Basic formula for fruit ice cream

[Chufi]

I'm looking for the basic formula for fruit ice cream when you already have fruit puree. I often freeze fruit puree so I have the sweetened puree as the starting point. Most recipes for fruit ice cream give you the amount of raw fruit in the ingredients list, and don't tell you how much puree this yields.

Basically I'm looking for 2 formula's..

how much cream (or a mixture of cream/joghurt/buttermilk) and sugar for how much sweetened fruit puree,

and

how much custard for how much sweetened fruit puree?

The last time I just threw some strawberry puree into some cream and the balance was definitely wrong.. too much fruit and not enough sugar.

If I have the basic formula making icecream with my stash of frozen fruit would be so much easier.

Thanks!

[Tri2Cook]

THIS should help get you started. It gives a recipe for a base to work from which is just milk, cream, sugar, invert sugar, non fat dry milk, atomized glucose and stabilizer (which can be omitted). You could sub in your own favorite base as long as you stay in the same range as far as total sweeteners. It has charts for percentages and additions for various flavors. It's based on their own purees, most of which contain added sugar at 10% but the PUREE PAGE lists (underlined) the ones that don't contain added sugar, so you can easily adapt it to any puree. I also highly recommend the recently released "Frozen Desserts" from the C.I.A. if you'd like to have a book on hand that covers a lot of ground on the subject. Edited October 24, 2008 by Tri2Cook (log)

[paulraphael]

Fruit ice creams are the most challenging to make, because every fruit has different levels of moisture and sugar (which are both structural ingredients in the ice cream). There can be other issues, too ... different levels of acidity, and other odd chemicals in specific fruits can react with certain stabilizing ingredients.

I've been forced to treat each fruit ice cream as an individual project. The amount of sugar, added milk solids, and stabilizing ingredients will be different for each, at least if you're picky about texture. And of course, it will be hard to make the the ice cream at all consistent from batch to batch, because the fruit never will be.

If you're hardcore, you can get some kind of hygrometer to measure the specific gravity of your puree ... then you'll be able to calculate the amount of sugar and get a head start on tweaking the other ingredients. I've always just winged it.

[djyee100]

This is my interpretation of the recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream in Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, which, with many variations given in the notes, is a basic fruit ice cream recipe. These are the ingredients for the custard base:

3/4 cup half & half

1/2 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

3/4 cup heavy cream

Heat the half & half and the sugar until the sugar dissolves & the mixture is hot. Add the beaten egg yolks (you know how to temper egg yolks before adding to a hot mixture, yes?). Keep cooking the mixture over medium or medium-low heat until it is thickened, stirring constantly (preferably with a silicone spatula that will scrape the bottom of the pot). Strain into a bowl, & add the heavy cream. Chill.

Combine 1 1/2 cups fruit puree with 1/4 cup sugar, a few drops of vanilla extract, & a pinch of salt. Add to the custard base. If necessary, chill the combined mixture before freezing in the ice cream machine.

This recipe should work for 1 1/2 cups of berry puree (any kind of soft berry), 1 1/2 cups mashed peaches or nectarines, or 1 1/2 cups plum or pear puree (which shd be heated with the sugar & a little water until soft). I've made this ice cream with strawberries and peaches, & thought it was great. If you can get your hands on the cookbook and read the Strawberry Ice Cream recipe, you'll understand better how this works as a basic fruit ice cream recipe.

It's true that fruits have different moisture content and sweetness. This is only a basic recipe, & you'll probably have to tweak it by trial & error for each kind of fruit puree you have. If the ice cream is too crystallized or sherbet-y, cut back in the amount of puree (too much water in the mix). As for sweetness, I always taste my ice cream base with the fruit in it. It should taste distinctly sweet, but not unpleasantly sweet, since freezing will dull the flavors, including the sweetness. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell you how much sugar to add to bring it up to the perfect sweetness for your ice cream. After tasting a bunch of batches, you'll know for yourself how sweet the ice cream base should be before freezing.

Besides the sugar, vanilla, & salt, some fruit ice creams can use a few drops of lemon juice as well. I always add lemon juice to my peach ice cream. If the ice cream tastes dull & flabby, rather than lively, it needs a little lemon juice (or acid) to balance the fat in the milk & cream.

If you have a chance, let us know how this goes.

ETA (above): Stirring the ice cream base constantly while it cooks so it doesn't overheat.

Edited October 25, 2008 by djyee100 (log)

[Chufi]

djyee, thank you so much, I used this recipe yesterday with some of the quince puree I had frozen, and the result was a truly fabulous icecream.

The texture was great, creamy but also very fruity and the flavor of the quince was pronounced and wonderful. So thanks , I found my forumula!

[Darienne]

Just found this topic and am very interested in it.

My own ice cream making started with Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla and went from there, with the help of my ice cream mentor, paulraphael. Now I make mostly cornstarch-based ice creams and have just last week switched to using coconut cream instead of milk.

OK. Now to follow the above advice and incorporate fruit seriously, not just as an inclusion.

I opened a can of soursop with no idea of what I would find and it's not suitable for an inclusion, but could be further pulped (or not) and made into ice cream. Maybe. ...just deked into the kitchen for a further taste. It's a bit bland for an ice cream flavor. I also opened a can of attap (palm nuts) and think I'll go for vanilla ice cream with attap and nuts as inclusions this time around.

I'm interested in whatever 'exotic' fruits folks have incorporated into ice cream. My favorite to date is candied kumquat bits.

[mache]

I have tried off and on to make really good and intense strawberry ice cream / gelato and have never been successful. My attempts have resulted in it being either too icy, soupy, hard, or greasy. I have tried using a juicer to remove the seeds and pulp and just get the juice, as well as just pureeing the strawberries whole pulp and all. There are many recipes out on the Internet but none look interesting and I wanted to ask for a little help here. I would want to add some sort of alcohol (kirsch, Cointreau, vodka, ....), use strawberry juice (pulp removed) for more intense flavor, and would like to use a custard (egg yolk) base.

Does anyone have a recipe that they swear by?

-- Mache

[Pam Brunning]

I do one with freeze dried raspberries and raspberry liqueur it is the best way to get an intense flavour with no moisture giving crystals. I am sure you can get F D strawberries with a strawberry liqueur it would work fine.

[paulraphael]

The berries need to be really good, intensely flavored ones. And the recipe should be fairly low fat ... I'd aim for 10% to 12% milk fat, and as little egg custard as you can get away with. Fat strongly mutes the flavors of fruit. It's why so many pastry chefs make sorbets for their fruit flavors.

[Lisa Shock]

The water content in fresh berries (strawberries are the worst) can fluctuate wildly. Many of your problems, at least in a sorbet or gelato, can be addressed by checking the brix of the final mix before spinning. You need to be at 26-27% for optimal texture.

[paulraphael]

You need to be at 26-27% for optimal texture.

A simple way to adjust is by adding nonfat dry milk.