Home Made Ice Cream (2013– )

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I pulled the PHMB plug at an hour and fifteen minutes.  Within reason the mixer stirring speed doesn't seem to matter.  I poured the warm mix into a one and one half quart saucepan and homogenized four minutes on high speed with my BioSpec BioHomogenizer.  I then chilled the mix thoroughly in an ice bath and the cold mix is now ageing in the refrigerator.

 

The mix tasted pretty good.

 

Essentially the only work was getting myself up every ten minutes out of a comfortable chair to take a temperature reading.  (That and cleaning the kitchen floor after a small slip of the homogenizer.)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Actually, in the interest of science, after the initial temperature reading of 159 deg F, the ten minute readings (with a Thermapen) were 161 deg F plus one, minus zero deg F.  In other words 161 deg F except for one reading at 162 deg F.  Can't ask too much better than that except from an anova.  (Which I display in Celsius anyway.)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had to let the dwell time go to twenty minutes.  I postulate this was because of stirring in vanilla extract rather than my usual non-alcoholic vanilla paste.  I think it had to do with the freezing point depression of the alcohol in the extract.  Draw temperature was 23 deg F.  After hardening the ice cream is ever so slightly icy.  I wonder whether most folks would really notice, but I do.

 

The most important variable for iciness is freezer time I've found.  I must do better.  I shall redouble my efforts.

 

Still, nothing stopped me from having a second bowl.

[Perrin]

The most important variable for iciness is freezer time I've found.

 

Churning time in the ice cream maker, or hardening time in the freezer afterward?

[Perrin]

The soft-serve mix has been working very well! I tried one round with water, as suggested on the package. That was a bit icy, but not bad. Very simple sweet vanilla flavor, good texture, scoopable straight from the freezer. It needed fat though. I like lower-fat ice cream, but this one was pushing it.

 

My next experiment was with whole milk. That was a big improvement. The milk has 8g of fat per cup vs 3g of fat in the Silk almond/coconut blend that mgaretz is using. I'd recommend getting a little more fat into the mix because the texture is great and it's still probably only 5% fat or so. Maybe mix some canned coconut milk or coconut oil in if you want to avoid dairy? I might try pushing it a little higher with some cream, but I'm pretty happy with the whole milk.

 

The vanilla flavor is weak, so I need to try some experiments there. I'm thinking of using green tea or fresh mint (with stracietella) for my next try, but this stuff seems so able to soak up water that I could even try a strawberry or blueberry. I will also try using 200g per 16oz. I've been using 170g so far, as recommended on the package.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Churning time in the ice cream maker, or hardening time in the freezer afterward?

 

Sorry, I meant churning time.  But is still important to harden as quickly as possible.

 

After work this evening I sampled a bowl of my last batch.  Not as horrid as I remembered from last night.  But it is not perfect -- certainly too soft, even after over a day in a cold freezer, and ever so slightly icy.  I don't believe I over-reduced the mix because when that happens the ice cream is equally soft but it tastes unbalanced and this was not the case.  The taste is fine.  I still blame the alcohol from the extract (and the skill of the pastry chef) for the texture defects.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight I prepared another batch of mix by the same method as before, except I did not check temperature every ten minutes -- just at the end.  And I pulled the mix at one hour rather than an hour and a quarter.  The final temperature was 163 deg F, a degree or two higher than than the target temperature.  I must remember to make an adjustment next time.  The PHMB was set to 200 def F.

 

Following homogenization and an ice bath the mix is in the refrigerator overnight.  I must say it is a welcome luxury to shower and wash my hair while the ice cream cooks.

 

 

For reference the current working recipe is:

 

500 ml heavy cream
200 ml whole milk
4 large egg yolks
60 g sucrose
15 g trehalose
Kosher salt pinch

 

 

Note that this small volume of mix is not because of the PHMB.  The PHMB will work with as much as two liters at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This was an improvement over the last batch.  The hardened ice cream was not as soft.  I used vanilla paste rather than vanilla extract and pulled the frozen mix at a time of fifteen minutes with a draw temperature of 27 deg F, which was probably a bit higher than optimum.

 

However I must note this was still a little icy and not as good as what I reported in post 392:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144208-home-made-ice-cream-2013–/?p=2018449

 

I shall have to revert to the older recipe.

[Tri2Cook]

I'm not sure what you're running into with the (lack of) hardness issue. I know you're experimenting with a much higher degree of scientific interest than I generally put into my ice cream but I've never had an issue with the amount of alcohol in vanilla extract causing hardening problems. Just out of curiosity, I made a batch of my basic ice cream base and added vanilla extract to half then churned both and tossed them in the freezer. The two, in terms of texture, are identical to my tastes. But with the level of testing and differences in equipment, you may have yours down to the point where very minor differences are easily discernible to you. Regardless,. it's fun watching the process and hearing the results of your search for ice cream perfection.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This batch is harder than the last, acceptably hard, I'd say.  It is just soft enough to be scooped with a spoon without bending the spoon.  Having just had a bowl for breakfast, I'd have to say it is very good.  The texture is just not as good as the batch before last, which I said was perfect.

