Recipe: Lychee Ice Cream!!!

 

I made ice cream!  Lychee ice cream!  Talk about an exotic first foray into the world of home made ice cream :)  There weren't that many recipes on lychee ice cream, so I decided to take one recipe and tweak it a little, which is actually a bit risky since I just mentioned, I've never made ice cream before hahaha.  But it turned out great! I have included the recipe and my changes in red.  

Lychee Ice Cream 

Adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups canned seedless lychees, drained & diced I actually only had a 20oz can of lychees, so I used that instead, and I thought it was PLENTY.  It came out to about 3/4 cup 
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk I used skim milk, which worked out fine
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks, beaten 
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice I really wanted more lychee flavor, so I nixed the lemon entirely and went with the juice of half a lime plus enough lychee syrup to equal 1/4 cup of liquid.  

  Directions:

1. Combine the cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan or double boiler; heat until warm and the sugar is completely dissolved. Add 1 cup of the cream mixture to the yolks while whisking lightly. Gradually pour the egg mixture back into the cream mixture while continuing to whisk lightly.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the back of your spoon is thinly coated, about 8 minutes. Do not allow to boil or the ice cream custard mixture will curdle.
3. Add the lychee and lemon juice and let it cool in the refrigetator overnight. I added the lime juice/lychee syrup and then put the custard in the fridge for only a couple of hours (I was too excited!).  I added the lychees near the end of the mixing process. 
4. Freeze in an electric or manual ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. If you don't have an ice cream maker you can put the ice cream custard in a bowl and put it in your freezer until frozen.

So there you have it.  I am not going to sit here and tell you to make all my changes, although I really do think the 20oz can of lychees are enough.  I added the raspberries for a pretty photo - but they turned out to be a really nice foil to the sweetness of the ice cream.  

Would I make this again?  Definitely! Just a word for the wise - the lychees are best when they are not entirely frozen, so wait about five minutes until the lychees are tender and chewy!

Enjoy!  I know I did :)