Home Made Ice Cream (2015– )

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Known elsewhere as "the angel's share" or in our house, husband's.    There is loss in any cooking process.   I joke that we could live on what is left in a restaurant pot.    Or as my mother use to preach, Westerners make a cream soup and lose a goodly portion on pan and utensils. while clear Asian soups leave nothing behind.   

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, Synerge said:

Improving all this steps makes you lose less percentage of the final mix, and that is obviously good as you get more ice cream in the end, and have a better cost use. Although, most of what evaporates is water anyway

 

Talk to the guy trying to make soup.

[Synerge]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Talk to the guy trying to make soup.

 

Soup ice cream? Sounds good

[paulraphael]

On 7/1/2021 at 12:26 AM, Synerge said:

 

Actually, I think that the fat relation with taste goes the other way around. For example in USA they increased a lot fat content as it gave the ice cream a different texture and flavour

One thing is certain, while more fat you have, more creamy is the ice cream. Because fat does not freeze, so you have less water, so less ice problems

Obviously, on the other side, fat is extremely unhealthy, specially if you are planning to eat ice cream on a regular basis. A 10% fat content is a lot more balanced, and it comes out great. You can also go for italy's gelatos that go from 4% to 8% top. In argentina, the gelatos usually go from 7% to 10%. For me, 6% is a little to low, 8% sounds better in all the cases. I try to get values between 8 and 10

 

Chocolate is probably the most difficult ice cream to do, because the main compontent, that is chocolate, is quite complex, and changes everything in the formula. It has fats, sugars, solids. Everything. Also, the quality and type of chocolate change everything aswell

Your finding is interesting, you say that with a smaller POD, the chocolate taste doesn't stand out too much. In the contrary, if you increase sweetness, the flavour is better. That maybe depends on the chocolate you are using. Also have in mind that chocolate itself is really high on fat.

Post your recipe so we can check what is going on. Although I have no experiene in this, maybe others that do like chocolate can say something about it. I can only say that chocolate is really bitter, specially if you go more to pure chocolate. Milk chocolate on the other half, or maybe even white chocolate, completely different taste

 

The relationship of fat to flavor really depends on the flavor. Some flavors are carried by it, others are muted by it. I don't believe any flavors benefit from a fat level above 16% or so, but some, like fat-soluble spices (vanilla) seem to do best around there. Other flavors, like fruits and coffee, are most vibrant and intense at low fat levels. 

 

I agree with you about chocolate. The main culprit is cocoa butter, which causes problems not just because of its abundance but because of its hardness at cold temperatures. The sugar and solids aren't so hard to compensate for, but the cocoa butter's always a problem. Using cocoa powder would be the solution, but chocolate companies still think of it as a byproduct. It's what's left over after extracting cocoa butter (which they use for white chocolate or to sell as an industrial ingredient) and they don't pay much attention to the powders provenance. Companies like Michel Cluizel and Valrhona do sell better cocoa powder than other companies ... but it's nothing like the quality of their own single-origin chocolates. This is not because it has to be so; they just haven't identified this as a market.

 

Callebaut is now advertising single-origin cocoa powders to their professional customers. But I don't see a distributor in the US and they won't return my calls. Some smaller makers in the US are making fancy cocoa powder. But last I checked none had the (expensive) machine needed to mill it to a fine texture. So your ice cream would be gritty. 

[paulraphael]

On 7/12/2021 at 7:00 AM, weinoo said:

Is there any need to use an homogenizer when starting with homogenized milk?

 

I don't believe I use any emulsifiers either. I've pretty much settled on Dana Cree's methodology.

 

 

If you're making uncooked bases, there probably isn't any benefit to a homogenizer. When you cook/pasteurize an ice cream base, the fat globules get more mobile and glom onto each other, making fewer bigger globules that result in a worse foam structure and texture. The homogenizing step happens right after cooking, when the fat is still hot and liquid. In order of effectiveness:

doing nothing < regular blender / stick blender < high-powered blender < rotor-stator homogenizer (like Jo's) < ultrasonic homogenizer < high-pressure homogenizer (like what the dairy uses). 

 

Emulsifiers, in my experience (and depending on flavor) make a small but noticeable difference in smoothness and foam quality. Contrary to common sense, they're not used to emulsify the ice cream at all. Milk and cream are already perfectly good emulsions; the surface-active components of the milk proteins do the emulsifying, and the industrial homogenizer at the dairy makes everything stable. We actually add emulsifiers to partially destabilize the emulsion. Added emulsifiers pluck some of the milk proteins away from the fat globules, making it easier for the fat globules to partially coalesce and form a foam structure.

