Pawpaw Ice Cream
makes about 3 pints
Two ways of making this treat — with and without an ice cream maker.
(adapted from Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit by Andy Moore)
Here is a plain recipe for pawpaw ice cream as a starting point for experimentation. Vanilla, walnuts, and bananas all work well with pawpaw; you can also try adding herbs like mint and basil. Pawpaw is already an intense flavor, though, and can stand well on its own.
2 cups pawpaw pulp (or more, if you have it)
1 cup sugar
2 cups cream
2 cups milk
ICE CREAM MAKER: Combine the pawpaw pulp and sugar. Stir in the cream and milk. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions.
BY HAND: You can also make a good poor man’s pawpaw ice cream without any special equipment. Here is what Andy Moore suggested: Buy a carton of vanilla ice cream and let it soften on the counter. Add pawpaw pulp, stir it into the softened ice cream until well combined, and put the carton back in the freezer. The results won’t be quite as smooth as ice cream from a maker, but Moore tells me it works well. And if you just can’t find local pawpaws this year head down to DoJo Gelato in the fall and ask for this seasonal delight
Akshay Ahuja grew up in New Delhi and the suburbs outside Washington, DC, and now lives in College Hill in Cincinnati with his wife and son. His writing often appears in Cincinnati Magazine and The Dark Mountain Project. He loves playing with soil and words, and writes about food, plants, and the arts in their various wild and domesticated forms.
