Hot Ice Cream

[Chefb28]

I just got some methylcellulose and I want to make hot ice cream, how do I make it? please and thank you!

Chefb28

[Ce'nedra]

Hot...ice cream? I've never heard of such a thing! Could you enlighten me please? I've eaten fried ice cream though...

[mexigaf]

Here's a recipe I've used by Aki and Alex at ideas in food

[Tri2Cook]

The ideas in food recipe works great and tastes good. Alex and Aki rock. Go into it with an open mind though. It will be firm and hot after poaching, it will soften and melt as it cools, it will look like a scoop of ice cream (that part may take a little practice to get right, it did for me anyway), you can make it taste like ice cream... but it won't be ice cream. It will be a warm mousse. It doesn't have any of the sensory experience of eating ice cream other than visual. I'm not saying that to be negative, I think it was a very cool creation, just be sure to plate it in a manner that supports the ice cream visual or you may not get the reaction you're hoping for. It is fun to do and a cool exercise in one of the properties of methylcellulose.

[Chefb28]

Hot...ice cream? I've never heard of such a thing! Could you enlighten me please? I've eaten fried ice cream though...

←

It's like having a normal ice cream mixture, but you add methylcellulose to it and instead of freezing it you poach it in I think( don't quote me this), but you poach it in water at 187 degrees farinheight.

[Chefb28]

Here's a recipe I've used by Aki and Alex at ideas in food

←

Thank you for the great info.

[Chefb28]

The ideas in food recipe works great and tastes good. Alex and Aki rock. Go into it with an open mind though. It will be firm and hot after poaching, it will soften and melt as it cools, it will look like a scoop of ice cream (that part may take a little practice to get right, it did for me anyway), you can make it taste like ice cream... but it won't be ice cream. It will be a warm mousse. It doesn't have any of the sensory experience of eating ice cream other than visual. I'm not saying that to be negative, I think it was a very cool creation, just be sure to plate it in a manner that supports the ice cream visual or you may not get the reaction you're hoping for. It is fun to do and a cool exercise in one of the properties of methylcellulose.

←

Thanks for the great tip

[Robert Jueneman]

Hot Ice Cream.

There are several recipes for "hot ice cream" on the web, most of them deriving from the recipe in Alexander Talbot's "Ideas in Food," to whom I owe due credit.

But those I tried all involved either cream cheese, or mascarpone, and didn't taste all that much like ice cream -- more like hot cream cheese, IMHO.

It wasn't obvious to me why they used cream cheese, but I assumed that it was to contain the "ice cream" while they were dipping it into hot water, using a ladle or ice cream scoop, so it wouldn't run all over the place.. In addition, because I wanted to do this for a tasting menu class, I could not afford the time required to make the ice cream balls one at a time.

I therefore went back to a rather classic ice cream recipe, and used a silicon mold to make six hemispherical "balls" at one time.

Here is the recipe, which could probably still stand some refinement:

Hot Ice Cream, Take 1

Combine 375 ml of half & half, 200 ml of whipping cream, 40 g of crushed peppermint candy (7.5 lozenges), and 7.5 g of SGA 7C methylcellulose.

Heat to 170°F/76.6°C, while stirring constantly.

Transfer the pan to an Anti-Griddle for at least two hours. Once the mixture freezes, turn off the Anti-Griddle, and continue to stir. Or put it in the refrigerator overnight, so that the methylcellulose can hydrate.

Fill a sauté pan or hotel pan to a depth of about 4 cm with water and bring to a simmer.

Pour the cream mixture into a measuring cup for ease of pouring, and using an immersion blender, blend the cold cream mixture in order to thoroughly mix and partially aerate it, but don’t over-aerate.

Pour the cream mixture into a silicon mold with six hemispherical depressions about 7 cm across, floating in the pan of hot water. Leave it in the mold in the simmering water for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center shows that the ice cream is now reasonably firm throughout (unless you want a more liquid center for some reason). (If the mold is just a little too big for your pan, you could consider trimming the corners, or using a hotel pan. If you use a mold with smaller depressions, it will cook faster. Don’t let the water boil off — add more hot water as necessary.)

Serve the hot ice cream in an ice cream cone, or over a cold fruit dish such as sous vide pears, or float it in iced coffee to make an inverted affogato.

Other alternatives: Instead of the peppermint chips, substitute kahlúa, or some golden rum, or walnuts or dried cherries, etc.. Or, if you live in New Mexico, throw in some finely chopped green chiles, for some really hot, hot ice cream!

If you aren’t using the peppermint candy, you may want to add some Equal to taste to sweeten the ice cream. Don’t use sugar, which doesn’t react well with methylcellulose — it can sometimes form an unpleasant compound similar to that in corked wine (2,4,6-trichloroanisole).

