Avocado Ice Cream

A while back we saw Avocado Ice Cream made on Good Eats with Alton Brown. Rich has mentioned on occassion that we should try it. Seeing as we finally finished the Bacon Ice Cream from Valentine's Day (which I still swear I will create a post about in the future), I decided it was time we give it a whirl.

The ingredients are very simple and the process even easier. Without eggs, there was no need to create the custard base typical in ice cream. Which meant I was able to make the base and the ice cream on the same night.

Avocado Ice Cream
(Source: Alton Brown - Food Network)

Ingredients
3 small to medium avocados
1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice [After tasting the mix, I increated this to the juice of 1/2 a lemon]
1 1/2 cups whole milk [I substituted fat free half and half here]
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream [I substituted skim milk here]

Peel and pit the avocados. Add the avocados, lemon juice, milk, and sugar to a blender and puree.

Transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl, add the heavy cream and whisk to combine. [I added the half and half to the blender too so as not to dirty an extra dish.]

Place the mixture into the refrigerator and chill until it reaches 40 degrees F or below, approximately 4 to 6 hours.

Process the mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. However, this mixture sets up very fast, so count on it taking only 5 to 10 minutes to process. For soft ice cream, serve immediately. If desired, place in freezer for 3 to 4 hours for firmer texture.

I packaged some ice cream for us and another container for my parents and brother.

Note: This ice cream sets up HARD!! I think that has something to do with the fact there is not the egg/custard base. Either way, it's kind of an avocado ice cube. But when subjected to the microwave for ~30 seconds it seems to be just fine.