Roasted Hazelnut Ice Cream – Recipe
Roasted Hazelnut Ice Cream – Recipe
For this recipe, I use a fine roasted hazelnut paste from http://whynutshop.co.uk/. Whynut is a small artisanal company, based in the UK, that focuses on making fine nut pastes and nuts from Turkey. They sell pastes in 110g pots, which is perfect for 1 litre of ice cream. They won a Great Taste Award for their Lightly Salted Antep Pistachios, which is great to see.
This recipe makes an extremely smooth and creamy ice cream with a nice roasted hazelnut flavour.
Ingredients: organic cream, organic semi-skimmed milk, organic un-refined sugar, organic free-range eggs, roasted hazelnut paste.
If you are using cream at 36% fat:
Cream 474g
Semi-skimmed milk 413g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Hazelnut Paste 110g
If you are using cream at 38% fat:
Cream 448g
Semi-skimmed milk 440g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Hazelnut Paste 110g
If you are using cream at 50.5% fat:
Cream 333g
Semi-skimmed milk 555g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Hazelnut Paste 110g
The tables below show the composition of the ice cream mix before and after heating. The totals are expressed as a percentage of the mix.
Composition of the mix before it has been heated
Composition of the mix after it has been heated
1. Freezing the freezer bowl
For this recipe, I use the Cuisinart ICE-30 which comes with a large 2 litre bowl. I have used this machine for a very long time and would highly recommend it. The day before you start making your ice cream, take the removable bowl and cover the top with cling film; use an elastic band to help keep it in place.
Put the bowl in a plastic bag and tie the ends. The plastic bag and cling film will help prevent water from freezing to the inside of the bowl whilst in the freezer. Any water that is frozen to the inside of the bowl will melt into the mix and is likely to have an adverse effect on ice cream texture.
Take a 1 litre plastic container, the freezer bowl, and the ice cream dasher and place them in your freezer overnight. Freezing will remove any heat stored in the dasher and container. Heat that is transferred to the ice cream during freezing from the container or dasher increases ice crystal size, by melting the crystals, contributing to a sandy texture. If you add ice cream to a plastic container that is at room temperature, you will notice the ice cream that comes in contact with the side of the container quickly start to melt, which is a big no no as is likely to cause a sandy texture.
It’s also important that you freeze enough water to be able to make an ice bath. Freeze water in several ice trays or small plastic containers.
2. Setting the fridge and freezer temperature
It is very important that set your fridge to between 0 and 2°C to increase the rate of crystallisation of the fat globules when you age your mix overnight. Crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts. If you don’t allow these fat globules sufficient time to crystallise, it is likely that your ice cream will suffer from relatively fast meltdown and less retention of shape.
Set your freezer to around -25°C, or as cold as you can get it. Once churned in the ice cream maker, the quicker you can get your ice cream to below -18°C, the smaller the ice crystal are likely to be, and the creamier the texture. The temperature and rate of hardening determine the final ice crystal size . Hardening is complete when the temperature at the centre of the ice cream container drops to -18°C or lower, preferably -25 to -30°C. The longer it takes for the ice cream to reach these temperatures, the larger the ice crystals will grow and, subsequently, the sandier the texture will be.
The importance of a really cold freezer
I cannot stress enough the importance of setting your freezer as cold as you can get it. An extremely cold freezer is not only important when storing your ice cream, but is also extremely important for your machine’s removable bowl.
I’ve noticed that a bowl frozen to around -14°C takes longer to churn a batch of ice cream, compared to a bowl frozen to around -18°C or below. Because a bowl frozen at around -14°C will take more time to churn a batch of ice cream, it is more likely to produce a colder, sandier, and wetter texture. I set my freezer to around -25°C and the resulting ice cream is much drier, smoother, and holds its shape better, compared to when I use a bowl that has been frozen to around -14°C.
At about -25°C, it takes me about 16 minutes to churn a batch of ice cream, which is very good for a domestic ice cream maker (professional ice cream makers take about 8 minutes). If I set my freezer to around -14°C, it takes between 20-25 minutes for the bowl to churn a batch. Remember, the quicker you can churn your mix, the smaller the ice crystals are likely to be and the creamier the texture of your ice cream.
