Frozen banana type " ice cream " and frozen fruit sorbets made with food processor advice welcome please.

[Boucaneer]

Happy to be back here. After a long year in Kerala, India helping with training villages for emergencies, my last post was about making ice creams for our crew with hydration and cooling down in the heat. 

 

We have now come up with a new unit project where we would like to make frozen fruit type " ice cream " and sorbets for our crew for nutritional and lowering the core body temperature, from frozen bananas and frozen papayas, mangos, pineapples and gooseberries. 

 

These fruits are readily available around the villages, far more available than the original milk products.

 

Luckily we have been donated a Magimix 5100 food processor from a chap in London which shall be arriving soon. 

 

We have seen videos on YouTube but wanted to start a thread conversation about frozen banana and other fruit " ice cream " type deserts. I know it's not real ice cream being non dairy, but we really like the idea.

 

we have access to space in a chest freezer at a local shop that we can use to freeze the fruits, so we are looking for a little advice and possibly some good recipes if anyone here has any experience in such iced refreshment desserts. 

 

We may add other spices like ginger and mint or even tea and coffee to the frozen fruits whilst still in the powerful food processor. 

 

Still waiting for delivery for the magimix so we are trying to get our heads around some good recipes and a few suggestions would be very welcome. 

 

Im personally looking forward to the sorbets. Vitamins, nourishment, hydration and cooling down, it's a win, win, win, win situation. 

 

All suggestions and advice would be much appreciated. 

 

Thank you and kind regards, Alex. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[blue_dolphin]

What sort of quantities of these iced desserts do you plan to produce?

How will the project be held, distributed and served?  Is your freezer access limited to freezing fruit or can you also hold finished product in it?

 

I ask because, in my very limited experience, it takes a lot of processor or blender power to crank frozen fruits into  "ice cream" like the popular frozen banana stuff and you could probably produce more product by blending the fruit with your planned flavoring a and then freezing it.

 

[Lisa Shock]

Agreed, your precious storage space would be more efficiently used storing finished product -especially if you choose your containers' shape (rectangular, square, sizes that multiply to the inner dimensions of the freezer). This way, you aren't wasting space on peels, rinds, seeds, stems, etc. You could also package the sorbet in individual portion sized serving cups, if you have access to those.

 

A basic sorbet is fruit puree, simple syrup, with maybe a little extra lemon/lime juice for contrast. It is easily made in the old-fashioned five quart ice cream machines, whether hand-crank or electric, which use ice and salt.

 

Sanitation should be first and foremost, since the final mix is not cooked, there is a lot of potential for spreading disease. Your machine(s) will need to be sanitized and stored in a clean area.

 

That food processor appears to be a home-user type appliance. (I haven't seen one in the US.) It costs about 300pounds, and I guess it's ok, for a small home user appliance that doesn't get much of a workout. The reviews show it to be of middling quality with a tendency for the plastic bowls and blades to beak within 2-3 years of typical home use (pulled out maybe 2-3 times a month, tops). Trust me, these apparently 'high end' home appliances rely on the fact that once the novelty wears off, these things mostly just decorate kitchens, they get used on average about once a month. IMO, you'd be much better off saving up, maybe starting a crowdfunding campaign, spending more and getting a Vitamix which has a MUCH more powerful motor, or, getting a professional machine like a Robot Coupe which has all the parts made of metal.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Lisa Shock (log)

[Anna N]

Why not make popsicles?  Portable, superb delivery system, little churning needed etc. Etc.  

[Boucaneer]

Thank you Blue Dolphin, Lisa and Anna. 

 

Well to answer a few questions and confirmations. 

 

We would like make enough for 30 portions a day, as there's 15 crew members and it would be good to have two portions each daily. 

 

Yes, we will keep the finished frozen deserts in the borrowed space in the chest freezer. 

 

We plan to use a Colemans ice box for delivering the frozen iced desserts to more remote locations several miles away.

 

Popcicles or small sized paper cups would be great, we would have to create a mould for the popcicles or maybe one could be bought in the UK and shipped out to us, so any recommendations of brands would be great. We would have to find a sterile wooden stick as these guys are on duty and don't really want them to concern themselves with recycling plastic ones, they will most likely get lost anyway.

The individual disposable paper cups may may be better, I saw some in town the other day. 

 

If the project works well we may upgrade to more of an industrial food processor, as we are planned to be out there several years on rotation. 

 

We also have a cuisinart ice cream maker that hasn't been used yet. It's a basic model with a bucket that gets put into a freezer that could also be used. 

 

Great at idea about measuring the freezer internal dimensions and getting plastic boxes to tessalate without wasting any space. 

 

So would you also think it an idea to blend/process and mix some fruit raw before freezing and then freezing afterwards?

 

The magimix is made by Robot Coupe with a 900 watt induction motor, so a strong motor but yes I have read that the bowls are vulnerable so we shall start with the Magimix 5100 but a recommendation for a better model food processor model number would be great. You never know our luck on eBay or donators in London. ;-)

 

Any advice on recipes or just to discuss these desserts in general would be great. 

 

It certainly makes a change to the Ready to Eat rations that we don't really use. 

