fresh fig ice cream

There is a fact in my house that I continue to fight.  I simply can't accept this truth.  I can't get my head around it.  There are four people living in this house and one of them loves fresh fruit and the other three won't touch it.  They won't touch it raw, cooked, baked, blended, juiced  or pureed.  I have tried it all.  I have tried to be sneaky and they continue to revolt.  I feel as if the mom police are going to arrest me because I am not getting enough fruits into my children.  We went to celebrate Great Grandma's birthday and she has the most amazing fig tree on her property.  This tree is filled with huge ripe gorgeous black mission figs.  The kids had fun picking a tray for me to bring home.  The ice cream maker has been churning almost every other day here so, I thought fig ice cream would be the perfect way to get the family to enjoy figs.  I made the ice cream at night so, no one would see the beautiful figs be cooked down to jam.  I even strained the jam to get the little crunchy fig bits out.  I pulled out all the stops.  In the morning I put the ice cream into the maker and it produced this divine dark purple ice cream.  I gave Carter the spatula as I was scraping out the bowl.  His eyes were wide with excitement.  He took a bite of "purple ice cream" and he said yum as the spatula was in his mouth and before a smile could spread on my face he exclaimed "yuck, yuck yuck!" while spiting and convulsing.  After this display obviously little sister wasn't trying it and hubby responded I hate figs.  There I was left with one and a half pints of decadent fig ice cream all for me.  If you like figs this is excellent and I think it would make a very nice addition to a fancy cheese course dessert drizzled with honey.  Since I can't get my family to eat fruit I know a cheese plate for dessert will not fly either ... a mom can dream.

fresh fig ice cream

source: the perfect scoop

2 lbs fresh black mission figs (~20)
1/2 cup of water
1 lemon
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon of freshly squeezed, lemon juice, or more to taste

Remove the hard stem ends from the figs, then cut each fig into 8 pieces. Put the figs in a medium, non-reactive saucepan with the water, and zest the lemon directly into the saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes until the figs are tender. Remove the lid, add the sugar and continue to cook until it reaches a jam-like consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Blend together with cream and lemon juice, chill in the fridge overnight and then put in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instructions.