3. Preparing an ice bath
Once you have allowed enough water to freeze, take a large pan and fill it with enough ice to make an ice bath. Have a large zip-lock freezer bag ready next to the bowl, along with some table salt.
The point of using a zip lock bag and water bath is to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible once it has been cooked, minimising the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’ where bacteria likes to multiply; between 5 and 65°C. The longer your mix spends in this temperature range, the more bacteria is likely to multiply, imparting an undesirable taste and smell.
4. Size of pan
As strange as it sounds, the size of the pan in which you heat your mix is extremely important. The larger the diameter of your pan, the more water will evaporate during heating. This is important because the fundamental reason for heating your mix for 60 minutes is to concentrate the milk solids non fat, more specifically the protein.
By concentrating the mix, you increase the percentage of protein. Protein plays a significant role in limiting the size of ice crystals, thereby improving texture. The higher the percentage of protein in your mix, the creamier the texture is likely to be.
I recommend using a large pan with a 23cm diameter. This will allow you to concentrate your mix by about 32%. If you use a pan with a smaller diameter, you won’t be able to reduce the mix by the same amount in 60 minutes. The texture won’t be as smooth and creamy as a mix prepared in pan with a larger diameter.
Use a large pan with a 23cm diameter, similar to the one on the left
5. Heating your mix
Once you have prepared the ice bath, add the sugar and the egg yolks to the pan. Mix the eggs and sugar together until both ingredients have combined. Mixing the sugar with the yolks will help prevent the yolks from curdling. Add the cream and milk and gently stir the mix before you switch on the heat.
Over a medium heat, heat the mixture until the temperature reaches 70°C, making sure that you are constantly stirring. You will risk burning the proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you do not constantly stir the mix.
Once the temperature reaches 70°C, turn the heat down to low and continue heating until the temperature reaches 71.4°C. Use a kitchen thermometer to keep the temperature at 71.4°C for 60 minutes. The aim is to promote reversible unfolding of the whey proteins but not aggregation, which will significantly improve the texture of the finished ice cream.
Try not to let the temperature rise above 71.4°C. It will be difficult to keep the temperature at 71.4°C and you will find it quickly fluctuating between about 71.2°C and 71.8°C. It’s not the end of the world if you do briefly go above 71.4°C but do quickly bring the temperature down if you notice it creeping up. You will risk aggregating the proteins, which is detrimental to texture, and developing the unpleasant and eggy hydrogen sulphide taste if you heat the mixture above 71.4°C.
Heating the mix for 60 minutes may sound like a long time but believe me it is a small price to pay for extremely smooth and creamy ice cream. Holding the mix at 71.4°C for 60 minutes will concentrate the mix by about 32%, thereby increasing the percentage of protein. After trying different variations, I have found that a mix heated for 60 minutes produces a much creamier and smoother ice cream than one heated for 15, 30, and 45 minutes.
6. Cooling the mix
After 60 minutes, take the pan off the heat and carefully pour the mix into the zip lock bag. Pour about 2 tablespoons of salt onto the ice to lower its temperature. This will cool your mix faster.
Once the mix has cooled to about 10°C, place it in the fridge and leave overnight to age. Remember that crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts.
7. Churning the mix
Once you have allowed the mix to age overnight, place the freezer bowl in the machine and add the dasher. Put the lid on and, with the machine switched on, pour in the mix followed by the hazelnut paste.
If you’re using a machine with an in-built compressor, switch the machine on and leave it for about 20 minutes before you add the mix. This will ensure that the bowl gets as cold as possible.
As soon as you pour in the mix, use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl. Pushing the dasher against the bowl will prevent any ice from freezing to the side. Any ice that is frozen to the side of the bowl will act as an insulator, slowing the release of heat from the ice cream to the bowl.
If the transfer of heat from the ice cream to the freezer bowl is reduced, the ice cream will take longer to freeze. The longer the ice cream takes to freeze, the larger the ice crystals will grow and the sandier the texture is likely to be. Keep the dasher pushed against the side of the bowl until you have finished churning the mix (a sore thumbs is yet another price to pay for smooth creamy ice cream).
