flesh, the oat milk and gula melaka syrup. Just needed to adjust the amount of milk and syrup to my preferred consistency and taste. As I still had half an avocado left, I kept it in an airtight container till I found a recipe to use it later on.


Googled for a savory avocado recipe and found one called Avocado Egg Salad by Two Peas and Their Pod. Didn't follow the recipe exactly, just in general. So made one hard-boiled egg, mashed it together with the remaining avocado and some mayonnaise, seasoned with some salt, black pepper and mixed herbs. Added some spring onion since I had some left from last weekend. Though it was called avocado egg salad, it was more like a spread which I used it for my bread. Turned out to be rather delicious.


---------------- Edited on 6 Apr 2016 ----------------

Brought some avocado ice cream to office for my usual group of tasters to try. I guess it is either you like it or you hate it. To quote my brother-in-law, "It is an acquired taste". So the feedback I got were pretty wide ranging from “Wah... I love avocado + gula melaka!” to “Honest opinion… not a big fan”.

NYP was the one who loves avocado, especially those creamy avocado drinks one can get in Indonesia. So she commented “It’s nice. Not too sweet. Think can put more avocado.”

CC, on the other hand, was the one who is not a big fan. She commented that the ice cream was very buttery / creamy. So suggested that maybe next time can replace oat milk with coconut juice and add in some grated coconut.

TYY was somewhere in between as she doesn’t eat avocado so doesn’t know how it really tastes like. However, she did comment that “the avocado lends a nice creaminess without actually feeling heavy like cream” and that she could taste the gula melaka.

I read from one of the avocado ice cream recipes that the ice cream tastes very well when eaten with some shaved dark chocolate. So suggested that to my tasters and one of them, SWT, actually tried that. She commented that the ice cream was very creamy and the addition of the shaved dark chocolate actually brought out the smoothness of the avocado ice cream.

Well… guess it really is a case of either you like it or you hate it.