soft-serve ice cream maker for fruit

"SaxLady" <stingme456@do_not_spam_me_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi, sometime ago I was at a market where as you watched, fresh fruit was put into a large machine
which churned and obviously cooled it making a healthy fruit snack of a soft serve ice cream
consistancy (which of course they were selling). I would love to be able to do this at home, have
tried blending frozen fruit in the blender only to have a mushy icy mix at the end like baby food.
I tried blending some fruit and putting it in a regular ice cream maker so it could churn it etc,
but it came out a solid lump. I've seen soft serve ice cream makers advertised - does any one have
one, which could do this? In looking online I've seen ones advertised which don't need a canister
to be frozen, (which would be much more convenient!), and supposedly they do smoothies and some
alcoholic beverages as well. They would be great if they really did all that, easily, but more
importantly the fruit as well. Can anyone recommend anything they think might work? Also I'm in
Australia, so it would need to be available here (or not too expensive to ship). Thanks for your
thoughts

I have made mango ice cream (soft-serve consistency) in my regular ice cream maker- 8 mangoes,
pureed in a blender, some retained in small chunks for texture, karo syrup (which is basically corn
syrup with vanilla) and milk. I used skim, so it was low fat - it was easy and very tasty. The karo
gave it the elasticity needed for the texture, and helped it to blend more easily.

-L.

Bananas give the best creamy consistency. A vegetable juicer works well. Freeze the bananas and feed
them into the juicer. You'll get that soft serve consistency.

If you're up for experimentation, the trick is to get it frozen but not too frozen. Try freezing the
fruit first, then blending it, then putting it back in the freezer, then being willing to blend it
again if it freezes too froze. Each blending incorporates air. Each freezing and thawing brings it
closer to the right temperature. Also try adding a little fruit juice concentrate. You get more
fruit and pulp, less pure water which tends to freeze solid. If you want it less frozen before
serving, you blend again with water. And remember bananas and papaya as being the best for
creaminess. A mixture of bananas and strawberries will have a better chance at success than plain
strawberries.

--Lia

SaxLady said:

Hi, sometime ago I was at a market where as you watched, fresh fruit was put into a large machine
which churned and obviously cooled it making a healthy fruit snack of a soft serve ice cream
consistancy (which of course they were selling). I would love to be able to do this at home, have
tried blending frozen fruit in the blender only to have a mushy icy mix at the end like baby food.
I tried blending some fruit and putting it in a regular ice cream maker so it could churn it etc,
but it came out a solid lump. I've seen soft serve ice cream makers advertised - does any one have
one, which could do this? In looking online I've seen ones advertised which don't need a canister
to be frozen, (which would be much more convenient!), and supposedly they do smoothies and some
alcoholic beverages as well. They would be great if they really did all that, easily, but more
importantly the fruit as well. Can anyone recommend anything they think might work? Also I'm in
Australia, so it would need to be available here (or not too expensive to ship). Thanks for your
thoughts