Vanilla Ice Cream: Why is it so Hard? :)

[Pam Brunning]

I find the best way of ensuring a soft scoop ice cream straight from the freezer is to add alcohol to the mix. This is easy when making fruit ice cream as you can use a liquor of the same flavour. An egg yolk and cream based ice cream with dried raspberries soaked in Framboise is soft and luscious. The trouble is finding a flavourless alcohol that won’t detract from the vanilla flavour. I use a cheap Vodka that is not too strong in flavour but it is not ideal. Anyone any ideas?

[Belgian Blue]

Hi guys,

thank you all - rlibkind - this is where I hit the US/EU terminology all - I think 'corn syrup' is the same thing as 'liquid glucose' which is an 'inverted sugar' (apologies, I'm on a very steep learning curve here).

It just so happens that I've got liquid glucose (and even atomised liquid glucose). In truth, I'm drowning in different'sugars' and potential 'stabilisers'.

So I'm very grateful to ChrisZ for pointing me in the direction of 'Frozen desserts' by Migoya. It looks like a really amazing book and it will be my next Amazon order.

Thanks to Darienne for the 'pinch of salt' suggestion - I'd never have thought of adding sale to ice cream.

I tried Heston's vanilla (Heston Blumenthal at home) which is not based on a traditional custard and it's nowhere near as good as the David Lebovitz' egg custard ice cream, so I'll try to 'stabilize' this one before going any further. Will report on how it goes.

BB

Edited April 18, 2012 by Belgian Blue (log)

[pastrygirl]

BB, yes liquid glucose is essentially the same as US corn syrup, just a little thicker viscosity, and maybe made form wheat (the patis france glucose syrup I use is made from wheat). You don't necessarily want to add the extra liquid in liquid glucose, so the atomized should be better for ice cream. I use 600g granulated sugar plus 100 g atomized glucose to a bit more than 3 liters dairy and 400 g egg yolks.

[Belgian Blue]

That is very helpful pastrygirl. The liquid glucose is indeed very thick and viscous and I believe it is made from wheat. Great tip about the atomised glucose, and the quantities you have given make it much easier for me to scale things.

Thank you!

BB