Perrin

Here's something relevant to our interests: http://www.cooksscience.com/articles/feature/ice-cream/

The soft-serve mix has been working very well! I tried one round with water, as suggested on the package. That was a bit icy, but not bad. Very simple sweet vanilla flavor, good texture, scoopable straight from the freezer. It needed fat though. I like lower-fat ice cream, but this one was pushing it. My next experiment was with whole milk. That was a big improvement. The milk has 8g of fat per cup vs 3g of fat in the Silk almond/coconut blend that mgaretz is using. I'd recommend getting a little more fat into the mix because the texture is great and it's still probably only 5% fat or so. Maybe mix some canned coconut milk or coconut oil in if you want to avoid dairy? I might try pushing it a little higher with some cream, but I'm pretty happy with the whole milk. The vanilla flavor is weak, so I need to try some experiments there. I'm thinking of using green tea or fresh mint (with stracietella) for my next try, but this stuff seems so able to soak up water that I could even try a strawberry or blueberry. I will also try using 200g per 16oz. I've been using 170g so far, as recommended on the package.

Churning time in the ice cream maker, or hardening time in the freezer afterward?

The glycerin is for lowering the freezing point? Have you tried using dairy with it, or just non-dairy liquids?

mgaretz, I'm very interested in your approach using the soft-serve mix with your own flavorings. I just ordered some from eBay to play around with. Do you have any tips on what works best?

Tragedy! My 25 lb bag of atomized glucose has turned solid as a rock. It's like what happens to brown sugar when it dries up. Does anyone have experience with this stuff and know if I can salvage it? I tried putting a little moisture in a jar with some, like I would with brown sugar, and was rewarded with a big hunk of glue. P.S. paulraphael, I don't think I can make it this time, but I do live in NYC. I've been trying to get to one of the Laiskonis ice cream classes over at ICE.

Looks like a good recipe, Ruben. I see that you've started using milk powder in your recipes too.

Have you folks seen ChefSteps? There's quite a bit of good ice cream info here: http://www.chefsteps.com/classes/ice-cream/ Their forum has some discussions as well. I'm very interested in soft-serve ice cream, so the discussion about that was great.

The basic Migoya recipe with powdered milk has worked for me. That vanilla recipe that Laiskonis posted in his new blog looked good too. Then there's the Ample Hills one, which is a bit on the creamy side: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/food/recipes/article/Recipe-Walt-s-Dream-ice-cream-base-5594172.php (I used the Migoya "modern custard" mixing technique, rather than tempering eggs.) The basic recipe from Giorgio Locatelli (which is adapted from Angelo Corvitto) is a good one if you want a recipe without eggs: http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2008/01/milk-ice-cream.html

RE: powdered milk, that was a turning point for my ice cream. It made a huge difference in texture and the only detectable difference in flavor is a creamier taste. I find the Cook's Illustrated recipe highly suspect for this reason. I noticed that they show a photo of a big bag of Horizon Organic powdered milk, while I use a cheaper brand called Elba that comes in 100g sealed foil packets for freshness. Maybe theirs was not fresh enough. At any rate, Laiskonis, Migoya, Corvitto, and the new Ample Hills cookbook all call for it in their recipes, so it's clearly the norm for commercial ice cream. Ample Hills describes it as a way to reduce the ratio of cream to milk so that they can get the right texture without too much fat, but I know you like it with more milkfat Jo.

How do people know when to stop churning the ice cream? Do you measure the temperature or look for visual cues? Most books say something like "when the ice cream is pulling away from the walls" but that happens after about 10 minutes in my Simac, and that can't be enough time.

Well, it looks like I'm traveling a similar path to Stuckey. I can't find atomized glucose in any practical form, and "corn syrup solids" which seems to be the US equivalent, hardly ever list the DE. I'm thinking I will try making my own substitute for the 21 DE atomized glucose that Corvitto calls for using 4 parts corn starch to 1 part dextrose. I've made plenty of corn starch ice creams before, so this seems pretty straightforward.

Success! I reheated the last batch with a bit more water and kept the temperature pretty low, but high enough to boil it. I took it off when it reached 236 F. This time, it has not crystallized! I used some in a batch of Laiskonis' green tea ice cream and am making Paulraphael's vanilla with it today.

I think so too. I noticed that Laiskonis calls for "glucose powder" in his ice cream recipes and seems to use it in the same way that others use dextrose, so maybe they are nearly interchangeable for this use. I will have to buy my atomized glucose somewhere else.

Thanks Jo. My second try crystallized as well. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? Heat too high? Cooking too long or not long enough? Not cleaning the sugar off the sides well enough? I may give up and buy some at NY Cake & Baking Supply. It seems pretty inexpensive.