Home Made Ice Cream (2002–2012)

[KarenS]

You do not need pectin to make ice cream. Ice milk has no eggs but ice cream does. It is churned creme anglaise, which is an egg custard.

I have been a Pastry Chef for 20 years, by the way- restaurant and hotel. I studied pastry in France.

I guess that I am trying to say that you are very wrong!

[Lesley C]

I have two words for anyone interesting in creamier ice cream: powdered milk.

It increases the dry matter content of the ice cream and decreases the liquid, thus making for a creamier ice cream than one made with milk alone.

Ice creams and sorbets are all about the balance between dry matter (extrait sec) content and liquid.

[Suvir Saran]

I have two words for anyone interesting in creamier ice cream: powdered milk.

Nice two words Lesley.

My favorite thing to eat as a young boy.

[Jason Perlow]

You do not need pectin to make ice cream. Ice milk has no eggs but ice cream does. It is churned creme anglaise, which is an egg custard.

    I have been a Pastry Chef for 20 years, by the way- restaurant and hotel. I studied pastry in France.

    I guess that I am trying to say that you are very wrong!

You may not NEED it but it sure helps if you are trying to do it in the home with only basic ice cream making equipment. We made ice cream for a while using traditional recipes without pectin and we had stabilization issues with our ice cream maker. When we started using Alton Brown's method it worked beautifully.

American-style ice cream has no eggs. French-style or iced custard does. But this is strictly technical terminology.

[Jason Perlow]

But supposing I now want to make raspberry ice cream using frozen raspberries (not in syrup - these are flash-frozen). What would I do, add them just before taking the ice cream out of the ice cream maker? I don't want them to end up hard as rocks - any tips?

This and any other flash frozen fruit such as strawberries you want to macerate in sugar. Throw them in a bowl, add like 1/4 cup of sugar and let them soften up for like an hour and yeild liquid. Blend up the mixture and then strain it, and throw away the seedy junk. This mixture is then added to your batter when you cook it. Make sure you compensate by adding less sugar to the batter since you added some into the maceration.

[Lesley C]

Suvir, you ate powdered milk!

Do you mean evaporated milk? Preferably sweetened.

[Anna N]

But supposing I now want to make raspberry ice cream using frozen raspberries (not in syrup - these are flash-frozen). What would I do, add them just before taking the ice cream out of the ice cream maker? I don't want them to end up hard as rocks - any tips?

This and any other flash frozen fruit such as strawberries you want to macerate in sugar. Throw them in a bowl, add like 1/4 cup of sugar and let them soften up for like an hour and yeild liquid. Blend up the mixture and then strain it, and throw away the seedy junk. This mixture is then added to your batter when you cook it. Make sure you compensate by adding less sugar to the batter since you added some into the maceration.

Thanks, Jason. Will I still need the pectin or will there be enough in the juice?

[Jason Perlow]

Hmm. Good question. I'm gonna say still add the pectin.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I have to agree with Bux on all counts. Breyer's Natural Vanilla is the cleanest flavor we have found. We make all manner of fruit, herb and spice flavored "frozen desserts" and seldom run into trouble unless we combine a heavy substance like chocolate with a rich custard, which produces too rich a product for us. We make frozen custard or simply frozen flavored cream, or frozen super-rich yogurt, depending on whim, and find that the final product is more dependent on the flavoring agent, i.e., how flavorful the fruit is, than on the kind of dairy base. We never try to duplicate a commercially available flavor. I mean, what's the point?

My one caviat: be very careful with the amount of alcohol in any recipe. I had to remove a prune/cognac custard from the machine and freeze it in a pan, ala parfait. It simply had too much alcohol to freeze in the machine.

Also, as already mentioned, sugar is necessary for a creamy finish. Imitation, eg Equal, will result in a rock-hard ice.

[tan319]

very interesting thread here.

I don't think Haggen Daz does use any stabilizers. And I've noticed that it is sometimes prone to crystallization.

I have a CuisineArt machine for home use and it's, ok.

I was in a Williams Sonoma in NYC in November and saw a new machine by DeLonghi, I believe, which has a compressor built in. It was going for around 395.00, which is pretty good since a Simac is around 495, I think.

I use stabilizer for all of my ice creams and sorbets. I use Gelglace, by Pastifrance. I found that it cured my problems with crystalization due to containers being brought in and out of the freezer during service.

