Mango is my favorite fruit. And when it comes to ice cream, I prefer my mango ice cream to be sweet and creamy instead of tangy and sorbet-y. With this in mind, the best mangoes to use for this recipe are champagne mangoes (also known as honey or Ataúlfo mangoes).
Fair warning: this is slightly on the time-consuming side. Since this is a custard-based ice cream, the process is a bit longer than just dumping ingredients in an ice cream machine. And since we’re using mangoes, there’s also an extra step of puréeing and cooking the fruit down just a bit. And since you’re cooking fruit and custard, we need to add chilling time for these prior to even churning everything in the ice cream machine.
Slice your mangoes and scoop out as much of the meat as possible into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Pour the mango purée into a small pot with 52 g of the sugar and heat up until it thickens a bit. Once it's been reduced, transfer to a small bowl and put in the freezer while you work on your custard. Don't worry, it won't freeze; we're just expediting the cooling process.
Heat the milk and half (216 g) of the heavy cream in a small pot.
While your milk is warming up, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 149 g of sugar and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl.
Temper the eggs by slowly pouring the hot milk. Be careful with this part! I'm always paranoid that I might accidentally make scrambled eggs. You have to keep whisking the eggs while you slowly pour the hot milk. I would also highly recommend adding the hot milk in batches (maybe about 1/4 cup at a time).
Put the egg-milk mixture back into the pot and keep whisking it. Let it simmer until it coats the back of a spoon. Congratulations! You just made custard!
Combine the custard base with the cooled puréed mangoes. Add the remaining half (216 g) of the heavy cream, the vanilla and the rum extract and mix until fully incorporated. Chill in the fridge for about an hour.
Take your chilled custard and churn for about 20 minutes (or until soft serve consistency) in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.
Put into a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 6 hours.
Let it sit on the counter for at least 10 minutes prior to serving. Enjoy!
