Passion Fruit Ice Cream

I often ask my nieces what ice cream I can make before a visit. On one visit they asked for passion fruit ice cream, so I had my orders and was off to the races. 

Sourcing fresh passion fruit in the Northeast United States can be challenging depending on the season, but it's worth the effort. If you happen to live where passion fruit is plentiful consider yourself lucky. 

Passion fruit is native to Brazil and other parts of South America. Its name is derived from the interpretation of its flower parts by Christian missionaries. They associated the parts of the passion flower with symbols from the Passion of Christ, hence the name "passion." The flower's tendrils were thought to resemble the whips used in the flagellation of Christ, the ten petals and sepals represented the ten faithful apostles (excluding Judas and Peter), the corona (the part of the flower that looks like a crown) symbolized the crown of thorns, and other parts of the plant were associated with other aspects of the Passion story.

Set aside the interesting, yet perplexing story about how the fruit was named. To me, this ice cream is at the level of what one would find at French Laundry, the esteemed Napa Valley restaurant by Thomas Keller. 

1. Remove the pulp from the passion fruit and then remove the seeds. You can use a combination of picking out individual seeds and then straining what remains to remove all of the seeds. Save the juice and pulp of the passion fruit, but discard the seeds and the outer shells. Or, if your family is like mine, plant the seeds in a random pot because, who knows, you might get lucky and become a passion fruit farmer one day. 
2. Add the evaporated milk to a blender along with the sugar. (do not add the heavy cream yet because you do not want to whip an excessive amount of air into the cream). Blend the evaporated milk and sugar on the lowest setting until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 5 minutes. 
3. Add the passion fruit pulp and continue to blend until thoroughly combined. 
4. Add the heavy cream and blend on the lowest setting until just combined, about 25-20 seconds. 
5. Transfer to your ice cream machine and churn according to the machine's instructions.

Ingredients:

475g heavy cream
177ml evaporated milk
150g sugar
4 whole, fresh passion fruit (seeded)