I hate respinning ice creams. I just think it's just kind of is like warming up yesterdays steaks or something.

[KarenS]

I've never had to use stabilizers (I also don't respin the ice cream). Freeze less, make sure to seal plastic wrap to the surface of the ice cream- taste, and check in the morning- you may have to scrape off an inch where it melted). Spago, Postrio, Lark Creek Inn, Scalas Bistro, Campanile, all do not use stabilizers, they also make their bases with egg (oh, and the Ritz Carlton too).

If you slightly dry fruit in the oven and then poach it in simple syrup (or macarate delicate fruit), this will help as you will replace the water with sugar. It will freeze creamier and not as icy. Corn syrup also can help for creaminess (it doesn't have to be as "fatty" from too much cream or egg.

[Suvir Saran]

Suvir, you ate powdered milk!  

Do you mean evaporated milk? Preferably sweetened. 

Lesley, my mother is headed to the US this weekend. I shall ask her. As far as I remember her telling me for the longest of time, it was powdered milk that I enjoyed. I loved milk and actually love it still, but I have not found much love for milk in the US. In Paris and in India, I find milk even today, one of my favorite things to enjoy. I can drink just plain chilled milk, and never have enough of it.

[KarenS]

When I tried Northwest Dairies Organic milk, I was amazed at how good it was. I am a ho hum milk drinker- now I search this one out.

Suvir, if you are ever on the west coast or in Hawaii, you should try it!

[Lesley C]

I think all these products have a use for certain ice creams and sorbets. KarenS, the places you mention are restaurants that would be serving the ice cream as a dessert or with a dessert. You wouldn't need pectin. But if you were working in a pastry shop with an ice cream department, you would. I remember working making ice cream (glace aux oeufs) and sorbet when we were mixing up at least 40 liters at a time. We'd mix the recipe, check the refractometer, adjust with either water or sugar, and churn it in a huge Italian machine. We did use stabilizer in the sorbets as well as "glucose atomise" (in dry form) or liquid glucose. These sorbets and ice creams were sold individually in 500 ml containers at the counter and made into bombes glacees and entremets glacees. Not only was their shelf life longer than that of a restaurant ice cream, the ice cream would have to make it back to the customer's home on a hot summer day.

[tan319]

is atomized glucose used in the same proportion in any recipe calling for glucose?

thank you!

[Rachel Perlow]

Having issues with getting your home made ice cream to come out just right?

Let's use this thread to troubleshoot recipes & techniques.

I'm first up...

I just made a very slightly adapted version Joyce White's recipe for Watermelon Ice Cream from her book, Brown Sugar : Soul Food Desserts from Family and Friends. Here's my ingredients & technique:

3 lbs watermelon flesh (I used mostly the sweetest part of the heart, seeds cleaned out) (she called for 6 finely diced, full cups of flesh, so I just diced into a container on my kitchen scale)

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup Passoa Passion Fruit liquor (she called for Raspberry Liquor or Port, but I couldn't find our Chambord)

1 Tbs Vanilla extract

3 cups heavy cream

Puree & strain watermelon. Half of watermelon (3 cups) and sugar into saucepan to simmer for about 15 minutes (stirring occasionally, "don't boil" the recipe admonished). She said it would be a syrup, but it didn't reduce much or thicken too much. Remove from heat, add liquor & vanilla, then mix into remaining (raw) watermelon. Chill. Add cream and allow to sit in fridge over night to chill & allow flavors to meld or something.

In the morning I froze in three batches in my Simac Il Gelataio 1600 (self-contained freezer unit, non-removeable bowl (only problem with this machine is cleaning)). I sprinkled in some dark chocolate shavings as I spooned into storage containers. Yum.

Overall, this is a really tasty recipe. I had some qualms about the ratio of semi-water ingredient to cream (2:1), and the fact that the watermelon juice didn't get as syrupy as Ms. White described, but it seems to have worked out. It isn't icy or like a sorbet or sherbet. It is ice cream. In fact it is almost too creamy (is that possible?). Thus, my questions:

1) Bits of butter started to form in the finished product. Usually this is the result of not properly chilling the batter before freezing it. Since it stood in the fridge overnight, that isn't it. I usually don't use all heavy cream, but since 2/3 of the batter was watermelon juice, I thought I'd go for it. Do you think next time I should use light cream or half and half instead of the heavy cream? I'd like it to taste creamy while not being icy and not having a film of butterfat develop on the spoon as you eat it.

