I found an ice cream maker on clearance last night and with visions of delicious mint chocolate chip dancing in my head I attempted my first batch today. There were several sample recipes included with the machine chosen (it appeared) to give the new user a framework to build their own recipes on. I selected on that used a flavor extract and suspended chunks and adapted it to my own. I then proceeded as I thought was appropriate but when everything was said and done my ice cream would not set. I even put it straight in the freezer for a while to try to get it to solidify and it didn’t. So I’m left wondering what I did wrong.
Here’s what I did:
1 1/2 cups of milk and 3/4 cup of sugar were brought to a near boil. I took two eggs and whipped them together and then tempered the eggs with a bit of the hot milk and sugar before adding the full mixture. Finally I added 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, a teaspoon of mint extract, and roughly 4 oz of tiny mint chips. I then let it cool in the fridge for two hours before putting it in the machine.
I know I screwed up a bit with the chips; I should have let them chill separately while the dairy was cooling and then mixed them in at the last second; they wound up getting chopped to pieces and making the whole thing look chocolaty. But I need to figure out why I wound up with a milkshake rather than ice cream. My theory is the eggs which were on the small side but perhaps things didn’t cool down enough. I’m looking for any ideas so that my next batch will turn out better.
I did add salt (perhaps a quarter of teaspoon; the recipe called for a “dash”). The machine uses a frozen core; I put the bowl in the freezer (which I did overnight). I should specify that it did freeze a little, just not all the way and it’s now been in the freezer for four hours and it is still essentially a milk shake; it hasn’t set any further.
Temperature is obviously a possibility but I’m left wondering why it doesn’t freeze up in the freezer; I wasn’t expecting it to freeze like ice cream should but I did want it to set to confirm that I got that much right.
Hm. First it IS normal for the ice cream to come out of that type of machine at “soft-serve” consistency. Tempering in the freezer is required for that Ben & Jerry’s texture. However, in 4 hours it should have set up, and it sounds like your ice cream was less that that consistency anyway. Was the bowl completely frozen? if you can hear * any sloshing noises when you shake it, it is not frozen enough.
Try chilling your ingredients a bit longer next time. I find that things work out best if I start with a very, very cold mix, so I usually chill mine overnight.
I had the same problem with my old Cusinart ice cream maker and it turned out that leaving the insert in the freezer overnight wasn’t long enough for it to freeze solidly. Leaving for two or three days did the trick.
(Nowadays though I use a machine with a compressor; it’s ready whenever I’m in the mood for cold confections. I just made a nectarine blackberry sorbet a couple of hours ago. Yum.)
I’ve got the same machine, and after I wash and dry the bowl, I cover it with cling wrap so nothing gets into it, then it just lives in the deep freeze until I want it.
Having the ingredients cold is also critical. And not just cool - they need to be COLD. I’ll chuck the stuff into the freezer for about an hour or however long it takes for the stuff to start freezing around the edge of the mixing bowl.
If you like Ben & Jerry’s style big lumps of chocolate, fruit, etc, you need to add them at the last moment - like a minute before you’re ready to stop the machine. Any much earlier, and the stuff will only get beaten to death and mashed up. And the stuff also needs to be freezing cold as well.
I managed a “boutique” ice cream plant for several years and reading your post made me long for the lovely ice cream we used to make, premium ice cream is a delightful treat.
You’re getting good advice. The machine and the mix must be very cold, a couple of hours chilling for the custard won’t do it. The insert should be kept in a deep freeze. The freezer compartment of most refrigerators does not get cold enough.
Let the custard chill on its own. When I make ice cream at home I pour the custard into a 9 by 13 inch pan, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it at least overnight, but usually 24 hours. The cream must be just as cold. Mix the two just before you put them into the ice cream maker.
The ice cream machine does more than freeze the mix, it also adds air. Otherwise it would just be a big ice cube and nothing like ice cream. Commercial ice cream has added stabilizers and the machines whip a lot more air in - there are regulations that deal with that, a litre of ice cream must weigh a certain amount. Premium ice cream weighs more, by law. Cheap ice cream is lightweight - but must still weigh a certain amount per litre/gallon.
The other thing is, it will not keep and ought to be eaten with a day or so. Because you aren’t using all those stabilizing ingredients, the “shelf life” of home made ice cream is very short. It is at its lovely best when it is still somewhat softer than commercial ice cream. If you freeze it hard it will still be more like an ice cube than “cream”.
If your machine uses crushed ice around the insert, you need to use the amount of salt the maker recommends which is more than a “dash”. Or did you mean that it was an ingredient in the mix itself? I have no experience with the kind that doesn’t use salt, but I would say you have to follow the instructions to the letter.
I’m taking everyone’s advice to heart and treating it as a temperature problem. What I’m going to do is first freeze the core of my machine all week so that when I start my mix on Friday it will be very solid. Second, I’m going to make up my ice cream mixture well in advance (probably in the morning before I go to bed) and then refrigerate it for at least six hours. I’ll try the same recipe again and let everyone know what happens.
Just so you know - you can save the mix that didn’t set and use that again. I’d try freezing the machine core for 48 hours, leave the mix in the fridge for the same time, and try again. You don’t really have to leave the core in the freezer for a week - if it hasn’t reached a good ice cream making temp in 48 hours, you’ve got freezer issues.