>Secondly, I am looking for a recipe for (paleo) coconut-mango "ice cream" >that would not require the use of an ice cream machine. (What purpose does >the ice cream machine serve anyway? Does it just churn the ice cream?) Do I >just make a puree of mango and coconut milk, then freeze it? The best >mangoes are too expensive to experiment with, and the cheap ones are >unpalatable IMO. >Stacie Ice cream machines help break up the crystals in the freezing mix so it is smoother. Some commercial models also pump air into the ice cream to fluff it up for sale. I've never seen a home machine do this. I have had reasonable success in chilling it to partial solidity in the freezer in a bowl, then whipping the hell out of it with a sturdy hand blender, refreezing it, and repeating the process until I get too impatient or until it freezes up too hard to blend. In some areas you can rent big electic makers (pitched to the 4th-of-July-party-in-the-park market), but wrestling with heavy beaters and ice and salt makes the whole process less than appealing and more like industrial chemistry. I used to make mango ice cream starting with pureed mango, half and half, and eggs - or an egg, really, as you don't want more than one egg per quart of misture. I cooked this into a thin custard before cooling it and freezing it into ice cream, and it was heavenly. I have no idea if this would work with cocoanut milk. If you try this, beat all the ingredients very well before cooking. If mangoes are pricey, you might even try a cocoanut and egg custard first. Say, that sounds appealing...I may do the R&D myself, if I can find cocoanut milk that's not full of sugar. Mike Mike