 

 

So I have to look at the differences.

 

1.)  I scaled down the recipe to make a smaller batch.

2.)  I used regular whole milk rather than filter concentrated milk.

3.)  PHMB was set to 200 deg F rather than 198 deg F.

4.)  I stirred with the mixer whisk rather than using a whisk by hand.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Because I was somewhat kitchen challenged and could not devote the space for ice cream I made Modernist peanut butter gelato.  Of which I am always fond, although this time the peanut butter was less than smooth, and the gelato had an ever so slightly icy texture similar to my last batch of ice cream.

 

For anyone who has not experienced Modernist gelato, it is almost witchcraft to see the hydrocolloid mixture instantly transition from a white liquid to a firm translucent gel.

[paulraphael]

It uses lambda carrageenan, which is magical stuff. I use that in my own homegrown stabilizer blend and don't know why it's not more popular.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

It uses lambda carrageenan, which is magical stuff. I use that in my own homegrown stabilizer blend and don't know why it's not more popular.

 

Actually my gelato recipe is the MC@H version which does not use carrageenan, but rather uses tapioca starch and xanthan gum.  I believe the effect is the tapioca starch gelatinization.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Interesting.  As is normal, the Modernist gelato gets rock hard after a day or so in the freezer.  Having a Belle-V in my battery I scraped myself a serving.  For whatever reason I could detect no iciness in the bowl of shavings.  Much better than before.

 

Although the defective peanut butter still bothered me.

[paulraphael]

In general, you can expect an inverse relationship between hardness and iciness. Maybe counterintuitively. To make an ice cream softer at freezer temperature, a greater proportion of the water needs to be kept in its liquid state (by dissolved solids that suppress freezing point). The presence of of more liquid water means that more is available to migrate and glom onto existing ice crystals, making them bigger. 

 

I'm in the process of adjusting my recipe to make it a bit harder, for this reason. Ideal serving temperature for ice cream is a little warmer than a typical freezer anyway ... 6°F to 10°F. It just means letting the ice cream warm up a bit before scooping. 

 

Most home recipes are too hard even in this temperature range. But if you're getting into pastry chef territory and adding milk solids and alternate sugars, it's easy to suppress the freezing point beyond what's ideal.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Have you tried modifying nathanm's recipe to make it softer?  I have not messed around at all with the MC gelato recipes -- I go by the book -- other than compensation for sugar or salt in the wretched peanut butters that I have available.

 

The MC gelato is supposed to be quite hard after a day in the freezer.  But that's what my Belle-V's for!

[mgaretz]

My latest and oh so good!  Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana.  Non-dairy.

 

187 gr Precision Foods Soft Serve Mix (vanilla)

16 oz almond/coconut blend milk, unflavored, unsweetened

3 tbs cocoa powder

3 tbs peanut butter powder

2 tbs Torani Banana Syrup

1.5 tbs vegetable glycerin

 

After two days in the freezer, great texture and mouth feel, not icy and scoopable with a regular teaspoon!

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My latest and oh so good!  Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana.  Non-dairy.

 

187 gr Precision Foods Soft Serve Mix (vanilla)

16 oz almond/coconut blend milk, unflavored, unsweetened

3 tbs cocoa powder

3 tbs peanut butter powder

2 tbs Torani Banana Syrup

1.5 tbs vegetable glycerin

 

After two days in the freezer, great texture and mouth feel, not icy and scoopable with a regular teaspoon!

 

chocbanpea.jpg

 

 

Beautiful picture, I have never tried to photograph ice cream!

 

Since I know you need non-dairy, I wondered if you have tried making any of nathanm's modernist gelatos?  The gelato is vegan, easy and quick to make, and always draws the highest compliments.  I finished up the end of my most recent batch last night.

[mgaretz]

Beautiful picture, I have never tried to photograph ice cream!

 

Since I know you need non-dairy, I wondered if you have tried making any of nathanm's modernist gelatos?  The gelato is vegan, easy and quick to make, and always draws the highest compliments.  I finished up the end of my most recent batch last night.

I have looked at the recipes, especially the "home" versions, but haven't tried one yet. Maybe I'll do one next. Probably try peanut since I'm too cheap to buy the expensive pistachio oil, but I wonder how subbing peanut oil would work for pistachio and/or cashew?

The picture was just shot with my iPhone 6 on my kitchen counter.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had but one project to accomplish all day.  Now it is 11:30 pm and I am finally sitting down with my first mai tai.

