Home-made ice cream - a few questions

[Tinkjon]

I've only ever made ice-cream according to a recipe but I want to go off-road with this one and wondered what you ladies thought.

Firstly, has anybody made strawberry ice-cream without sugar or sweeteners - is it edible? I think it would be quite sharp, even if the strawberries were really ripe?

I also want to try banana ice-cream without sugar. Apparently you can make great banana ice-cream by simply freezing chopped bananas and then blending them, though I've not tried that. But I want to add some full-fat cream for ds (who needs lots of dairy) so do you reckon it would work if I just put bananas and cream in the ice-cream maker, or should I do the whole 'boiling milk and cream and adding egg yolks' thing?

Thanks!

I usually make ice cream by blending the fruit, sweetening it and then mixing that with single cream or milk. I don't think unsweetened strawberry mix would work v. well tbh - imo the sugar really brings out the flavour with strawberries. It would probably be sharp and not terribly pleasant.

R. the banana ice cream, I'd do what I said above - puree, sweeten (if you want - I guess with banana you could get away without using sugar, but it would be nicer with a bit) and mix with whatever dairy product you want.

Thanks, geekgirl! I want to make it for DS who's only 10.5 mo, so would prefer to avoid the sugar. I think you're right about the strawberries without sugar but I have some really ripe bananas so I'm sure those will be fine without it. I might leave them in the sun for a few hours to really oomph up their ripeness

try using honey to sweeten instead

I've only ever used the 'boiling milk and adding egg yolks' method and it really isn't as difficult or long winded as it sounds

Wellies, babies under 1 can't have honey. Good idea otherwise!

Cold things taste less sweet than warm things, from what I know, so sweetener is more necessary. Could you sweeten by using banana or apple juice instead of refined sugar, if that's your concern? Oh, ugh, apple juice might make the milk curdle though?

duh
it's been a while since I've had a LO under 1, as you can tell

Apple juice would sweeten

What about using banana in the strawberry mix - dd's usual pudding is plain yoghurt with banana mashed in to sweeten, and then other fruit added in - usually tastes mostly of the other fruit. Am wondering, though, if the sugar itself has any effect on the texture of the ice-cream.

Yes, could try strawberry & banana, that's a good idea. Mind you, this is all theoretical at the moment, as my sodding freezer refuses to actually freeze.