How To Make Ice Cream
Summer is almost here and and with the heat comes our insatiable urge to seek out cold treats. What better cold treat than ice cream? When I go to the local scoop shops or other scoop shops when travelling (and I mean the ones where the ice cream is made right there), I always go a little skeptical. It is my belief that if the ice cream maker can master the fruit flavors, with out the addition of anything more than fruit, cream and sugar, they have what it takes to be a success. After eating as many fruity scoops as I can, I then move on to the other creamy flavors like coffee, chocolate and vanilla. Then it is on to the other flavors like rum raisin. During all of this ice cream eating I make sure to speak with the scoopist. I treat my scoopist like any other vendor – butcher, fish monger, fruit seller – as someone I should have a relationship with. They are in the know about how all the flavors are made. They know what kind of walnuts are in the walnut-fig. This is important information. They also take suggestions – no mint chocolate chip?
Having had the opportunity to eat plenty of ice cream in Europe and the US gives you some perspective. The Finns eat more ice cream per capita than most. One of their favorites is salted black liquorice. Interesting. There is no rocky road in Europe but there is straciatella – a sort of cream flavored ice cream with chocolate pieces. Definitely creamy with nice buttery notes! Straciatella is very worth a try.
There are 3 ways to make ice cream. 2 involve churning and 1 doesn’t. In the third method, you simply whip the air into the cream before it is frozen while the churning methods whip air into the ice cream base while it is freezing.
They each produce different ice creams but each is worth knowing. Here are the basics with basic recipes, too.
How To Make Ice Cream – Cream Base With Churning
This is the simplest way of making ice cream from an ingredient perspective because, for the most part, all that is needed is stirring, cooling and churning.
The Formula – Mix Cream + Sugar + Flavor. Cool Mixture. Churn In An Ice Cream Churn.
The flavor can be anything you can dream of. The standards like chocolate, vanilla or coffee are straight forward. But don’t forget about a nuts, nut butters, or a can of dulce de leche. Fruit puree is an obvious choice, too, but the watch out is water. The water in fruit can make ice cream a little icy. The addition of some milk powder can help this as would a tablespoon of alcohol (booze stops water from freezing). But if the ice cream is a little icy, who cares? It will be delicious! Of course, additions like chocolate chips, can be made just when churning is just about complete. Add them to the churn and let them mix right in.
How To Make Ice Cream – Custard Base With Churning
Using custard as a base is a classic way to make ice cream. Using custard creates a rich and creamy ice cream. It may be necessary to over flavor a little as the richness of the custard may reduce the flavor impact of some ingredients. This is not a big issue, but one to consider when creating in the kitchen.
The Formula – Make Custard. Cool Custard. Churn. Yea, but how do I make a custard? Check out the video below.
Adding flavor to a custard is easy. There are 3 choices to do this – 1. Add flavor to the cream when it is being heated. 2. Add flavor to the egg yolks when they are being whisked with the sugar before tempering. 3. Pour the hot custard over the flavoring. If a coffee ice cream was being made, it is easy enough to add coffee powder or espresso shots to the cream. You could also add the powder to the egg yolks. It really should not make any difference. If a chocolate custard was being made, the hot custard could be poured over pieces of chocolate and whisked until the chocolate was melted. The custard would then be cooled and churned. Fruit purees can be added to the hot custard.
How To Make Ice Cream – No Churning
No churn ice cream is possible, but the act of whipping air into the cream is compulsory. If you didn’t, you would simply have frozen cream. The aeration give body and softness to the ice cream. So while there is not a churning step, there is a whipping step. A hand or stand mixer is usually the machine of choice. The other ingredient used is sweetened condensed milk for body and sweetness. One downside of this method is that it is usually very sweet.
The Formula – Cream + (Sweetened Condensed Milk + Flavor). The cream is whipped to firm peaks then gently folded into the flavored, sweetened condensed milk. The mixture is poured into a freezer safe container and frozen.
In a no churn ice cream the flavor is added to the sweetened condensed milk. The flavor variety is no different here. Although the formula here describes folding the whipped cream into the condensed milk, it can all simply be just beaten together until it can hold peaks. It takes much longer for the cream to whip to peaks when this is done.
Here are the recipes for basic vanilla ice cream made each way.
Basic Vanilla Ice Cream
2015-05-20 03:53:39
2054 calories
114 g
652 g
176 g
10 g
110 g
585 g
183 g
101 g
0 g
58 g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 2054
Calories from Fat 1548
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 7g
Monounsaturated Fat 51g
Total Carbohydrates 114g
38%
Sugars 101g
Protein 10g
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
- If using vanilla bean, split the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds inside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the cream, sugar and vanilla/vanilla bean seeds until the sugar is dissolved.
- Place the mixture into the refrigerator until cold.
- When cold, churn the mixture according to the instructions of the churn's manufacturer.
- Serve in bowls or on cones.
By Matthew Robinson
The Culinary Exchange http://www.theculinaryexchange.com/
No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
2015-05-20 04:10:00
2929 calories
230 g
787 g
211 g
41 g
131 g
877 g
685 g
217 g
0 g
68 g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 2929
Calories from Fat 1852
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 8g
Monounsaturated Fat 60g
Total Carbohydrates 230g
77%
Sugars 217g
Protein 41g
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
- If using vanilla bean, split the bean and the scrape out the seeds.
- In a large bowl, mix the vanilla/vanilla seeds with the sweetened condensed milk.
- Using a hand or stand mixer, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
- Gently fold the cream into the sweetened condensed milk.
- Pour the mixture into a freezer safe container. Cover with plastic and put in the freezer until frozen through.
- Serve in a bowl or on cones.
By Matthew Robinson
The Culinary Exchange http://www.theculinaryexchange.com/
Stay cool this summer!
I hope you enjoy!
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
How do you make ice cream? Let us know all about it in the comments or on Facebook.
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