Ice Cream Indian style

I love Ice Creams. I know this is not the time of the year for ice creams, but then for a person like me when is it not the right time to have one!! The single biggest craving  when I was expecting my son was Ice Cream and pity here in north America Ice Cream has a different meaning all together and is made with egg yolks... I never liked Hagen Daaz, but i never knew of the yolks in them till pregnancy made my olfactory senses more acute and told me about the yolks even before the list of ingredients did.

I kept searching for good home made ice cream recipe till i ate one at my co-sister's place. Her mother served us the most delectable home made ice cream ever. I fell in love with it immediately. She obliged my request for her recipe with a sample supply of ingredients. How gracious was that one, lucky me! Thanks to her. We now have a perpetual supply of home made ice cream in all different flavors- strawberry, pineapple, pomegranate...the list is endless. Just like me, tweaked her basic recipe with my fresh fruit pulp and honey :) Not only is this recipe vegetarian but it is also low in fat compared to the commercial variety. In fact for this reason it can be technically called a frozen dessert in USA and not ice cream!! Cannot believe it :)

 Here is the basic recipe courtesy Hema Aunty.Yes it is the heavenly pumpkin cheesecake peeking at the corner of this photograph.

We will need,

Milk   1/2 Liter
GMS   (Glycerol Mono Stearate)  1.5 tbsp
Cornflour           1.5 tbsp
Sodium Alginate  (look for food grade) 1/8 tsp
Sugar 10-12 tbsp
Cream 75 ml
Fresh fruit pulp  1/2 cup (Think strawberry puree, crushed pineapple, pomegranate molasses, Raspberry, blueberry, mixed berry puree, mango puree)
Honey  2 tbsp
Essence and food color if preferred. ( I do not use synthetic food colors though)

Method:
Stage 1:

• Mix the G M S powder, Cornflour and Alginate in little milk and set it aside. 
• Bring the rest of the milk to a boil. Dissolve sugar in it. 
• Stir in the cornflour mixture. Simmer for a few seconds and turn off the heat. 
• Cool completely making sure that no cream films the milk mixture. Stir it once every 3- minutes or so till completely cool.
• Pour the mixture into tall 2 quart container ( at least 1.5 liters) and freeze it.

 Stage 2:

• Once the mixture is completely set, remover and cut it into big chunks. Pour in the cream, honey and run it under a hand mixer. Once the mixture has at least doubled in volume pour in the fruit pulp and whisk it with the hand mixer till the volume is at least tripled.
• Freeze the mixture till firm. 
• Scoop and serve as desired.
P.S: In the picture are strawberry and pineapple: with pick-your-own strawberry puree that is lying in my freeze and the other with drained crushed pineapple out of the can. If you prefer brighter colors, add a few drops of food coloring. Essence and extracts also can be used if preferred.