9 minutes ago, SeanT said:Thanks for the input Paula nd ccp900.
CCP900, your comment about not enought water is what my gut reaction was. The ice cream does seem dry. I think I'll make it again and see if i get the same results to double check I didn't somehow weigh an ingredient incorrectly. Unfortunately I don't have any carragean otherwise I would try that. If I wanted to make the ice cream even softer what would you do? Increase the granulated sugar? The ice cream definitely wasn't too sweet. Increase both the sugar and dextrose, or maybe even the invert syrup? BTW, my freezer temp is set at 0 F and the ice cream texture did not improve as it warmed up.
That dry texture your describing may be going on at the level of the water / fat emulsion. You don't have too little water. You've got about 40% total solids, whch is great if you like a lot of body. You've got about 14% milk fat, which most people would find close to ideal in a vanilla ice cream.
The high solids level would tend to promote a more luxurious, or even elastic texture than what you describe, which is why I find your results surprising.
More water / lower solids will just encourage iciness and give a thinner body. If it also solves this texture problem, then I'd say that you've found a workaround, but haven't really solved the root problem—which is something I'm really just guessing at right now.
Edited to add: one way to use inulin for health purposes is to put it in your smoothie, and eat less ice cream 
