Creamy rich homemade ice cream …sounds yummy, right? I’m sharing an eggless recipe for this milky goodness that saves your cooking time without compromising on the creamy side. It’s as good and even better than your store bought ones made in all time favourite classic flavour – fig N’ honey!!
How I developed this recipe-
I won’t brag that all the credit for the texture of my homemade ice creams is to myself! Because I’ve been using my ice cream machine for hands-free churning cum chilling for proper aeration of my ice cream mixtures. BUT, in the following recipe, I’ve noted an alternative stepwise method for making your ice creams the right way without the use of an ice cream maker, as I know that good ice cream maker machines are not so cheap or common in every household.Trust me! The alternative method is self-researched, tried, tested and most importantly it has been successful in yielding same results as the machine churned ice creams, if followed exactly as below.
Although there are many flavours of ice creams that are quite IN nowadays like the peanut butter banana, choco coconut ..and even unicorn, I chose to go with fig and honey as it’s an all time favourite classic recipe also considering the healthy benefits of these 2 ingredients!
What’s special about this recipe?
. FIGS- High in fiber (helps in digestion), low in calories, high source of minerals- like calcium (strengthens bones), potassium (lowers blood pressure), iron (fights anemia) & vitamins A, C, K and B complex vitamins. Considering all these nutritional benefits of fig and also how yummy this addition is, you can’t say no to this ice cream, ever!. Honey- Even though it’s added in small amounts in this ice cream, let’s note it’s vast health benefits. Honey is anti-inflammatory, rich in micronutrients and antioxidants- this good for fighting of diseases, for better metabolism, for beauty & overall health.
. Vanilla- Its antioxidant rich, anti- inflammatory, depression killer and good for digestion too.
. Milk- This ice cream recipe contains just natural dairy & dairy products, and thus no additives like emulsifiers, preservatives, added starch/frozen dessert,.etc. are added.
Milk on its own is a whole food and helps to boost your calcium, protein & vitamin intakes. So, next time your kid refuses to drink his/her daily glass of milk/ energy drink, you can just serve them one or 2 scoops of yummy fig & honey ice cream. Just sit back and see them licking the bowl, loving dairy!
What you’ll need-
300 mL Milk300 mL Whipping cream (chilled)
200g (~half tin) Condensed milk
2 Tablespoons cornflour
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
100g Dried figs (chopped chunky)
100 mL Water
2 Tablespoons honey
How to prepare-
- Mix 200 mL milk with the condensed milk stirring to incorporate well.
- Mix 100 mL milk with cornflour until it’s fully dissolved without lumps and stir it into the above milk mixture.
- Double boil the above mixture on a water bath (keeping a smaller bowl/sauce pan with the mixture on top of boiling water in another bigger saucepan kept on flame), until thickened. This takes approximately 5-6 minutes. Keep it aside to cool.
- Cook the dried figs in water until water is evaporated. Roughly mash the figs with a fork and cool it -preferably in a refrigerator.
In ice cream machine—
- Combine the milk mixture and vanilla. To this, add the cream, honey & figs.
- Transfer the above into a pre-cooled (-30 degree Celsius) ice cream churning tub with the blade attached.
- Churn it in the highest (harder) setting of your ice cream machine till done.
- Transfer the churned contents to a deep and long freezer tub container and freeze for around 1-2 hours till just hard enough to scoop it into balls.
Without ice cream machine—- Stir in vanilla into the milk mixture & refrigerate with clinwrapped.
- Whip up the heavy whipping cream into peaks and gently fold in the chilled milk mixture into it until well incorporated.
- Freeze the above in your ice cream tub for 30 minutes and gently fold in the fig and honey.
- Freeze it again for 1 hour and stir again to aerate. Repeat this for 2 times.
- Your ice cream will be ready in continuous 2 hours in the freezer after the last manual churn.
- Scoop it out and enjoy!
Notes, Tips & Suggestion-
. You can incorporate rum soaked raisins into the prepared mixture before churning to create a unique flavour with a bonus booze..
. Sprinkle toasted almond flakes or crushed cashew praline on top of your ice cream for an extra crunch if you prefer- Me and my family prefer it without toppings as the figs by itself tastes heavenly!
. If you don’t have an ice cream maker machine at home you could follow the given alternative method- but don’t forget to aerate it often as that’s what aerated and improves the texture of your ice cream.