Home Made Ice Cream (2002–2012)

[Smithy]

<snip>... A run in my curbside find margarita blender reduced peel to an unobjectionable level, though the flavor was a bit diffuse; next time, I may use apple juice instead of water.

<more snip>

I currently have a sack of grapefruit and a friend with a dairy allergy. I'd like to do a grapefruit sorbet, and would appreciate suggestions on the ideal method of production; while I'm not much for filleting grapefruits, I do have a centrifugal juicer. I've heard a ratio of 4 parts juice to 1 part sugar to 1 part corn syrup is effective for a soft sorbet, and it seems that the inclusino of alcohol allows further sugar to be substituted for corn syrup; can anyone make further suggestions?

Also, has anyone here done dairy-free ice cream? Lactose is an issue, but the use of eggs is fine.

First off, I love the reference to your curbside find margarita blender. You seem to be an effective and diligent rescuer of appliances that need new homes. Good for you!

Kerry Beal's lemon sorbet recipe from the California Culinary Academy series, upthread a couple of posts, sounds like it would be a good treatment for grapefruit too; you may need to adjust the sweetness a bit. I wonder whether straight grapefruit juice would work as well as mixing it with something else? If mixed, with what? Pineapple juice, perhaps?

Glad you like the peach ice cream recipe, even if it seems more like sherbet to you. It's funny I never thought of it that way. To this day, whenever I hear the word "sherbet" I think of the commercially-produced and -cartoned orange sherbet or rainbow sherbet from grocery stores, or - worse yet - the popsicles that were orange sherbet wrapped around a center of vanilla ice cream. I know they were popular, but to me they were always nasty. I'll just keep calling my recipe "ice cream", thankyouverymuch.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Smithy (log)

[jrshaul]

I made a batch of honey ice cream yesterday. Due to available ingredients, it came out like this:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups whole milk

4 small egg yolks

2/3 cup honey

It came out edible, but the whole process was something of a botch-fest. Stupid mistakes include:

1. Unceremoniously mixing the eggs with the rest of the custard before cooking. In order to keep the eggs from going funny, I stirred the stuff constantly until it was hot.

2. Grainy texture. The liner in my ice cream maker has trouble bringing merely chilled custard to a soft-serve texture, so I left the custard in the freezer until the edges were starting to freeze. I did try to mix in the frozen bits to produce a homogeneously unfrozen liquid, but the results weren't great.

I also might be running it too fast. Next time, I'll put it on "slow."

3. Inadequately custard-like. Aside from the issue with the tempering, these had really dinky yolks.

The coconut custard was honestly pretty crap. The coconut milk used had something of a sour flavor; furthermore, the end result was inadequately sweetened and lacked an appropriate texture.

Next up: Kiwi sorbet! I'm getting xanthan gum.

[jrshaul]

Things I have learned:

1. Eggs don't work all that well on their own to prevent big ice crystals. Maybe I could make it thicker if I cooked the custard longer?

2. Anything short of 100% dairy cream will have some crystallization without the addition of a stabilizer.

3. Swapping corn starch for tapioca starch will produce silly putty, not ice cream.

4. 1tbsp of xanthan gum in a quart of ice cream is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea.

I don't really like the taste of corn starch, but I'll likely stick with it for future batches. Still beats ice crystals or silly putty...

[Mjx]

Things I have learned:

1. Eggs don't work all that well on their own to prevent big ice crystals. Maybe I could make it thicker if I cooked the custard longer?

2. Anything short of 100% dairy cream will have some crystallization without the addition of a stabilizer.

3. Swapping corn starch for tapioca starch will produce silly putty, not ice cream.

4. 1tbsp of xanthan gum in a quart of ice cream is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea.

I don't really like the taste of corn starch, but I'll likely stick with it for future batches. Still beats ice crystals or silly putty...

The July/August 2011 issue of Cook's Illustrated includes a recipe for vanilla ice cream, and the accompanying discussion goes over several of these issues.

[Darienne]

I don't really like the taste of corn starch, but I'll likely stick with it for future batches. Still beats ice crystals or silly putty...

I don't think I can 'taste' the cornstarch in my ice creams. I can sometimes 'taste' eggs in homemade ice cream and don't like that. I am assuming that you are cooking the cornstarch thoroughly. (I never had cornstarch pudding before using cornstarch in ice creams.)

Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc?

I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams.

[jrshaul]

Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc?

I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams.

I have a really strong dislike of cornstarch. There's no rhyme or reason behind it, beyond that I can taste it faintly in most applications where it has been used.

I might try reducing the tapioca and see what happens, or steaming the custard a la' creme brulee.

[Mjx]

I don't really like the taste of corn starch, but I'll likely stick with it for future batches. Still beats ice crystals or silly putty...

I don't think I can 'taste' the cornstarch in my ice creams. I can sometimes 'taste' eggs in homemade ice cream and don't like that. I am assuming that you are cooking the cornstarch thoroughly. (I never had cornstarch pudding before using cornstarch in ice creams.)

Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc?

I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams.

I can taste (perceive? not sure whether it is precisely taste) corn starch, at least if it's present in any significant amount, a sort metallic sensation on the tongue. It doesn't always bother me terribly, but I'd be just as happy if it wasn't there.

[SylviaLovegren]

To this day, whenever I hear the word "sherbet" I think of the commercially-produced and -cartoned orange sherbet or rainbow sherbet from grocery stores, or - worse yet - the popsicles that were orange sherbet wrapped around a center of vanilla ice cream. I know they were popular, but to me they were always nasty.

No! Really? Are you sure you're not from a different solar system? Creamsicles (vanilla ice cream/orange ice popsicles) are still a craving and I've reproduced the combo with high quality orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream. The idea of them being considered "nasty" is hard to wrap my head around.

[Darienne]

I don't really like the taste of corn starch, but I'll likely stick with it for future batches. Still beats ice crystals or silly putty...

I don't think I can 'taste' the cornstarch in my ice creams. I can sometimes 'taste' eggs in homemade ice cream and don't like that. I am assuming that you are cooking the cornstarch thoroughly. (I never had cornstarch pudding before using cornstarch in ice creams.)

Can others 'taste' the cornstarch? Am I lacking a cornstarch taste bud? Just insensitive to some tastes? Etc?

I am curious about this. I use cornstarch in the base of almost all my ice creams.

I can taste (perceive? not sure whether it is precisely taste) corn starch, at least if it's present in any significant amount, a sort metallic sensation on the tongue. It doesn't always bother me terribly, but I'd be just as happy if it wasn't there.

I shall try it again. I have a couple of new batches of ice cream put away for the Dog Weekend. I normally am 'sensitive' to that metallicy taste in commercial products...tried DQ's Orange Julius and was so taken aback by the taste of 'metallic' in it. Not pleasant. Didn't drink it.

Around an American quart of ice cream, with my regular recipe, has three tablespoons of cornstarch. Is that a lot?