Home Made Ice Cream (2015– )

[paulraphael]

6 hours ago, teonzo said:

You should consider the background by the authors too. People like Dana Cree have most of their experience in restaurants. Making ice-cream in a fine dining restaurant is a totally different thing than the other settings.

 

 

Michael Laiskonis talked about this quite a bit. It's why his recipes were all very low fat (often 4% to 6% milkfat—what many would associate with Northern Italian gelatos). He considered that the ice cream would be part of a very elaborate plated dessert, that came at the end of rich multicourse meal. he didn't want people to end their meals with a fat bomb on the plate. He aimed for something more refreshing. 

[weinoo]

They also tended (at Le B) to not be huge desserts, as at some other places.

 

 

Though there was probably another dessert served with this one!

[paulraphael]

9 hours ago, weinoo said:

They also tended (at Le B) to not be huge desserts, as at some other places.

 

 

Though there was probably another dessert served with this one!

 

I recall many desserts being not so minimalist. 

 

The lettering always shames me. Everyone in that kitchen is better with a pastry bag than I am with a pencil. 

[ccp900]

43 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

 

I recall many desserts being not so minimalist. 

 

The lettering always shames me. Everyone in that kitchen is better with a pastry bag than I am with a pencil. 

Can you imagine writing like that in a normal day to day scenario?

[beauxeault]

I've recently begun experimenting with home-made ice creams, beginning with recipe's from Jenni Britton Bauer's book and more recently branching out into some no-churn recipes. One thing I'd like to be able to do is to use an add-in that provides a good sharp crunch when the ice cream is eaten. I'm looking for something that is a fairly small particle size, say 1/8 to 3/8 inch diameter, and something that I can add to the ice cream either during churning for a churned ice cream or before freezing in a no-churn recipe. The trick is finding something that will not become soft or soggy as a result of absorbing moisture from the mix. The other restriction that complicates my search is that my son has a nut allergy so I'm trying to avoid nuts. Besides, nuts provide a more dull crunch that is not really the sharp crunch I'm looking for.

 

So far I've tried crushed meringue candy, crushed biscotti, crushed Oatmeal Squares cereal, and Honey Bunches of Oats granola. The meringues, somewhat against my expectation, didn't dissolve, and remained pretty well intact in the final product, but their crunch just doesn't provide enough resistance when surrounded by ice cream. All of the other add-ins got soft.

 

I'm aware that all kinds of options (including those I've tried) exist for ice cream toppings, added after freezing and prior to serving. But I want these crunchy bits dispersed throughout the ice cream, not just on top.

 

I have a few other candidates to try: Crushed Oreo cookies seem to work in "cookies and cream" recipes. I plan to try this, but in a lot of cases I'd prefer something I could flavor in different directions. I'm thinking about Grape Nuts cereal, which seems to retain crunchiness in milk longer than some cereals. It also occurs to me that a hard toffee, broken up, might work.

 

So what do you experts think? Anyone have experience with this or other suggestions?

[ccp900]

11 hours ago, beauxeault said:

I've recently begun experimenting with home-made ice creams, beginning with recipe's from Jenni Britton Bauer's book and more recently branching out into some no-churn recipes. One thing I'd like to be able to do is to use an add-in that provides a good sharp crunch when the ice cream is eaten. I'm looking for something that is a fairly small particle size, say 1/8 to 3/8 inch diameter, and something that I can add to the ice cream either during churning for a churned ice cream or before freezing in a no-churn recipe. The trick is finding something that will not become soft or soggy as a result of absorbing moisture from the mix. The other restriction that complicates my search is that my son has a nut allergy so I'm trying to avoid nuts. Besides, nuts provide a more dull crunch that is not really the sharp crunch I'm looking for.

 

So far I've tried crushed meringue candy, crushed biscotti, crushed Oatmeal Squares cereal, and Honey Bunches of Oats granola. The meringues, somewhat against my expectation, didn't dissolve, and remained pretty well intact in the final product, but their crunch just doesn't provide enough resistance when surrounded by ice cream. All of the other add-ins got soft.

 

I'm aware that all kinds of options (including those I've tried) exist for ice cream toppings, added after freezing and prior to serving. But I want these crunchy bits dispersed throughout the ice cream, not just on top.

 

I have a few other candidates to try: Crushed Oreo cookies seem to work in "cookies and cream" recipes. I plan to try this, but in a lot of cases I'd prefer something I could flavor in different directions. I'm thinking about Grape Nuts cereal, which seems to retain crunchiness in milk longer than some cereals. It also occurs to me that a hard toffee, broken up, might work.

 

So what do you experts think? Anyone have experience with this or other suggestions?

Enrobe them with chocolate or sugar syrup to act like a coating.  That would stop them from absorbing the water and should stay crunchy

[weinoo]

 

I bought these really nice containers for ice cream; I should start using them so my scoops don't look as if they've been partially eaten.

In any event, garden mint ice cream (using fresh mint and a few drops peppermint oil) and peach + Earl Grey tea sherbet.

