In an older post (maybe in this thread) I suggested adding the cream to the recipe AFTER cooking / pasteurization. The idea was that the cream is already industrially homogenized, so there's no point in undoing that good work by melting the fat over heat, and then trying to re-homogenize it with a mere blender. I posited that keeping the cream cool, and putting it in toward the end, would slightly improve texture.
I was wrong!
I've tested this a few times now, and in every case I've gotten much better texture by throwing the cream in with the other ingredients in the beginning, cooking it all together, and then blasting the whole mix (still hot) in a high-powered blender.
I don't know for sure why this is. One possibility is that it's during the cooking process when the emulsifying molecules (egg lecithin, or whatever else you may be using) bond to the fat globules. But that's just a barely educated guess.
At any rate, my ice creams are much smoother now, even though I'm making them in a freezer bowl machine, and my old freezer is struggling to maintain 0°F.