 

Some of the chaps catch Barracuda and Snapper from the beach front with a rod sometimes. We made a good jerk sauce a few weeks ago which was good. 

 

So a little guidance to make these frozen refreshing snacks/treats would be great.

 

Thank you so much for the replies, it certainly helps and gives us some confidence, we're alright driving safety patrol boats and emergency survival, but some of us in the kitchen hut need a helping hand. lol

 

Thanks again, Alex. 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[Boucaneer]

I must say, that Robot Coupe R2 food processor looks good and much more durable. 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[Lisa Shock]

6 hours ago, Boucaneer said:

I must say, that Robot Coupe R2 food processor looks good and much more durable. 

 

 

Yeah, it's made to be used for hours on a daily basis. We had them in the culinary school I attended. School ran three tracks of classes: early morning, afternoon and evening. So, they'd often get used by three different class groups a day. I was there for over 2 years, and my work study job was in the same office as the person who ordered new equipment. I never saw one need to be replaced.

[Boucaneer]

Well that will be our next replacement food processor then. :-) Thanks Lisa. 

 

We shall buy 12kg of bananas when our food processor arrives and freeze the nana's and blitz them up. 

 

Any idea about changing and influencing the flavour, as to mint or chocolate?

 

I'm sure we find some coco powder somewhere in a store, but mint essence oil will be rare as hens teeth or rocking horse manure around here. Even coco powder take a special blessing to find.

 

I suppose we could blend in 50% pineapple or mango to the banana base for different flavours. 

 

I do wonder what the jackfruit may taste like. We have tropical fruit and vegetables. We may even use a bit of spinach and real mint if we can't find mint essence oil. The spinach adding a green colour and adding a bit of iron to the diet. 

 

If anyone has any good ideas for flavours we can try?

 

We have coffee and tea grown here in the mountains, so maybe a caffeine influenced recipe would be good. 

 

Also lots and lots of coconuts, so a coconut recipe using the flesh and maybe the coconut water inside maybe. 

 

The lads like the coconut water as the nutrients are good for replacing the salts lost in dehydtation, isotopic, a bit like a sports drink. 

 

Cheers. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[Boucaneer]

17 hours ago, Anna N said:

Why not make popsicles?  Portable, superb delivery system, little churning needed etc. Etc.  

A fantastic idea, I have just found the Popsicle thread and having a good read.

 

This thread might be posted in the wrong topic section.

Perhaps if a moderator see's it it might get moved to the other section where the Popsicle thread is.

 

Yes, Popsicles are a great option, and many different flavour options too, and we can also mix the bananas in to the fruit.

 

Cheers Anna.

 

Alex. 

Edited September 7, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[chromedome]

I've been making the frozen-banana "ice cream" all summer. It's pretty straightforward...buzz the bananas, you get soft serve. Done. 

 

Once you freeze it it gets harder and icier, so you might want to add some sugar or something to soften it. Or not...it's not that big a deal. To make chocolate, just add a bit of cocoa powder. I've tried adding mango and I find that it's not all that good with the banana...I'd suggest using mangoes separately, because they're just as high in fiber and pectin as the bananas. They'd probably work pretty well as a base in their own right. I can't vouch for that, because I haven't tried it (yet). Mangoes are a bit pricier in Atlantic Canada than in Kerala, I'd guess.  

 

Most other fruits and berries I've tried in the banana mix have worked pretty well, so I think you'd be hard-pressed to really go wrong. 

[Lisa Shock]

Mango is one of those fruits, like peaches and apricots, that has components that taste like chalk when cold. (it's also hard to make extracts and liqueurs from these as well) It helps a lot if the fruit is falling apart ripe, or cooked.

 

Some people will always find it weird tasting. My homemade mango sorbet always tasted "like vomit" to one member of my tasting panel.

[chromedome]

Mangoes and bananas both have a hint of bitterness/astringency under the sweetness, which is exaggerated when they're frozen. I found it wasn't a big deal with just the bananas, but when I put them together it was overpowering. 

 

"Like vomit" seems a bit harsh, though.

 

[Boucaneer]

Thank you Chromedome and Lisa. 

Our food processor arrived yesterday and we made a small amount of the frozen banana mix. 

 

I was supprised, it was better than I thought. I wish we had some cocoa powder but will get some in a few days time. 

 

We liked the soft serve mix, it was all eaten so none to go in the freezer but we may add some sugar when we do. 

 

We're looking forward to trying a  pineapple version. 

 

Thanks for the heads up and explanation of the astringency, may a bit of cocoa powder or fresh mint for flavourings may cover the banana version. 

 

Cheers and Thanks,

 

Alex. 

Edited September 10, 2016 by Boucaneer (log)

[DianaB]

Glad to read that your Magimix arrived safely and in working order!  I accept what has been said in this thread about the limitations of home use equipment when compared to professional machines but want to let you know that I've had a Magimix for almost ten years now, it gets used at least two or three times each week and, so far, it remains undamaged.

 

I bought the Magimix for making pistachio puree, that requires the motor to run for long periods and the brand was recommended to me specifically because it could cope with such use.  Of course a machine produced for professional use should be better but I just wanted to say that you might be able to keep churning out your refreshing mixes with what you have for a while.