26 Oct 13 (Sat) - Red Dragon Fruit Ice Cream

I was hooked onto the Philippines red dragon fruit since two weeks ago after the fruit seller recommended me the fruit. Actually, I have eaten that before when I was on holiday with my little big sis's family to Gold Coast two years ago. Somehow, eating the fruit reminded me of the wonderful time I had during that trip.

Red dragon fruit or known as Pitaya roja or Red-fleshed Pitaya is also known as Hylocereus polyrhizus. I have been eating it on its own or blending it to drink as juice. Given that Halloween is coming, I thought why not try something different with the fruit, especially with its pretty pinkish-purplish color. So I decided to make ice cream out of it, and it turned out to be the best DIY ice cream by far due to the creamy, gooey texture.

Ingredients:

260g Red Dragon Fruit Puree

80-100g White Sugar

Juice from 1/4 lemon

200ml Whipping Cream

Method:

1.  Combine red dragon fruit puree, white sugar and lemon juice in a pot and bring to boil over low heat

2.  Continue to simmer over low heat till thicken slightly and off the heat

3.  Leave the mixture to cool completely

4.  Use a whisk to whisk the whipping cream till foamy

5.  Add the whipping cream into the cooled red dragon fruit mixture

6.  Whisk the mixture till well combined

7.  Transfer the mixture to a container of your choice and put into the freezer

8.  Take out after six hours to churn with a spoon or leave it in the freezer overnight

Just to share, this is the nifty little gadget I used for whisking the whipping cream. Got it from Daiso, PS. Ah...! Good news for hand/wrist work.

---------------- Edited on 28 Oct 2013 ----------------

Brought half of the ice cream to office and was hoping my food buddy, CC, would be around to give me honest comments. Unfortunately, she was not in office today. So I offered the ice cream to a few other colleagues who appreciate desserts.

TYY said, “I've never had red dragon fruit before so this was a nice intro to it. Nicer than white dragon fruit! I'm not really a dragon fruit fan but this was a nice palate cleanser.”

NYP commented that it tasted like sorbet while GL simply kept repeating that it was nice. SWT said it was yummy but a bit sweet while KH said it was creamy and not too sweet.

At home, I found that the ice cream texture was like that of the gelato when out of my freezer, however, it was harder when it was out of the office freezer. The only conclusion I had is that the office freezer was colder than mine. Lol. Anyway, seems like this ice cream received quite a lot of positive comments.