 

Consider that part of the structure of ice cream is whipped cream ... we're trying to make whipped cream with a much lower fat percentage than we usually would. Anything that helps destabilize the milk and cream make this much easier. It takes very little ... there's probably enough lecithin in 1/4 egg yolk to do it for a liter of ice cream. 

[weinoo]

10 hours ago, paulraphael said:

But I don't see a distributor in the US and they won't return my calls.

 

The nerve! Don't they know who you are??????

[Synerge]

20 hours ago, paulraphael said:

If you're making uncooked bases, there probably isn't any benefit to a homogenizer. When you cook/pasteurize an ice cream base, the fat globules get more mobile and glom onto each other, making fewer bigger globules that result in a worse foam structure and texture. The homogenizing step happens right after cooking, when the fat is still hot and liquid. In order of effectiveness:

doing nothing < regular blender / stick blender < high-powered blender < rotor-stator homogenizer (like Jo's) < ultrasonic homogenizer < high-pressure homogenizer (like what the dairy uses). 

 

Emulsifiers, in my experience (and depending on flavor) make a small but noticeable difference in smoothness and foam quality. Contrary to common sense, they're not used to emulsify the ice cream at all. Milk and cream are already perfectly good emulsions; the surface-active components of the milk proteins do the emulsifying, and the industrial homogenizer at the dairy makes everything stable. We actually add emulsifiers to partially destabilize the emulsion. Added emulsifiers pluck some of the milk proteins away from the fat globules, making it easier for the fat globules to partially coalesce and form a foam structure.

 

Consider that part of the structure of ice cream is whipped cream ... we're trying to make whipped cream with a much lower fat percentage than we usually would. Anything that helps destabilize the milk and cream make this much easier. It takes very little ... there's probably enough lecithin in 1/4 egg yolk to do it for a liter of ice cream. 

 

Welcome back

There are actually many scientific researchs testing how each emulsifier acts on the ice cream, and what changes when the percentage varies. Also with mixing emulsifiers. Although there are not many emulsifiers to be honest. Stabilizers on the other hand, there are too many and their properties are completely different between each other. They test it with different tools and machines, the results are quite insightful

There is also improvement using emulsifiers on non-fat ice creams, as its gives them a better texture

 

Im using right now Monoesterate + Tween 80. For stabilizers Locust + Guar + Carrogenan. Its working quite well

[ccp900]

for those who use an immersion cooker to cook your base. how would the temps/times change when you use a mason jar to cook instead of a zip lock bag. im tired of throwing these things out. such a waste! 

 

im going to go use a 1L ball mason jar just to limit the waste but need the insights of those who have shifted. depending on the flavor and my mood i use 3 temps/times. 65c for 1 hour / 75c for 30 mins / 85c for 5 mins.  these are all usinf zip lock bags though, i am wondering how it will change going to mason jars

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 8/9/2021 at 5:40 PM, paulraphael said:

 

The relationship of fat to flavor really depends on the flavor. Some flavors are carried by it, others are muted by it. I don't believe any flavors benefit from a fat level above 16% or so, but some, like fat-soluble spices (vanilla) seem to do best around there. Other flavors, like fruits and coffee, are most vibrant and intense at low fat levels. 

 

I agree with you about chocolate. The main culprit is cocoa butter, which causes problems not just because of its abundance but because of its hardness at cold temperatures. The sugar and solids aren't so hard to compensate for, but the cocoa butter's always a problem. Using cocoa powder would be the solution, but chocolate companies still think of it as a byproduct. It's what's left over after extracting cocoa butter (which they use for white chocolate or to sell as an industrial ingredient) and they don't pay much attention to the powders provenance. Companies like Michel Cluizel and Valrhona do sell better cocoa powder than other companies ... but it's nothing like the quality of their own single-origin chocolates. This is not because it has to be so; they just haven't identified this as a market.

 

Callebaut is now advertising single-origin cocoa powders to their professional customers. But I don't see a distributor in the US and they won't return my calls. Some smaller makers in the US are making fancy cocoa powder. But last I checked none had the (expensive) machine needed to mill it to a fine texture. So your ice cream would be gritty. 

Paul, perhaps of interest to you, we started infusing vodka with very high quality cocoa nibs.   After a few months, the result it a rich, chocolate alcohol.    I use a couple of tablespoons in appropriately flavored ice creams as a flavor booster and texture ameliorate.  

[BeeZee]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Paul, perhaps of interest to you, we started infusing vodka with very high quality cocoa nibs.   After a few months, the result it a rich, chocolate alcohol.    I use a couple of tablespoons in appropriately flavored ice creams as a flavor booster and texture ameliorate.  

