All Aboard The Pineapple (Ice Cream) Express

Some of us Irish Foodies on Twitter have been yearning for an ice cream maker in recent weeks - Aldi & Lidl have had them on sale for under €30 and because I have a huge shed with loads of storage space, I can stash one of these away.  I mentioned it to The Hubs and he was ever so enthusiastic... a touch of the Homer Simpsons going on with the mmmmmmm's.  So I wandered into Aldi yesterday to see if there were any left and lucky old me walked out with a box under my arm. 

Naturally when I get something new, I want to play with it immediately so I decided to use up some fresh pineapple I had bought over the weekend that was becoming a touch tired and world weary.  As this was Attempt The First, I wanted to keep things simple and decided to be very lazy and use a readymade custard as the base.  Damn.  I had used all the supplies when I made Like Mam Used To Bake's gorgeous Rhubarb Fool with Custard Crunch and not replaced it, so another trip to the shops was in order.  I grabbed two tubs of Bird's Low Fat Custard (every little helps...) and headed home to retrieve the bowl from the chest freezer where it had chilled down overnight.  The instructions recommend at least an 8 hour stay in the freezer in an upright position by the way (just to prove I did actually read the instructions!).

The new ice cream maker starting to churn

I mentioned to The Dad over the phone that I had made this concoction and he was impressed/jealous in equal measure.   Apparently Handsome Man will do his nut when he finds out, as pineapple is his favourite fruit, so I have been instructed to prepare a batch and have it ready for The Dad's return from holiday in 2 weeks time... praise indeed!

Pineapple Express Ice Cream

2 x 290g pots of readymade Custard - about 600ml in total
1 large Pineapple, peeled, cored and roughly pureed
2 tbsp Salted Caramel (optional)

Mix the ingredients together & place in the ice cream maker.
Churn according to the instructions - mine took 30 mins to reduce to slushy yumminess
Transfer to clean freezer container and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Eat.

The semi-frozen icecream in the bowl

The finished icecream in handy recyclable container!

I have a funny feeling that this will be the first of many posts about me & the ice cream maker.  Fruits of the Forest is next on my list...