I have been making ice cream lately and made a few batches each time I make it comes out crumbly and not able to really eat it in a cone I made a cooked custard ice cream and cooked it to 175 degrees I don’t think i let it over turn very much once it starts to harden up in the machine I let it go for a few more minutes then take it out but it’s very hard and even after sitting it likes to stay harder in the middle and some what crumbly
And I wiped the eggs with half the sugar till color turns paler yellow and let cool down in ice bath and let sit in refrigerator to cool down more or over night
Not an ice cream expert, but a coarse texture (in my experience) comes from insufficient churn, allowing ice crystals to grow too large.
I’ll defer to the actual skilled cooks we have here to comment on the recipe, since I don’t have any experience with frozen custard recipes. (Other than loving them when they’re well made).
“Crumbly” is not a texture I associate with ice cream - to me, that word refers to a dry product, like a crisp cookie or stale bread, that easily dissolves into crumbs when you cut, break, or bite into it. Your ice cream isn’t shedding crumbs, is it?
I’m wondering if what you mean is that there are dryish lumps in the ice cream. If that is the case, I can’t diagnose it for sure without hearing your full methodology, but it sounds like you might be heating your custard too hot for too long (perhaps without sufficiently blending it) and this is causing cooked bits of hardened yolk to form in the custard. Once that happens, no amount of whipping or cooling is going to get rid of those yolk lumps.
Back when I was younger people used to add Junket to home made ice cream to make it smoother. I didn’t know until just now that that was now an “obscure product”.
I hear a lot of people on line refer to the problem I have is crumbly (falling apart) and not staying together it’s tastes great no ice crystals I can’t find or taste, it’s just the texture I’m getting that needs some work. When I cook the custard I make sure I temper it and stain after it’s done might be to low if a heat on the first step when I heat my milk and cream with half the sugar till just about boiling then temper and mix in the eggs I make sure my eggs are mixed well till there pale in color.
I wasn’t aware of Junket, but I suspect it contains guar gum or one of the other substances used in ice cream stabilizers. Junket may not be available, but you can buy ice cream stabilizer and use it at home - I do, as it means that a big batch of homemade ice cream will stay smooth and delicious in the freezer, instead of becoming grainy with giant ice crystals.
I have never been able to buy the stuff in small quantities, however - you can get it on Amazon but it tends to be sold in volumes of at least 4-6 cups, which may not seem like much but considering that you only need a couple of teaspoons or so for one batch of homemade ice cream, it is way too much. I find it to be worth it, however, even though I end up throwing out most of it after 3-4 years and buying a new supply because I’m not sure it will still be good after all that time. (I do use it way past the stated expiration date, though.)
Having said all that, I’m not sure that stabilizer will solve the OP’s problem, as he says it’s “crumbly” not full of ice crystals.
Just found out that the machine I’m using puts in the lowest amount of air content around 8 percent unlike other machines that have 15-30 the machine is called Whyner 220
Higher quality commercial ice cream is usually denser (ie, less air content) - that’s an important reason why a hand-scooped ice cream cone from a high-end creamery is usually much superior in taste and texture to a grocery-store brand of ice cream. So I’m not sure less air content is a bad thing, though SOME air is needed. Here’s some info on the topic.
Yeah, rennet is used to curdle milk to make cheese, but it’s still pretty far from cheese right after it’s been cuddled. My mother used to make us junket when i was a kid. I loved it.
Anyway, i, also, think that the only way those ingredients can get “crumbly” is if the egg is over heated and coagulates. @Andrew1010 , are you sure the bottom of the mixture, where it’s touching the pot, doesn’t over heat?
I’d try some Philadelphia-style ice cream, so you can rule out any weirdness with the custard, since Philly-style ice cream is uncooked and doesn’t involve eggs.
It sounds to me like the ice cream is overchurned. You even said you let the churn run a few minutes longer than recommended.
If you overchurn cream, or if you buy whipping cream and try to whip it with a mixer, and you keep whipping it trying to get those big, fluffy peaks, you end up with butter. You’ll get a bowlful of little dots and a bunch of watery stuff, and whipping it more will not give you those high, fluffy peaks.
Cream can only handle so much whipping/churning. And what is ice cream but cream, egg, and sugar?