 

There is no pretense that this is a controlled experiment.  The main exercise was to see if I could maintain a constant temperature of mix near 161 deg F in the KitchenAid precise heat mixing bowl.  The bowl does well at keeping the contents just a degree or two below the setpoint as long as the lid is on.  But ice cream mix by Ruben's method must be stirred with the bowl uncovered for evaporation.  After much trial and error I found that by setting the bowl thermostat to 198 deg F I could hold the mix temperature in the range of about 159-160 while stirring.  This eliminates the chief source of grief trying to hold a constant temperature manually on the stove top for a full hour.

 

All in all the mix was in the KitchenAid for an hour and a half.  Much of this time the mix was as low as 149 deg F.  It was only close to the target temperature for about half an hour.  Note I had heated the mix on the stove top to 161 before adding it to the preheated 165 deg KitchenAid.  That's when the temperature dropped as low as 149 deg.

 

The mix was my usual:

 

heavy cream 750 ml

whole milk 250 ml

large egg yolks 6

sugar (sucrose) 90 g

trehalose 20 g

kosher salt pinch 

 

 

However for whole milk I used a new (to me) product:  Fa!rlife ultra-filtered whole milk (I wonder if they really mean nano?).  It is also ultra-pasteurized.  At least it was on sale.

 

After pasteurizing the mix I measured a reduction of 16% which is short of the 32% reduction called for by Ruben.  By about half, actually.

 

Sadly I have not been able to find literature on rotor-stator ice cream homogenization times.  Commercial ice cream typically employs high pressure homogenizers.  Modernist Cuisine uses a rotor-stator homogenizer for their gelato.  Since they do not hesitate to call out for a high pressure homogenizer when warranted I believe I am safe with using the rotor-stator homogenizer for ice cream.  I homogenized for about four minutes, approximately half on low and half on high.  This was partially determined by the BioSpec duty cycle of five minutes maximum.

 

When I tasted the cold mix it was not quite as sweet as I would have liked.  This is probably due to insufficient reduction.  But we shall see.

 

More tomorrow.

 

 

By the way, paulrapheal, if you know Michael Laiskonis let him know that his domain expired two days ago and his blog is off the air.

 

This afternoon I assayed to reproduce this unalloyed success.  But I didn't have the 90 grams of sucrose.  I did not have any granulated sugar at all.  Damn these hard to find modernist ingredients.

 

I guess I am off to an hour and a half trip to the store, if the thunderstorms hold off.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I have looked at the recipes, especially the "home" versions, but haven't tried one yet. Maybe I'll do one next. Probably try peanut since I'm too cheap to buy the expensive pistachio oil, but I wonder how subbing peanut oil would work for pistachio and/or cashew?

The picture was just shot with my iPhone 6 on my kitchen counter.

 

Peanut is the only variation I have tried, for the same reasons.  My inclination would be to keep the oil matched to the type of nut.

 

I'd love to try pistachio someday.  Pistachio oil is available for sale locally.  The problem for me is more the astronomical cost of pure pistachio paste.  (Unless nathenm would lend me his colloid mill.)

[Kerry Beal]

What would happen if you added some pistachio oil to some pistachios and processed them with your homogenizer?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

What would happen if you added some pistachio oil to some pistachios and processed them with your homogenizer?

 

Rotor-stator homogenizers don't do well with viscous media, and from experience I can say they don't do well for bits of nuts!  I understand for nuts one needs a colloid mill, as discussed in MC v2.  Rotor-stator homogenizers are promoted for disruption of soft tissue and for making emulsions.  From memory, nuts for MC gelato require several passes though a colloid mill to get the texture right.

 

I am now back from the store with a full 1814 grams of sucrose in my backpack, but I have absolutely no energy for making ice cream.  It will take all I have* to make a mai tai.

 

 

Edit:  *energy, that is, not sucrose.

Edited July 9, 2015 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[mgaretz]

I haven't tried it yet, but the Blendtec, and especially with the Twister Jar, is supposed to make very smooth nut butters.

 

I wonder what a neutral oil would do, like Rice Bran oil.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Last night I tried to recreate my earlier success.  I went back to the previous ingredient amounts:

 

heavy cream 750 ml

whole milk 250 ml  (Fa!rlife ultra filtered)

large egg yolks 6

sugar (sucrose) 90 g

trehalose 20 g

kosher salt pinch 

 

 

I mixed and heated on the stove to 160 deg F, then transferred to the PHMB set to 198 deg F.  Stirred at slowest speed with wire whip for an hour and a half.  Final temperature was 161 deg F.

 

For homogenization I obtained an eight inch deep 1/6 hotel pan specifically for the purpose.  Homogenization is reported most efficient in a square shaped pan, and eight inches is deep enough to prevent any splashing.  Worked very well.  I homogenized on high for five minutes.  Then put the hotel pan in an ice bath, which had not quite enough ice (due to my Harvard edX homework).  Then refrigerated.

 

It's difficult to judge evaporation with the PHMB.  It would be nice to have a huge scale large enough to contain the whole KitchenAid setup.  Hmm.