Homemade Magnums

with a passion fruit twist

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Why try and make magnums at home when they’re available absolutely everywhere and it’ll inevitably be more expensive to make them yourself? Hear me out. It's just way more fun, and they're, of course, tastier made from scratch, plus you can make fun versions that don't exist in the commercial version, like this passion fruit swirl affair.

Okay, I get it; making magnums from scratch might seem like a bit of an overreach, a folly even, but I promise you they’re much easier than you’d imagine, and the payoff is huge. Imagine serving these to friends and family and telling them that you made them; they’ll be genuinely amazed. I know there is an argument to be made that I have a tendency to describe everything as easy (possibly an unconscious attempt to encourage people to get in the kitchen to bake), but I promise you this is truly easy. You do need one piece of equipment, and it is a bit of a unitasker, generally a big no-no in my kitchen, but there are ways to make it without buying anymore equipment should your cupboards already be at breaking point. I would have made these years ago, but it is only recently that you can buy this sort of mould cheaply and easily online, this is the version I used.

My version of the magnum sticks pretty close to the classic, a vanilla ice cream fully coated in chocolate, with one fabulous addition - a passion fruit swirl. I make a simple passion fruit curd and swirl it into the ice cream, making what to my mind is a cross between a classic magnum and the equally delicious Solero. If you’ve never had passion fruit and chocolate paired together, let me be the one to open up this world of flavour for you. I am surprisingly not always a fan of chocolate and fruit together; I think the balance is often wrong, and getting the two flavours to work in harmony is often a tricky balancing act. I am rarely convinced that raspberry and chocolate belong together (I know this is not a popular opinion), but one combination that just seems to work is passion fruit and chocolate. I have had versions of this pairing with both milk and dark chocolate; it seems most successful when the bright, tangy fruit is paired with the creamy sweetness of milk chocolate. In this recipe, I have used a combination of milk and dark chocolate to keep everything in balance. The ice cream is sweet and creamy, the curd is sharp and tangy, and by using a mix of milk and dark chocolate for the coating, you keep everything neatly balanced. The dark chocolate adds a deep hit of rich cocoa flavour, and the milk chocolate adds a creamy element and a sweetness that keeps the sharpness in check.

The ice cream base is made with a simple, no-churn affair. I used this style of ice cream for a couple reasons; firstly, it's easier to handle; the ice cream doesn’t melt if you are slow to assemble the magnums; and secondly, it's just easier to make, needing less equipment than a classic custard-based ice cream. No-churn ice cream tends to freeze on the softer side of things, so it also makes for a very pleasant eating experience, especially compared to home-made, custard-based ice cream, which can set much harder than commercially made ice cream.

If you want to make these without buying any additional equipment, there are a couple ways you can do so. You can use paper cups as your mould, inserting wooden lolly sticks once you have assembled the ice creams. My favourite alternative to buying moulds would be to make these like 'choc ices', spreading the entire batch of ice cream into a small rimmed baking tray, swirling in the passion fruit curd, and then freezing as one large block. Once frozen, you can cut the ice cream into small rectangles and use two forks to dip the ice cream bars into the chocolate shell. A bit messier for sure, but a great way to make delicious ice creams without having to buy anymore equipment.