Use a spoon to push along any static lumps of ice cream. Any static lumps will start to melt, causing a sandy texture. Ensure that the mix is constantly moving whilst in the machine.
After about 20 minutes (or about 16 minutes if your freezer was set to around -27°C), the mix should have a nice dry, stiff texture and should stick easily to the dasher when you take it out of the machine. If the mix drips too easily off of the dasher and has a wet shine, churn the ice cream for another 5-10 minutes.
Quickly empty the mix into the pre-chilled container. The longer you take to empty the ice cream into the container, the longer the ice cream will spend at room temperature. At room temperature, ice crystals will start to quickly melt. If ice crystals melt, they will grow bigger in size when the ice cream is placed in the freezer. The longer the ice cream spends at room temperature, the sandier the texture is likely to be. Be as quick as you can when emptying the ice cream into the plastic container.
8. Hardening the ice cream
Once the mix has been churned, it will have a consistency similar to soft-serve ice cream (Mr Whippy). Although you can eat the ice cream straight after it has been churned in the machine, I recommend hardening it in a plastic continaer in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving. After about 4 hours, depending on your freezer, the ice cream will have a nice firm scoopable consistency, somewhere around -15°C, and be ready to serve.
9. Serving the ice cream
Scoop and serve the ice cream at around -15°C. If you can wait, allow the ice cream to warm to below -12°C before eating. As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 to -7.8°C, flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
10. Storing the ice cream
Ice crystals will continue to grow until the temperature drops to below -18°C. It is therefore critical to get the your ice cream into the freezer and down to below -18°C as quickly as possible to prevent a sandy and coarse texture from developing. Make sure that there is enough space in your freezer for the air to circulate freely. The more cluttered your freezer, the longer it will take for ice cream to reach -18°C and the bigger the ice crystals will get.
At -18°C, it is recommended that homemade ice cream be kept for about a week. Ice cream can be stored for several weeks at -25°C, and several months at -30°C. Even at these low temperatures, ice crystals will eventually start growing in size. The longer you store your ice cream in the freezer, the larger the ice crystals are likely to be and the sandier the texture.
Any questions or suggestions, feel free to send me a message.
Hope this recipe helps!
Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream – Recipe
Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream – Recipe
Roasted pistachio is, undoubtedly, my favourite ice cream flavour. During my time in South Korea, I spent months and months grinding, crushing, and steeping pistachios to try to extract both the flavour and colour but was never satisfied with the results. I learnt that I could steep chopped pistachios for 24 hours in an ice cream mix (during the ageing process) and get a nice subtle pistachio flavour. However, this method failed to impart the lush green pistachio colour onto the ice cream. Using a pestle and motor, or food processor, to crush whole pistachios into a paste did impart a nice green colour but caused a grainy texture.
After much crying and then research, I finally stumbled across what I needed; an industrial colloid mill that can be used to create extremely fine nut pastes. At around £20,000, this was, and remains, out of my price range and so I resigned myself to looking for a company that makes extremely fine nut pastes.
I have found two companies that produce fine pistachio paste: http://www.whynut.co.uk/, based in the UK, and http://www.callebaut.com/uken/, who are international. Both companies have their advantages and disadvantages.
The whynut paste is made from early harvest roasted green kernels and so has a more pronounced, and slightly bitter, taste and colour. Whynut does offer 110g pots for sale, which is a good amount for the home cook. If you do decide to use the whynut paste, I would recommend using less than what I state in this recipe below as it does have that deeper, slightly bitter, flavour.
For my recipe below, I use the callebaut paste, which has more of a roasted nut flavour, great colour, and isn’t quite as bitter as the whynut paste. The downside is that I believe they only ship in 1kg buckets, which is expensive for the home cook.
Smooth pistachio paste
Ingredients: organic cream, organic semi-skimmed milk, organic un-refined sugar, organic free-range eggs, roasted pistachio paste, organic sea salt.