Observations: although the peppermint flavor was just right in the cold ice cream mix, it seemed to lose a little bit of “oomph” in the heated version. In addition, the peppermint chips melted in the hot cream, so although there was some peppermint flavor, there wasn’t any crunch. Perhaps toffee, caramel crunch, walnuts, or something else that wouldn’t melt would be better, or at least more peppermint chips. But the taste was better than the recipes made with cream cheese or mascarpone, unless you like hot cream cheese.

Even after 20 minutes in the simmering water, the ice cream wasn't really HOT -- more like warm. Not unpleasant, but really not what I had expected.

Using Dow SGA 7C methylcellulose, the hot ice cream didn’t exhibit any obvious tendency to "melt" as it got colder. It did become less firm — again, not unpleasant, but not melting, unlike real ice cream as it warms up. Perhaps a different type of methylcellulose would deliver different results. TBD.

Bob

[Tri2Cook]

I was never sold on the end result of any "hot ice cream" version I tried. I was completely sold on the creativity involved with developing the idea, I just never felt the result made the connection between ice cream and hot beyond the visual. I don't consider it a failure in any sense, it was a great example of idea made reality, I just think ice cream being cold is a rule that will be impossible to break without completely redefining ice cream... and it would have to be redefined at the level of the diner's perception, not the cook's.

[liuzhou]

I just think ice cream being cold is a rule that will be impossible to break without completely redefining ice cream

Totally agree. The clue is in the word "ice". If it's hot, it isn't ice cream. End of.

Edited October 31, 2011 by liuzhou (log)

[Kouign Aman]

hot icecream was formerly known as custard or sauce.

[Robert Jueneman]

Hot Ice Cream, Take 2:

First of all, my apologies to those who think that "hot ice cream" is a gross perversion of terminology, or that it ought to be called a custard. If the name offends you, I suppose we could call it something else, like "creme moderne."

But what I am trying to achieve is something that tastes like ice cream, although it isn't cold, and in addition, would melt as it cools down, which a custard certainly won't.

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting closer, and the technique is getting easier.

So here's my latest attempt:

Combine 375 ml of half & half, 200 ml of whipping cream, 40 g of chopped pecans, 40 g of chopped dried cherries, 6 packages of Equal (6 g) and 7.5 g of SGA 7C methylcellulose.

Heat to 80°C, while stirring constantly. A Thermomix set to 80°C, reverse spin, and the slow stirring speed for 10 minutes an effortless way to do this.

Pour the mixture into a pan and put in on an Anti-Griddle stirring constantly for 10-20 minutes. Or put it in the refrigerator for several hours or even overnight, so that the methylcellulose can hydrate.

Using a wooden spoon, stir the cold mixture to uniformly disperse the nuts and cherries.

Spoon the mixture into a silicon mold with six hemispherical depressions about 7 cm across, and microwave it for 5 to 6 minute, until the center comes up to about 80°C

Using a spoon, unmold the ice cream and serve immediately.

Serve the hot ice cream in an ice cream cone, or over a cold fruit dish such as sous vide pears, or float it in iced coffee to make an inverted affogato.

The reason for using Equal as a sweetener is that sugar doesn’t react well with methylcellulose — it can sometimes form an unpleasant compound similar to that in corked wine (2,4,6-trichloroanisole).

Using Dow SGA 7C methylcellulose, the hot ice cream didn’t exhibit any obvious tendency to "melt" as it got colder. It did become less firm — again, not unpleasant, but not melting, unlike real ice cream as it warms up.

According to Dow, SG A7C forms a very firm gel with medium viscosity at 38-40°C. F50 hydroxypropyl methylcellulose forms a low viscosity, semi-firm gel at 62-68°C. Presumably the higher gelling point would exhibit more of the desired melting characteristics as it cools, so I'm going to try that next.

I originally used 60 g of both pecans and cherries, but that seemed a little too much, so I've cut back to 40g in this recipe. If you want something that is closer to ice cream than fruit cake, feel free to reduced the portions even further.

When I added the Equal to the cream, I thought it might be too sweet, but it seemed about right once it was cooked.

Because methylcellulose replaces many features typically lost in products when the fat content is reduced, I think I'll use 475 ml of half and half and only 100 ml of whipping cream the next time, to make it a little less custardy.

Bob

[Borgstrom]

I made the Khymos version of Hot Vanilla Ice Cream (edit: from Ideas in Food, it would appear) last year, served with caramel powder, nutella powder and a cold espresso espuma. (get it -- hot ice cream with cold coffee). It definitely wasn't ice cream and coffee, but it tasted great and was a great way to finish off a modernist dinner.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Borgstrom (log)

[Tri2Cook]

First of all, my apologies to those who think that "hot ice cream" is a gross perversion of terminology, or that it ought to be called a custard. If the name offends you, I suppose we could call it something else, like "creme moderne."

The terminology doesn't offend me. I'm just not convinced that it's possible to serve something warm and have anyone think ice cream, regardless of the flavor, without being prompted or given some hints. I wasn't trying to discourage, just adding my thoughts on the subject based on my experience.