The mint is insanely minty; the sherbet delicious, but barely able to taste the Earl Grey, as I used 4 bags to infuse - my guess is it's much more distinguishable using loose-leaf tea.

[beauxeault]

9 hours ago, ccp900 said:

Enrobe them with chocolate or sugar syrup to act like a coating.  That would stop them from absorbing the water and should stay crunchy

 

Thanks. I'll try it, starting with the sugar syrup, since that would leave the flavor profile open, allowing me to add flavor to the crunchy bits. 

[ccp900]

I made 2 different batches . 1 is  cheese powder ice cream and the other cereal milk. I think I put too much cereal lol. I didn’t strain it out since I decided to make it a source of solids.....it didn’t work hahaha. I had to fix it by adding milk cream and sugar just to thin it out. Tastes wonderful though.  So in the end it did work out but I went against logic on the amount of cereals to put. I placed 100g or 10% of mix weight at the start.

 

edit : I retasted it and I think the cereal flavor is too weak now.  If I remake this I will definitely steep and strain and not do what I did here which was to immersion blender the cereals after steeping

Edited August 29, 2020 by ccp900 (log)

[paulraphael]

5 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I bought these really nice containers for ice cream; I should start using them so my scoops don't look as if they've been partially eaten.

In any event, garden mint ice cream (using fresh mint and a few drops peppermint oil) and peach + Earl Grey tea sherbet.

The mint is insanely minty; the sherbet delicious, but barely able to taste the Earl Grey, as I used 4 bags to infuse - my guess is it's much more distinguishable using loose-leaf tea.

 

I think mint is one of the most challenging flavors to get right. In anything ... ice cream, cocktails, whatever. I've done some experimenting with different infusion techniques, and have looked at research (haven't found much). Dave arnold has nailed it, but his approach requires liquid nitrogen. There's often a catch with him. 

 

My next attempt at mint ice cream is going to be with a tiny bit of mint oil, and then cold-infusing the mint into the base after the base is cooked and cooled. And with some citric acid in the base to slow the mint oxidizing.

 

How are you doing it?

[paulraphael]

On 8/28/2020 at 1:46 PM, beauxeault said:

One thing I'd like to be able to do is to use an add-in that provides a good sharp crunch when the ice cream is eaten.

 

We did a lot of inclusions at the ice cream shop where I worked ages ago. Crunched up heath bars might have been the champ for keeping their crunch. That's basically your toffee idea, plus chocolate. Grape nuts worked well, but I don't think it was such a sharp crunch ... more like nuts. Oreos don't really crunch that much in ice cream. M&Ms lost all their color. Grey disks in gray ice cream. That was a flop. Best bets might be candies cooked to a hard stage (but in small pieces) or any crunchy stuff enrobed in chocolate or caramel. Mix it in by hand after the ice cream has partially hardened.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I have had good results with flavors, by infusing the crushed agent (coffee grounds, fresh mint, basil, ginger, cinnamon bark, etc) in the milk or cream overnight, then straining.   Is this too naive a method?

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, paulraphael said:

 

I think mint is one of the most challenging flavors to get right. In anything ... ice cream, cocktails, whatever. I've done some experimenting with different infusion techniques, and have looked at research (haven't found much). Dave arnold has nailed it, but his approach requires liquid nitrogen. There's often a catch with him. 

 

My next attempt at mint ice cream is going to be with a tiny bit of mint oil, and then cold-infusing the mint into the base after the base is cooked and cooled. And with some citric acid in the base to slow the mint oxidizing.

 

How are you doing it?

 

Dana's method.  For this small batch (1 pint, basically), I used a  half  "handful" of fresh mint - you don't think I weighed it, do you?!  (Like 10 grams) Chopped up, but not muddled.

 

Brought the base to a boil (milk, cream, sugar, glucose (corn syrup) and nonfat milk powder. It's her Philadelphia style "blank slate" base. Turned off heat, added the tapioca slurry, added mint, infused 30 minutes, strained, and when cool before refrigerating I hit it with like a dash of peppermint oil. 

 

Interestingly, I cut back her sugar (i.e sucrose) by 10% just to see what would happen. Maybe a tiny bit less creamy than the vanilla of her's I've made, but still certainly qualifies as great ice cream. Minty.

[teonzo]

On 8/28/2020 at 7:46 PM, beauxeault said:

One thing I'd like to be able to do is to use an add-in that provides a good sharp crunch when the ice cream is eaten.

 

Besides the other suggestions, you can try coating the inclusions with a fat. Best choice would be spraying them with cocoa butter, but you would need a compressor and a spray gun. Otherwise you can melt some butter and coat the inclusions with it. For example if you want to add pieces of broken cookies, you can melt some butter in a bowl, add the cookie pieces, toss them until they are coated, then spread on a piece of parchment paper and let the butter harden in the fridge.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

On 8/29/2020 at 10:24 PM, paulraphael said:

My next attempt at mint ice cream is going to be with a tiny bit of mint oil, and then cold-infusing the mint into the base after the base is cooked and cooled. And with some citric acid in the base to slow the mint oxidizing.