Margaret, this is of interest! Do you have any general guidelines you use for nibs to vodka ratio?

[blue_dolphin]

3 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Margaret, this is of interest! Do you have any general guidelines you use for nibs to vodka ratio?

I’m not Margaret, so I know you didn’t ask me but I’ve been using the proportions from a David Lebovitz recipe: 75g roasted cocoa nibs in 430 ml vodka.  Swirl every day or so for at least a week, then strain.  He adds 1 tsp vanilla and sweetens it at this point. 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Interesting and amusing.   We ransacked France trying to buy eau de vie de cacao, which we finally admitted was no longer made by anyone (at that time).    So we bought nibs at Alain Ducasse (because it was convenient) and made our own, guessing at quantities.    I guess Libovitz came to the same conclusion also.   

 

It makes a luscious product, round and intense, much richer than fruit eau de vies.  I am not sure that our nibs are roasted...

[weinoo]

Here are a couple of interesting products, probably impossible to source here...

 

https://www.prestigioytradicion.com/en/product/kko-destilado-de-cacao-50cl/

 

 

https://www.thecanberradistillery.com.au/shop/cocoa-liqueur/

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

Here are a couple of interesting products, probably impossible to source here...

 

https://www.prestigioytradicion.com/en/product/kko-destilado-de-cacao-50cl/

 

 

https://www.thecanberradistillery.com.au/shop/cocoa-liqueur/

 

 

Thanks for these.    The one(s) we were chasing were sugar free, literally eau de vies.    Pure flavor in alcohol.    But these would be very interesting ice cream inclusions.   

[curls]

Simple chocolate chip ice cream using my freezer bowl Cuisinart. Thanks to everyone for posting so much ice cream, it got me to make some of my own.

 

[David Ross]

My huckleberry ice cream.  I puree the berries before adding them to the custard base, then I served with a huckleberry compote on the side or over the top.  The recipe is delicious with any summer berry.

 

1 ½ cups whole milk

1 ½ cups heavy cream

½" piece vanilla bean, cut in half, seeds scraped out

4 egg yolks

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup huckleberries, pureed

½ cup whole huckleberries for garnish

 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, add the milk, cream, vanilla bean and seeds.

 

In the bowl of a mixer, add the egg yolks and sugar. Stir the milk and cream as it heats. Slowly whisk ½ cup of milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk. This tempers the egg mixture and keeps it from scrambling. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the cream and whisk to combine. Lower the heat to medium-low and stir the ice cream base with a wooden spoon and cook for about 12-15 minutes until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Pour the ice cream custard through a strainer into a container, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

 

The next day, pour the ice cream custard into an ice cream maker and pour in the pureed huckleberries, process until it becomes thick like soft-serve ice cream. Spread the ice cream in a container, cover and freeze until ready to serve.

[lemniscate]

I saw many "no-churn" techniques on youtube for ice cream.   I gave it a go.

 

1 can evaporated milk (most recipes say use condensed milk, I decided I would add the sweetness separately, plus I have a bunch of evap milk in my pantry for some unknown reason)

1 package cream cheese, cheap store brand

8 fl oz whipping cream, TJ's shelf stable

 

You mix/blend the evap milk and cream cheese together.  Here I added in the flavorings.

1 batch was jar of Ube jam blended in.   This was plenty sweet for the ice cream

Whip the cream (with a bit of vanilla extract) and fold into the flavored mixture.  Freeze for several hours, or just default to 1 day.

It's lightly purple and has a floral vanilla flavor.  Ube tastes like vanilla to me so it's always a very pleasant taste profile.

 

2nd batch was a butter rum/butterscotch flavor.  I made a homemade invert sugar and let it slightly caramelize.  About a cup, which was too much, too sweet (1/2 cup would be desired).  I also was too generous with the LorAnn Butter Rum flavoring,   It's a strongly flavored ice cream, almost boozy without booze.

 

All in all, if I can dial in the flavor technique better,  the texture is quite like standard churned ice cream.  

Edited September 6, 2021 by lemniscate (log)

[paulraphael]

On 8/12/2021 at 6:51 PM, ccp900 said:

for those who use an immersion cooker to cook your base. how would the temps/times change when you use a mason jar to cook instead of a zip lock bag. im tired of throwing these things out. such a waste! 

 

im going to go use a 1L ball mason jar just to limit the waste but need the insights of those who have shifted. depending on the flavor and my mood i use 3 temps/times. 65c for 1 hour / 75c for 30 mins / 85c for 5 mins.  these are all usinf zip lock bags though, i am wondering how it will change going to mason jars

 

This is hard to answer, because it's not easy to model the heat transfer from a water bath into a liquid in a container. The speed of heating changes with the size and shape of the container and the viscosity of the liquid. No matter what, it takes a long time for the liquid to come up to temperature. This is why cooking an ice cream base sous-vide is more pretend-precise than actual precise.