If you are using cream at 36% fat:
Cream 474g
Semi-skimmed milk 413g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Pistachio Paste 100g
Sea salt 1/4 tsp
If you are using cream at 38% fat:
Cream 448g
Semi-skimmed milk 440g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Pistachio Paste 100g
Sea salt 1/4 tsp
If you are using cream at 50.5% fat:
Cream 333g
Semi-skimmed milk 555g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Roasted Pistachio Paste 100g
Sea salt 1/4 tsp
The tables below show the composition of the ice cream mix before and after heating. The totals are expressed as a percentage of the mix.
Composition of the mix before it has been heated
Composition of the mix after it has been heated
1. Freezing the freezer bowl
For this recipe, I use the Cuisinart ICE-30 which comes with a large 2 litre bowl. I have used this machine for a very long time and would highly recommend it. The day before you start making your ice cream, take the removable bowl and cover the top with cling film; use an elastic band to help keep it in place.
Put the bowl in a plastic bag and tie the ends. The plastic bag and cling film will help prevent water from freezing to the inside of the bowl whilst in the freezer. Any water that is frozen to the inside of the bowl will melt into the mix and is likely to have an adverse effect on ice cream texture.
Take a 1 litre plastic container, the freezer bowl, and the ice cream dasher and place them in your freezer overnight. Freezing will remove any heat stored in the dasher and container. Heat that is transferred to the ice cream during freezing from the container or dasher increases ice crystal size, by melting the crystals, contributing to a sandy texture. If you add ice cream to a plastic container that is at room temperature, you will notice the ice cream that comes in contact with the side of the container quickly start to melt, which is a big no no as is likely to cause a sandy texture.
It’s also important that you freeze enough water to be able to make an ice bath. Freeze water in several ice trays or small plastic containers.
2. Setting the fridge and freezer temperature
It is very important that set your fridge to between 0 and 2°C to increase the rate of crystallisation of the fat globules when you age your mix overnight. Crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts. If you don’t allow these fat globules sufficient time to crystallise, it is likely that your ice cream will suffer from relatively fast meltdown and less retention of shape.
Set your freezer to around -25°C, or as cold as you can get it. Once churned in the ice cream maker, the quicker you can get your ice cream to below -18°C, the smaller the ice crystal are likely to be, and the creamier the texture. The temperature and rate of hardening determine the final ice crystal size . Hardening is complete when the temperature at the centre of the ice cream container drops to -18°C or lower, preferably -25 to -30°C. The longer it takes for the ice cream to reach these temperatures, the larger the ice crystals will grow and, subsequently, the sandier the texture will be.
The importance of a really cold freezer
I cannot stress enough the importance of setting your freezer as cold as you can get it. An extremely cold freezer is not only important when storing your ice cream, but is also extremely important for your machine’s removable bowl.
I’ve noticed that a bowl frozen to around -14°C takes longer to churn a batch of ice cream, compared to a bowl frozen to around -18°C or below. Because a bowl frozen at around -14°C will take more time to churn a batch of ice cream, it is more likely to produce a colder, sandier, and wetter texture. I set my freezer to around -25°C and the resulting ice cream is much drier, smoother, and holds its shape better, compared to when I use a bowl that has been frozen to around -14°C.
At about -25°C, it takes me about 16 minutes to churn a batch of ice cream, which is very good for a domestic ice cream maker (professional ice cream makers take about 8 minutes). If I set my freezer to around -14°C, it takes between 20-25 minutes for the bowl to churn a batch. Remember, the quicker you can churn your mix, the smaller the ice crystals are likely to be and the creamier the texture of your ice cream.
Once you have allowed enough water to freeze, take a large pan and fill it with enough ice to make an ice bath. Have a large zip-lock freezer bag ready next to the bowl, along with some table salt.
The point of using a zip lock bag and water bath is to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible once it has been cooked, minimising the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’ where bacteria likes to multiply; between 5 and 65°C. The longer your mix spends in this temperature range, the more bacteria is likely to multiply, imparting an undesirable taste and smell.
4. Size of pan
As strange as it sounds, the size of the pan in which you heat your mix is extremely important. The larger the diameter of your pan, the more water will evaporate during heating. This is important because the fundamental reason for heating your mix for 60 minutes is to concentrate the milk solids non fat, more specifically the protein.
