Avocado Gelato

I got contacts today! They feel really strange and everything is a bit blurry, but I can see without glasses! It's been a decade since I've said that, and seeing as how I lost my glasses two days ago, I couldn't have chosen a better time :). Actually, the fact that I lose my glasses so often is the main reason I got contacts. I think I'll actually miss the nerdy little auro my glasses gave me.
So the other day, Thomas decided to read my Martha Stewart magazine and stumbled across a recipe for Avocado Gelato. When we went to Italy, we must have eaten gelato three times a day, but I don't remember ever seeing avocado on the menu. Thomas, however, had actually eaten some during the years he spent in Chicago and demanded that we make it ourselves.
We got an icecream maker Kitchen Aid Mixer attachment for Christmas from Thomas' mother, and with the rising Texas temperature, we thought it was time to start experimenting.

Avocado Gelato
Makes 1 quart, serves 4

1/2 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 sugar
4 strips orange zest
2 ripe Hass avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1. Prepare an ice water bath. Whisk whole milk with cornstarch in a bowl.
2. Whisk together fat free milk, sugar, and orange zest in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer. It took forever for my mixture to simmer. Add cornstarch mixture, and cook, whisking, until mixture bubbles and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove orange zest. Set in ice-water bath to cool.
3. Puree avocados, lime juice, salt, and milk mixture in a food processor.
4. Freeze the avocado mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container, and freeze for at least 3 hours. Stores for up to 2 weeks.
5. Serve, garnished with a lime wedge. The lime squeezed over the icecream really enhances the flavor. I like texture in my icecream so I added some sliced almonds, which turned out well, but a few went a long way.

Altogether, this turned out to be a light, refreshing gelato. It's pretty low in fat and calories as far as icecream goes, but you give up some of the creaminess using fat free milk. If I make it again, I'll probably try subsituting the whole milk for cream and the fat free milk for whole milk.