when life gives you guavas...

what do you do with an excess of ripe guavas? make guava ice cream!

(guava with lemon ice cream)

WTF is a guava you might ask?

it's this!


(part of the myrtle family, guavas are small, sweet and fragrant tropical fruits with hard seeds that crack like micro-golfballs when you bite into them).

take a buttload of guavas (the riper the better), pass the pulp through a fine sieve to remove the seeds, and then cook it up in a plain ice cream recipe, adding lemon and vanilla as you like.

the formula i used was something like this:

1.5 cup guava paste
2 eggs
1/2 to 2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup milk
1 to 2 cups cream (the fatter, the tastier)
dash of vanilla extract
lemon juice and some lemon rind
guava juice (optional for more guava flavour)
1/2 to whole sachet of unflavoured gelatin

equipment required:
- candy thermometer
- double boiler
- ice cream/sorbet maker OR you can try this method which lets you take out some of your pent-up anger.

stir together the dairy products in the top section of a double boiler, beating in the eggs. mix the sugar with the gelatin and beat it into the mix, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn't clump. bring it all to about 70 C (158F) making sure the mix does not hotter than that.

once it gets up to temperature, remove it from the heat and make the temperature drop down to 18C (64F) as fast a possible. here in downtown canada, all you need to do is to set the pot in the snowbank that is usually your back porch in the summer. for the rest of you, try a large bowl of ice cubes and water.

you can store it in the fridge at this point until you're ready to icecreamify it (i.e. run it through the ice cream machine). icecreamify it in the ice cream maker to add freeze and air to the mixture. if you like it with less air (more like a gelato), that's your prerogative.

store in an airtight freezer container and serve it when your heart desires.