2) Amazingly the ice cream did not expand in volume much after churning. 2.5 quarts in, 3 quarts out. I did have the air vents open on the lid of the freezing chamber. Is a low overrun (I calculate mine at ~15%) typical of Gelato vs Ice Cream? I wouldn't think just using a Gelato maker (vs an Ice Cream maker) would make that much of a difference in a Philadelphia style ice cream.

Edited June 25, 2003 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[elyse]

I would definitely try cutting it with some milk.

[Elizabeth_11]

Yes, I would try 1 cup milk and 2 cups cream next time. That's the only thing I can think of, good luck!

[Rachel Perlow]

I'll do that or go with the light cream.

Just tasted it after a few hours hardening in the freezer. It got quite firm, probably due to the low overrun. I think 20 minutes in the fridge before serving will be necessary. It is a little icy, but no big ice crystals. I stored in pint & half pint containers, so I don't think there's too much danger of the melting/refreeze ice crystals forming.

[tan319]

I'll do that or go with the light cream.

Just tasted it after a few hours hardening in the freezer. It got quite firm, probably due to the low overrun. I think 20 minutes in the fridge before serving will be necessary. It is a little icy, but no big ice crystals. I stored in pint & half pint containers, so I don't think there's too much danger of the melting/refreeze ice crystals forming.

try adding a little corn syrup next time to the mix you heat.

It might help the ice cream not get so hard and will help stop the formation of ice crystals.

The butter thing is perplexing. Maybe try some half and half?

Is there a refrigeration control on the machine?

BTW, I envy your simac.I've heard it's a boss machine!

[Rachel Perlow]

The corn syrup is a good idea. How much do you think, a tablespoon?

We shared some with friends last night. I think it needed a little less sugar and a little more liquor (also a softening agent, right?). I liked the flavor of the passion fruit liquor so I'm sticking with it, but it was barely perceptable in the finished product. So here's my ingredient list for the next batch (which probably won't be made for quite a while, but feel free to make it (Yo, Bond Girl! ) and let me know how it comes out).

3 lbs watermelon flesh

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup Corn Syrup (simmer above for a longer period of time)

1/8 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Passoa Passion Fruit liquor (sub in another liquor, like Chambord, or port)

1 Tbs Vanilla extract

3 cups Light cream

~~~

Anyone else have a recipe that needs troubleshooting?

Edited June 27, 2003 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[tan319]

The corn syrup is a good idea. How much do you think, a tablespoon?

We shared some with friends last night. I think it needed a little less sugar and a little more liquor (also a softening agent, right?). I liked the flavor of the passion fruit liquor so I'm sticking with it, but it was barely perceptable in the finished product. So here's my ingredient list for the next batch (which probably won't be made for quite a while, but feel free to make it (Yo, Bond Girl! ) and let me know how it comes out).

3 lbs watermelon flesh

1.5 cups sugar

1 Tbs Corn Syrup (simmer above for a longer period of time)

1/2 cup Passoa Passion Fruit liquor (sub in another liquor, like Chambord, or port)

1 Tbs Vanilla extract

3 cups Light cream

~~~

Anyone else have a recipe that needs troubleshooting?

Maybe try a 1/4 cup? of corn syrup.

Also, to enhance the melon flavor, maybe try Midori? unless you want to take it that other way (port)

Also, to bring out that watermelon thing more, try a pinch of salt?

Good luck.

[Rachel Perlow]

I think if I used 1/4 cup of corn syrup I'd have to reduce the sugar some more (it really doesn't need the 2 cups if you have a ripe watermelon). Midori could be an option, but I appreciate the tangy contrast of the Passoa. A pinch of salt is a good idea too. OK, I'm going to edit this into the recipe I posted above, but leave your quoted one alone for posterity.

[newguy]

How can you cut into a container on a scale and compare it to 6 cups diced? Does your original recipe state how much liquid you should have? Watermelon's probably differ drastically?

[Rachel Perlow]

Ms. White described the amount of watermelon as about 5-6 lbs of watermelon (before cutting off the rind & trimming the seeds out), diced and fully packed to make 6 cups. Watermelon is about 99% water and water weighs 8 oz per cup. Therefore 6 cups X 8 oz = 3 lbs.

In describing the process she says to cook 3 cups of the puree and save the other half to use raw for fresh watermelon flavor.