 

I still do it this for my own ice cream at home, because it works well enough, and with the batch sizes I make (in ziploc bags) the process is repeatable and gives consistent results with good control over the final temperature. But for my commercial clients I always recommend a pasteurizer, or some equivalent thing that directly heats the liquid while stirring it.

 

If you want to try jars, it would work better with a few smaller ones than with one big one. And you might want to interrupt the process to shake or stir them a few times in the first half hour (you can use this as an opportunity to get a temperature reading and check your progress).

 

Throwing out the ziploc bags is indeed wasteful. If I made ice cream more often I'd consider switching to a pasteurizer, or a lab hot plate with magnetic stirrer and temp probe.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight I improvised a batch of Modernist peanut butter gelato.  It is confusing because there are two very different Modernist gelato recipes and of the original recipe there are two quite different methods.

 

I've made peanut butter gelato based both on the MC pistachio gelato recipe and on the MC@H pistachio gelato recipe.  I find the original MC version superior to and no more difficult than the MC@H version.

 

Tonight's batch of peanut butter was based on the original MC pistachio gelato.  The major difference is that I wanted to test tara gum in place of locust bean gum.  Herewith were my ingredients:

 

Water 680g

Jif Natural peanut butter 210g

Golden sugar 140g

Roasted peanut oil 100g

Salt 4g

Tara gum 1g

Lambda Carrageenan 2g

Glycerol Monostearate 1.5g

Polysorbate 80 0.8g

 

 

Be aware Jif Natural contains palm oil, sugar, salt, and molasses.  I compensated.  Also note tara gum is more efficient than locust bean gum, so I reduced the amount of gum accordingly.

 

The original MC recipe and method is here:

https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/pistachio-gelato/

 

A video showing the modified MC method that I followed is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFzRFk94NQQ

 

Be aware that there is no need to boil these hydrocolloids, no matter what @nathanm might say.  I suspect boiling may damage them.  I heated just to 90C.

 

An unappetizing skin formed on the mix while chilling.  Next time I might skip the chilling step entirely and go directly to the blast freezer.  I don't see the need for chilling, but that is what the video said to do.  Disclaimer:  I didn't stir my mix while chilling which may have been my fault.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:30 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

The major difference is that I wanted to test tara gum in place of locust bean gum. 

 

What did you conclude from your tests thus far?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

What did you conclude from your tests thus far?

 

That tara gum works great in the application.  Modernist Pantry has a tara gum video.

 

[blue_dolphin]

34 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

That tara gum works great in the application.  Modernist Pantry has a tara gum video.

 

Yes, I have watched that one. 

How would you compare your results with tara gum to that with other gums?

[paulraphael]

Tara gum is a galactomannan similar to guar and locust bean gums. Supposedly its properties are somewhere between those of the other two. LBG has strong ice crystal suppression, and relatively little noticeable effect on the ice cream's thickness or chewiness. Guar is weaker at ice crystal suppression, but has a strong thickening effect. The two are superadditive; using them together allows you to use a lower total quantity than using any one of them alone. 

 

I imagine tara gum is a pretty good single-gum solution based on this. It wouldn't offer the flexibility of mixing and matching guar and LBG.  

[BooBear]

On 8/29/2021 at 11:31 AM, David Ross said:

My huckleberry ice cream.  I puree the berries before adding them to the custard base, then I served with a huckleberry compote on the side or over the top.  The recipe is delicious with any summer berry.

 

1 ½ cups whole milk

1 ½ cups heavy cream

½" piece vanilla bean, cut in half, seeds scraped out

4 egg yolks

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup huckleberries, pureed

½ cup whole huckleberries for garnish

 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, add the milk, cream, vanilla bean and seeds.

 

In the bowl of a mixer, add the egg yolks and sugar. Stir the milk and cream as it heats. Slowly whisk ½ cup of milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk. This tempers the egg mixture and keeps it from scrambling. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the cream and whisk to combine. Lower the heat to medium-low and stir the ice cream base with a wooden spoon and cook for about 12-15 minutes until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Pour the ice cream custard through a strainer into a container, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

 

The next day, pour the ice cream custard into an ice cream maker and pour in the pureed huckleberries, process until it becomes thick like soft-serve ice cream. Spread the ice cream in a container, cover and freeze until ready to serve.

The texture of your ice cream looks TDF.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

10 hours ago, BooBear said:

The texture of your ice cream looks TDF.

 

@BooBear, David is no longer with us.