Making Ice Cream Ahead of Time

[Darienne]

We've this weekend thing coming up starting on August 26th and I am starting to make baked and cooked items ahead of time and freezing them. Some stuff is no problem.

But ice cream...ah... First of all, I can make only one container a day with my little ICE-20 Cuisinart maker. Secondly, I'm not making stuff while folks are here. And I need to make at least 5 kinds.

My downstairs freezer is -33 degrees C in the center of the frozen ice cream container bowl. That's the 'colder' side of the freezer. Otherwise it varies and I can't figure out what is meaningful about getting all different temperatures here and there. (My fridge freezer goes from -10 to -18 degrees C. Warmer than the cellar freezer. Both are fine with my ice creams in the past.)

I have had few problems with ice cream since the help I received from my ice cream mentors, Paul Raphael and Jon. I make mostly cornstarch-based ice creams. I'll cover the ice cream with plastic wrap in an air-tight plastic container, put it in the cold side and NOT open it until it is time to serve. The freezer is a chest freezer and not subject to constant opening.

How many days do you figure I can start before hand. (I am already committed to making, assembling and wrapping the ice cream sandwiches on Aug 21 & 22.) Thanks.

[Lisa Shock]

Can you place cold gel packs on the top/side of the containers that might get exposed to air when the freezer is opened? Or even bags of frozen vegetables as an insulator? If you limit the air exposure, I think you will be able to do more earlier.

[Darienne]

Good idea. Not a problem.

[paulraphael]

Darienne, your own experience is your best guide (although it sounds like ice cream doesn't stick around for too many minutes at your house ...)

-33C is a mighty cold freezer. I've been taught that below -25C, ice cream is completely stable and that ice crystals simply won't grow (because 100% of the water in the ice cream, at least in any kind of normal recipe, will be frozen). If this is correct then your ice creams should last weeks and weeks without getting icy. But I can't vouch for this with personal experience.

[gap]

I've kept home made ice cream for a week and it's been fine. Goes without saying it depends on your recipe.

[Darienne]

Darienne, your own experience is your best guide (although it sounds like ice cream doesn't stick around for too many minutes at your house ...)

-33C is a mighty cold freezer. I've been taught that below -25C, ice cream is completely stable and that ice crystals simply won't grow (because 100% of the water in the ice cream, at least in any kind of normal recipe, will be frozen). If this is correct then your ice creams should last weeks and weeks without getting icy. But I can't vouch for this with personal experience.

Hi Paul, Thanks for your answer. Actually the ice cream has lasted well over a week at the house. I give a lot of it away (you know, bribes, thank you's, apologies, etc.) and Ed and I don't eat a lot of it. If I ate everything I made...

Usually the ice cream is moved to the upper freezer for serving purposes, but of course the upper freezer is much smaller and already packed with the often used bits and bobs. I think I'll move a lot of the stuff out of it to the cellar freezer, so I can store more ice creams in it for the weekend.

I shall make #1 today and then report back how it works out vis-a-vis storage for two weeks. An experiment. DL's Vietnamese coffee ice cream...minor alterations: a tad less than the prescribed amount of condensed milk (can holds only 300 ml = 1 1/5 cups); slightly more half & half, finely chopped cacao nibs and 2 T of Panama Jack. Well, that's not too minor is it?

As always, thanks.

[Darienne]

I've kept home made ice cream for a week and it's been fine. Goes without saying it depends on your recipe.

We are talking nearly two weeks for ice cream #1 and as noted, I'll report back. Thanks.