The recipe called for store bought mango puree, which she said was available at Indian stores. Since I don't have any Indian specialty shops near me, I concocted my own. I pureed fresh mangoes, added a bit of mango passion fruit jelly, some cinnamon, fresh lemon juice and a little vanilla extract. I think mangoes themselves have a hint of cinnamon and vanilla essence, so I just pumped up the flavor a bit. I reached a turning point in my base mixture. I think I finally have it at the right temperature to make it the right thickness. Until I had a proper thermometer I would gauge it by seeing if it would coat the back of a spoon before it got to too heavy a simmer. I wasn't allowing it to get thick enough and then wasn't giving it the time to cool down either. I am very impatient when it comes to cooking, which is why I don't enjoy baking. But I think timing is the key to perfection with this. I rush too much and the texture isn't quite right. So this time I took my time, and gave myself a day ahead to do it. By the end of this year long venture, I should be a pro!
I tried it last night and the results were improved. The texture is creamier and their is a definite mango flavor. The only issue I found is that it seems to melt quickly. That should actually work in our favor at work because the freezer is set too high and tends to over freeze it. I think I would have liked there to be chunks of mango in this. While I appreciate the smoothness, I think less mango puree in the base with pieces of mango throughout would be a nice variation. I could also see topping it with toasted nuts (which have been glazed with sugar and sprinkled with cinnamon, maybe?) or coconut to bring out the earthy flavor of the mangoes and give a nice crunchy contrast.
Now, a bit about the recipe selection process. Although I was happy with letting people pick a flavor from the book each week, Caroline made up a new rule that works really well to boost traffic to my blog. Whoever posts a comment to the blog gets to pick the flavor for the following week. So since Caroline posted about Sundae School last week, she will get to choose the next weeks flavor. By what she's told me she likes, it will no doubt be something chocolate!
Just a little useless bit of knowledge told to me by my friend Jon (an even bigger Prince fan than I am), the song Manic Monday released by The Bangles was originally written by Prince.