 

How are you doing it?

 

I bring some milk to the boil, add the fresh mint leaves, wait for about 1 minute, blitz with an immersion blender, then strain it, weigh the remaining flavoured milk and proceed with the recipe.

Cooking the mint for 1 minute is long enough to avoid the oxidization problem and quick enough to avoid the "cooked" flavour. Blitzing the leaves with the immersion blender helps you to extract more flavour, then you strain it to discard the fibers (which lost most of their flavour).

This is my favourite way both about taste and consistency. Personally I can't stand peppermint oil, it tastes "fake".

 

 

 

Teo

 

[beauxeault]

43 minutes ago, teonzo said:

 

Besides the other suggestions, you can try coating the inclusions with a fat. Best choice would be spraying them with cocoa butter, but you would need a compressor and a spray gun. Otherwise you can melt some butter and coat the inclusions with it. For example if you want to add pieces of broken cookies, you can melt some butter in a bowl, add the cookie pieces, toss them until they are coated, then spread on a piece of parchment paper and let the butter harden in the fridge.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

Thanks, Teo. I'll try that as well. Because of the lower viscosity of butter vs. sugar syrup or chocolate, it would seem perhaps a bit easier than the sugar or chocolate approach, and also suggests I could get results with possibly fewer added calories (I know, I know, this is ice cream - probably shouldn't focus too much on calories).

[beauxeault]

Regarding the discussion about mint, I tend to prefer spearmint to peppermint when I have the choice in hard candies, but what I've read suggests that the mint flavoring used in home cooking seems to almost always be peppermint. And yet, most of the baked goods (both home-made and commercial) that incorporate a mint flavor don't seem to have the sharpness that I dislike in peppermint hard candies. So is there something about including peppermint in other flavors that ameliorates its sharpness, or are people using a non-peppermint mint? 

 

And what about the mint plants I can get from the local nursery or even the grocery store, or also the mint leaves I can buy? They say "mint" but don't seem to be peppermint, and yet almost all mint flavorings I can find seem to be peppermint. I've seen some spearmint extracts, but they seem to be relatively rare.

[jandreas]

On 8/29/2020 at 4:24 PM, paulraphael said:

 

My next attempt at mint ice cream is going to be with a tiny bit of mint oil, and then cold-infusing the mint into the base after the base is cooked and cooled. And with some citric acid in the base to slow the mint oxidizing.

 

How are you doing it?

A tiny amount of peppermint liqueur works amazingly well with mint leaves.  For any sort of fresh leaf/herb, i've always just pulverized it with sugar, to which the oil sticks.  It was easier, nearly always better and most importantly repeatable.  Hot/Cold macerations were left for dried leaves.  There have been some exceptions using nitrous oxide but I haven't tried to infuse milk or water with it for ice cream, yet.    

Edited August 31, 2020 by jandreas (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2020 at 8:30 PM, ElsieD said:

Does anyone have a recipe for mango gelato?  I have 7 ice cream books, none of which contain a recipe for mango gelato.

 

Rose Levy Beranbaum's mango recipe calls for:

 

Alphonso mango pulp, preferably Ratna brand  333 grams

cornstarch  9 grams

milk  121 grams

heavy cream  348 grams

sugar 150 grams

glucose or reduced corn syrup  63 grams

fine sea salt  a pinch

large egg yolks  112 grams (6-9 yolks)

pure vanilla extract  1/2 teaspoon

freshly ground cardamom to taste (optional)

 

[ElsieD]

6 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Rose Levy Beranbaum's mango recipe calls for:

 

Alphonso mango pulp, preferably Ratna brand  333 grams

cornstarch  9 grams

milk  121 grams

heavy cream  348 grams

sugar 150 grams

glucose or reduced corn syrup  63 grams

fine sea salt  a pinch

large egg yolks  112 grams (6-9 yolks)

pure vanilla extract  1/2 teaspoon

freshly ground cardamom to taste (optional)

 

 

Yes!!!  Thank you so much.  Now to find the mango. I will check out the Indian stores around here.  There are a bunch of them.  Thank you again.

[jandreas]

Have you tried making it yet?  With all the eggs in the recipe, it really came out tasting like it was made from Canistel (fruit) and not so much a Mango.

[ElsieD]

2 minutes ago, jandreas said:

Have you tried making it yet?  With all the eggs in the recipe, it really came out tasting like it was made from Canistel (fruit) and not so much a Mango.

 

Did you use the mango pulp brand called for?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

18 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Did you use the mango pulp brand called for?

 

Rose adds that most other mango pulp tastes like peach.  Not that peach is a bad thing.

 

[jandreas]

21 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Did you use the mango pulp brand called for?

 

yes...

[ElsieD]

9 minutes ago, jandreas said:

 

yes...

 

Well, I haven't made it yet.  As you can see, I just now got the ingredient list.  I have never heard of canistel fruit, so I looked it up.  The bit I read said it sort of tastes like peach.