Mango Macadamia Honey Ice Cream and a visit to Maleny Dairies

Nestled in the green mountains of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland is a beautful local producer and farm, Maleny Dairies

A family run farm with strong ethics and care for their animals and a factory that is at the heart of its community. They believe in what they do and in quality products. As a cook I have never used a cream as real, rich and thick as the Maleny Dairies cream.

It is so natural it is almost yellow and it whips in seconds.

It truly makes the best ice cream, my kids know if they see Maleny Dairies cream in the fridge there is a good chance ice - cream is on the menu!

Coffee Ice Cream

Chocolate Macadamia Ice Cream

And my latest creation!

Mango, Macadamia & Honey Ice-cream!

Ingredients

• 1 x 600ml container of cream, (I always use Maleny Dairies rich and natural cream)
• 2 ripe mangoes
• 2 tabelspoons raw honey (or to taste)
• 2 droppers of sweat leaf vanila stevia drops ( you can get these from most health food shops and many supermarkets, I know the Maleny IGA stocks them OR use a good vanilla paste in its place and increase your honey to taste if needed.
• 2 teaspoons dark coconut sugar (optional you could also you raw cane sugar) 
• 1/2 cup raw macadamia's

Method

• Pour the cream into a large bowl, add the honey, liquid stevia drops ( or vanilla paste/essence), coconut sugar.
• Carefully whip the cream, making sure not to over-whip it.
• Taste it for sweetness. Drizzle carefully with some extra honey.
• In a blend blend both mangoes worth of flesh until it smooth and runny.
• Arrange some ice-cream moulds, plastic cups or a tub for your ice-cream on a bench.
• Pour into each mould a layer of the cream.
• Drop in some loose macadamia's.
• Top with a layer of mango, then  more cream, nuts and mango again etc until containers are filled.
• You can now either freeze as is OR use a paddle pop type stick to swirl the flavours together a bit for effect and flavour.
• Place a paddle stick into each one.
• Freezer covered with cling wrap or similar for at least 4 hours.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• You can also make this tub style and pour the ingredients into a tub on top of each other and then use a spoon to swirl them into each other and top with a drizzle of honey and macadamias.
• If you have a dairy allergy but still want to make these swap the cream for:
  the equivalent in Coyo coconut yoghurt (do not whip), Sanitarium vanilla ice-cream (allow to soften slightly at room temperature so easier to work and do not whip) or with a tin of full fat organic coconut cream (yum) - still absolutely delicious, may take a little longer to set, still give a light hand whip and chill in the fridge for 2 hours before using. 

Visiting Maleny Dairies.
I have always believed it to be very important that kids get to know where all foods come from that they are going to eat, so whatever your chosen diet for your children they should become familiar with where everything they put into their bodies comes from, I think it gives them a more down to earth appreciation for food and their bodies.
I recently took the kids for a fun filled day out to the dairy to do their farm tour.

 The kids had the best time! What a fantastic day out and so much for kids to do. They get to feed baby animals, ride the toy animals, see the cows coming in from the field to be milked, see all the amazing machines filling the milk bottles and even watch a hilarious Moovie!

It is a fun and also peaceful day out and after your tour everyone gets to taste some dairy deliciousness, buy goodies farm direct and relax on tables and chairs while the kids run around on the green, green grass with happy chooks cruising around, a giant chess set and toy animals they all race to ride.

Nuts about Nutworks & Macadamia IceCream

I have always been a big fan of nuts. 

How could I not? They are delicious, healthy, nutritious, have a million cooking possibilities and (mostly) grow on trees too and I love trees.

Of course botanically not all nuts that we call nuts are actually nuts, in fact many seeds and kernels are referred to in cooking as "nuts" that are not technically "nuts". But that is another post altogether...

Where I live on the gorgeous Sunshine Coast, Qld, Australia we have so many fantastic food producers and one of my favourites is NUTWORKS

They are a really exciting local producer AND a great foodie destination on the Sunny Coast.

You can also LIKE them on FACEBOOK here

Not only do they make all these gorgeous products and have a range that is almost beyond belief, you can actually take the children and watch them making chocolates and processing nuts in their factory as they do it. I am such a big fan of showing kids where food comes from, how it is made and processed so Nutworks really impressed me, and my kids! My oldest of whom by the way is a HUGE macadamia fan. In fact every Christmas she asks on her wishlist for her own big giant bag of macadamias!
So you just imagine her excitement visiting the factory!

 Lily loved watching them processing nuts

And reading and learning

 It didn't take her long to find her favourite chocolate covered macadamias!

 And taste testings

They even recently had a community family fun day! Complete with Fun and Funky Sand Art another really great local Sunshine Coast business and a petting zoo.

This below is the beautiful, nothing added, real macadamia paste that you will find in lots of my RECIPES
(You can get this in store, both sizes at the Maleny IGA too - they deliver right across the Sunshine Coast now with their online shopping as well)

Here I have used it to make 

Macadamia Icecream
You can collect this free recipe card in store along with all the ingredients to make it at the Maleny IGA

Macadamia Chocolate Ice Cream

Your family will be impressed when you serve up this delicious home-made ice cream. The macadamia flavours just melt in your mouth and it is made with the beautiful, rich Maleny Dairies cream and Moorish Nutworks macadamia paste.

Ingredients

·         1 cup Nutworks Macadamia paste

·         1 x 600 ml Maleny Dairies cream

·         ½ cup unsalted macadamia nuts

·         ½ teaspoon pure vanilla paste

·         1 tin condensed milk (if you have a thermomix check out Quirky Cooking's homemade alternative HERE)

·         200g milk (or dark) chocolate

·         Air tight freezer-safe container

Method

·         Using an electric mixer whip the cream in a deep bowl until soft peaks form.

·         Melt the milk chocolate in a bowl on top of a saucepan of hot water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl with the chocolate in it, do not leave unattended, stirring constantly. When chocolate is melted, remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly.

·         Mix the chocolate into the condensed milk, add vanilla.

·         Fold the chocolate mixture and macadamia nuts gently through the cream mixture.

·         Pour into a flat freezer-proof container, smooth evenly down and seal with an air tight lid.

·         Freeze overnight.

·         To serve, remove from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature for a few minutes or until it has softened slightly.

·         Serve as you would normal ice cream.

Notes

·         Use dark chocolate instead of milk for a richer flavour, look out for organic chocolate if you can.

·         The Nutworks macadamia paste is just divine and really adds texture and flavour to this ice cream.

·         You could optionally add chocolate covered sultanas or blueberries to the ice cream mixture when you add the macadamia nuts to make it really decedent.

·         In winter serve this ice cream with a hot dessert like pie or pudding.

Toddler Tips

·         Freeze into icypoles by pouring the mixture into popsicle moulds.
If you don’t have popsicle moulds you could do it with chop sticks and plastic cups. I would advice sealing the top with something like cling wrap and you will need to freeze for around 30 minutes before removing and adding the stick or until mixture can hold the popsicle stick in place and then  returning to the freezer overnight.