Obviously this is a recipe focusing on North American paw paws, but I am pretty sure banana would work just as well, although the flavors would be very different. Fresh or frozen paw paw mash will work, so you can make this anytime if you have some squirreled away. Use really ripe paw paws here -- the blackish ones. This is essentially a French vanilla ice cream with paw paw added right at the end. The only tricky part of this recipe is tempering the egg yolks, and that's not exactly rocket science. You just need to add the hot cream in small doses while stirring the beaten yolks. I'd eat this ice cream within a few weeks. The longer it sits in the freezer, the hard it gets, and it can get icy over time.
1/2 a vanilla bean, (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, scraped)
5 egg yolks
Categories
Dessert
Cuisine
American
Steps
Start by making the custard for the ice cream. Heat the cream and milk and sugar in a pot over medium heat to the steaming point, about 165°F. If you are using a real vanilla bean, add it to the mixture now. If you are using extract, wait a bit.
Beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Stirring the eggs all the time, add one ladle of the hot cream mixture into the eggs. Do this a second time -- this is tempering the eggs so they don't curdle in the hot cream. Pour the egg mixture into the pot.
Stir the custard often and heat it back to the steaming point. When it thickens -- it should coat the back of a spoon -- turn off the heat and pour the custard into a bowl. I like to set the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice to cool the mix down quickly. Stir in the vanilla extract if that's what you are using.
When the custard is cool, whisk in the mashed paw paws until they are well combined. You can put the mixture into your ice cream maker now, or you can push it through a fine-meshed strainer to remove any stray bits; you'll need to fish out the vanilla bean if you used that anyway. Run through your ice cream machine and eat!
Reviews
Jodi Donnelly on 2023-09-29 (5 stars): So good, thanks for sharing. I topped the ice cream with diced pawpaw fruit and a swirl of raw honey. Next level good!
Heather on 2022-11-25 (5 stars): We were running low on eggs, so I made this without them, and it was still delicious. We served it for our Thanksgiving dessert and everyone loved it. Probably should have added a tablespoon of rum or brandy to keep it from setting up so hard, but didn’t think about it till afterwards.
Keith on 2022-09-30 (5 stars): One reader commented on a bitterness when over ripe. I don't know about bitterness but there is a definite funkiness. I prefer to pick green and allow to just start to become soft. They will be sweet but not as sweet as the fully ripe with a flavor more like pear or even coconut. As they ripen more, they taste more like mango but with that funkiness. If you like funky wheat beers, you'll like them really ripe. I like adding the twigs of spicebush to the ice cream. I think spicebush twigs are as good as cinnamon and great in this ice cream.
Geoff on 2022-09-03 (4 stars): Made this today from just baaaarely enough fruit to make a batch. Would love to attempt a sherbert...a lassi....
But mainly i just want to make
About ten gallons of this to have at a whim...church it up w candied pecans and a thin drizzle of maple syrup.
Thanks for publishing this recipe!
Jim Tarrant on 2021-09-05 (4 stars): Your description of paw-paw was much more accurate than many, which seems to think they are only in the Midwest. You can find them as east as New Jersey. We have a large grove in MD near DC. I would not describe them as small. Our mature at between 20-25 feet.
Elizabeth on 2018-09-05 (5 stars): Any tips for keeping the fruit orange rather than it turning brown as I blend it up? I had pulped the fruit, stored it in the freezer, then put it in a food processor to smooth it out.
