I Scream, You Scream - Time for Chocolate Ice Cream

Of all the things that conjure up images of perfect golden-white sands, azure waters and the occasional lolling palm tree, there is surely nothing better than fruit. Their bright colours scream tropical, and their taste brings back a happy haze of daydreams gone by.

My personal favourite fruit for this sort of thing has to be the mango. That silky-smooth looking green and red exterior masking the irresistible golden flesh that lies beneath make it my ultimate feel good fruit - beating off some stiff competition. There’s the less-than-humble pineapple (perfect for hollowing out and filling with gin cocktails - trust me on this one), the ‘why are you eating me in public when you know I’m full of seeds’ watermelon, and of course the coconut (chop the top off one and replace some of the milk with rum - again, you won’t be disappointed); but to me none of these beat a good old mango.

OK, I might be over-selling this mango-passion (I don’t quite go weak at the knees for them) and making myself sound like an alcoholic in the process, but the point is that I love mangos and that, like most tropical fruit, they are very versatile. Before this turns into a ramble (ahem) I feel it’s time to get to the point; but I feel that it was necessary to explain quite why I got so excited with this dessert.

It was another mediocre weekend of blustery showers and occasional blasts of sunshine here in the ‘Burgh, which clearly meant that it was the perfect time to try my hand at making some ice cream… What has this got to do with mangoes, you say? Well, one of
my favourite (non-boozy) tropical fruit accompaniments is chocolate and so I thought I’d make it chocolate and mango ice cream. Conveniently, this also fits in rather nicely with this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge. Yup, Shaheen over at Allotment 2 Kitchen is hosting this month’s challenge (started by the wonderful Chocolate Log Blog and Chocolate Teapot) and has decided that the cocoa’s accompaniment this month should be mango. Amazeballs*.

What could be better than chocolate and mango ice cream? Well, that got my brain ticking and thinking about something I’d spotted over on Pinterest earlier in the week, when someone had made cookies on top of a muffin pan, effectively turning them into cookie cups. Chocolate and mango ice cream in a chocolate chip cookie cup? As Gregg Wallace would not doubt exclaim: “Now THAT is a pudding!”

I’m very glad I let my mind wander with this one for a day or two, because I got a much, much better treat as a result. It’s also dead simple - you’ve really got no excuse for not treating yourself.

Simple pleasures maketh the man, or so they say. Now pass me a spoon!

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*For the record, I too judge myself quite considerably for using that pseudo-word

Easy Chocolate and Mango Ice Cream in Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

This is a mashup of quite a few recipes and things I’ve seen in passing online. Having changed significant chunks of the ice cream recipes (yup, plural) I am happy to say it is original to The Usual Saucepans, the cookies, however, come from my copy of Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen - although she made hers flat, it’s essentially the same thing as I just enlisted the aid of gravity. The recipe will make about 15 cookies and a little under a litre of ice cream.

Ingredients

for the ice cream:

1 small tin of condensed milk (397g)
275 ml double cream
125 ml crème fraîche
75g dark chocolate
⅓ mango
1 tsp vanilla extract

for the cookies:

300g plain flour
150g butter
100g dark brown sugar
125g caster sugar
150g chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Directions

for the ice cream:

Take your mango pieces and put them in a food processor (or use a hand blender), blitz it until it becomes a purée.

Chunk up your chocolate and put it in a large pyrex dish with about 75 ml of the cream. Put this bowl over a pan of simmering water on the hob, gently stirring until the chocolate melts.

Take it off the heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes before whisking in the remaining cream. After this pour in the vanilla extract, crème fraîche and condensed milk - whisk until it is all thoroughly combined. Finally fold in the mango puree.

Transfer the mixture into a freezer-proof container and place in the freezer. After a couple of hours take it out and whisk out any lumps that have formed. Place back in the freezer for another 3-4 hours until fully frozen.

for the cookies:

Preheat your oven to 170°C and line two large baking sheets.

Melt your butter in the microwave (doing it in the mixing bowl you want to use will be easiest) and add the two lots of sugar once melted. Beat thoroughly, until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy-looking.

Once silky-smooth, mix in the flour, bicarb, vanilla extract and eggs. The mixture should be a light batter, which holds together, but isn’t too dry (a slight stickiness will give the cookies a better texture) - if it looks too dry, add a splash of milk. Don’t over mix it - it isn’t a cake! Finally fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the mixture out using a dessert spoon (a rounded one will give you roughly the right amount) onto your baking sheet - if you want to make them into cookie cups put your dough-dollops on top of up-turned silicon bun cases (or an upside-down, thoroughly greased, muffin pan) , so it can flow down the sides.

Bake for 15-19 minutes in the oven, until they are browning at the edges. Cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

To assemble the dessert take a generous scoop of the ice cream and place in the centre of the cookie cup, lavish it with lots of little pieces of mango. Then dig in like a pro.

Craig (145 Posts)

Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.