Recipe: Red Guava Ice Cream

We are finally enjoying some hot weather in the UK! To celebrate I made more red guava ice cream. When I say more I mean I keep making it as it’s so delicious it goes down well and so fast in this weather and I don’t even have time to photograph it. Fresh red guava is rich in pectin so it’s ideal for making jams, pastes, marmalade (in Brazil is called goiabada), jellies and jams. It can be eaten raw, juiced, cooked in sweet and savoury dishes. Guava is very versatile and rich in fibre fruit found at tropical and sub-tropical countries. Unfortunately, we can only find fresh white guava in the UK. So I use the red guava paste, sold in any Portuguese or Brazilian shops around town, and canned red guava which can be found in some Waitrose branches.

Here is my recipe without using the ice cream machine:

Ingredients:

Makes about just under 1L of ice cream.

For the Ice Cream base

• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups double cream

For the Red Guava Ice Cream

• 600ml of good quality custard or you can make your own ice cream base (recipe below)
• 250g of guava paste diluted in 30ml of warm water, the red guava paste can be found in any Portuguese shop
• 1 can of red guava – blended and sieved

Method:

For the Ice Cream Base

1. Heat the milk in a sauce pan over medium-low heat
2. Prepare an ice bath by setting medium bowl , enough to hold 2 litres of liquid, over a larger bowl partially filled with ice water
3. Set a strainer over the smaller bowl and set aside
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow in color and the sugar has dissolved. Gradually pour the warmed milk into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the same saucepan you used to warm the milk. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon
5. Strain the custard into the top bowl of the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Add the double cream and stir over the ice bath until cool. Cover the mixture itself with plastic wrap tightly and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight. Yield: about 3 cups or 600ml

For the red Guava Ice cream

1. Blend the canned guava and sieve them
2. Mix the sieved guava and the custard
3. Leave in the freezer for 3 hours
4. In the meantime place the 250gr guava paste in a pan with water, dilute it and let it cool. 5.Now take the ice cream out of the freezer and mix well with a fork and blend the diluted guava paste with the guava ice cream making swirls
5. Put back in the freezer overnight
6. Leave out of the freezer for 10 mins before serving