I like to make Ice Cream at home with my Krupps electric ice cream maker. The problem I have is cooking the egg. To make the ‘ice cream mixture’ I have to spend an hour standing by the stove, continually stirring the milk/sugar/egg as it slowly cooks into a pudding consistency with no chunks.
I believe the egg acts as the emulsifier, keeping the milk/sugar/cream from freezing into big chunky crystals.
If that is true, then I think I can use some other emulsifier, soy lecithan or guar|xanthum gum, something to eliminate the time spent cooking the egg, and create a smoother ice cream.
Am I thinking correctly? Where could I buy an emulsifier, and how would I use it instead of the egg? i.e. a recipie and procedure?
I make ice cream all the time, you don’t have to cook the “custard” mix first. You can just mix it thoroughly and place in the ice cream maker. Cooking it first helps make it creamier and smoother. Plus the sugar can slightly carmelize and this adds to the taste. Some folks are a bit squeamish about the raw egg aspect of this but, hey, you only live once.
As for substitutes… yuck (no offense meant, I’m a purist, leave the substitutes for the grocery store brands)
But, since you asked:
Marshmellow cream (don’t forget to cut down on the sugar)
Corn starch
Library paste
Yes, that’s exactly why you need to cook the eggs. Salmonella kills. Anyway, you don’t have to cook it for an hour, mine is done in less than 15 minutes. Just use a food thermometer to check that the mixture has reached 160 degrees F, enough to kill the bacteria; it doesn’t need to have a pudding consistency, just thick enough to coat the back of a wooden (some say metal, too) spoon. There are also pasterized whole eggs that are fabled to exist, but I’ve never seen them in stores.
Or use duck eggs - they don’t carry salmonella. (One here’s that it’s not so much a problem with chickens these days, but I don’t risk it beyond licking the beaters when I make cakes and cookies.)
First, if you’re using eggs, you’re not making ice cream. You’re making frozen custard. Frozen custard, while very nice, is an entirely different beast from real ice cream.
An emulsifier is not necessarily necessary for home-made ice cream. I’ve successfully made it myself many times. Basic ingredients:
Cream
Milk
Sugar
Flavorings
Stir together until sugar is dissolved and chill. Stir before adding to ice cream maker. The stirring action of the dasher will keep things nicely emulsified at the scale of home production. Works like a charm.