By concentrating the mix, you increase the percentage of protein. Protein plays a significant role in limiting the size of ice crystals, thereby improving texture. The higher the percentage of protein in your mix, the creamier the texture is likely to be.
I recommend using a large pan with a 23cm diameter. This will allow you to concentrate your mix by about 32%. If you use a pan with a smaller diameter, you won’t be able to reduce the mix by the same amount in 60 minutes. The texture won’t be as smooth and creamy as a mix prepared in pan with a larger diameter.
Use a large pan with a 23cm diameter, similar to the one on the left
5. Heating your mix
Once you have prepared the ice bath, add the sugar and the egg yolks to the pan. Mix the eggs and sugar together until both ingredients have combined. Mixing the sugar with the yolks will help prevent the yolks from curdling. Add the cream, milk, and the sea salt and gently stir the mix before you switch on the heat.
Over a medium heat, heat the mixture until the temperature reaches 70°C, making sure that you are constantly stirring. You will risk burning the proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you do not constantly stir the mix.
Once the temperature reaches 70°C, turn the heat down to low and continue heating until the temperature reaches 71.4°C. Use a kitchen thermometer to keep the temperature at 71.4°C for 60 minutes. The aim is to promote reversible unfolding of the whey proteins but not aggregation, which will significantly improve the texture of the finished ice cream.
Try not to let the temperature rise above 71.4°C. It will be difficult to keep the temperature at 71.4°C and you will find it quickly fluctuating between about 71.2°C and 71.8°C. It’s not the end of the world if you do briefly go above 71.4°C but do quickly bring the temperature down if you notice it creeping up. You will risk aggregating the proteins, which is detrimental to texture, and developing the unpleasant and eggy hydrogen sulphide taste if you heat the mixture above 71.4°C.
Heating the mix for 60 minutes may sound like a long time but believe me it is a small price to pay for extremely smooth and creamy ice cream. Holding the mix at 71.4°C for 60 minutes will concentrate the mix by about 32%, thereby increasing the percentage of protein. After trying different variations, I have found that a mix heated for 60 minutes produces a much creamier and smoother ice cream than one heated for 15, 30, and 45 minutes.
6. Cooling the mix
After 60 minutes, take the pan off the heat and carefully pour the mix into the zip lock bag. Pour about 2 tablespoons of salt onto the ice to lower its temperature. This will cool your mix faster.
Once the mix has cooled to about 10°C, place it in the fridge and leave overnight to age. Remember that crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts.
7. Churning the mix
Once you have allowed the mix to age overnight, place the freezer bowl in the machine and add the dasher. Put the lid on and, with the machine switched on, pour in the mix followed by the pistachio paste.
If you’re using a machine with an in-built compressor, switch the machine on and leave it for about 20 minutes before you add the mix. This will ensure that the bowl gets as cold as possible.
As soon as you pour in the mix, use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl. Pushing the dasher against the bowl will prevent any ice from freezing to the side. Any ice that is frozen to the side of the bowl will act as an insulator, slowing the release of heat from the ice cream to the bowl.
If the transfer of heat from the ice cream to the freezer bowl is reduced, the ice cream will take longer to freeze. The longer the ice cream takes to freeze, the larger the ice crystals will grow and the sandier the texture is likely to be. Keep the dasher pushed against the side of the bowl until you have finished churning the mix (a sore thumbs is yet another price to pay for smooth creamy ice cream).
Use a spoon to push along any static lumps of ice cream. Any static lumps will start to melt, causing a sandy texture. Ensure that the mix is constantly moving whilst in the machine.
After about 20 minutes (or about 16 minutes if your freezer was set to around -27°C), the mix should have a nice dry, stiff texture and should stick easily to the dasher when you take it out of the machine. If the mix drips too easily off of the dasher and has a wet shine, churn the ice cream for another 5-10 minutes.
Quickly empty the mix into the pre-chilled container. The longer you take to empty the ice cream into the container, the longer the ice cream will spend at room temperature. At room temperature, ice crystals will start to quickly melt. If ice crystals melt, they will grow bigger in size when the ice cream is placed in the freezer. The longer the ice cream spends at room temperature, the sandier the texture is likely to be. Be as quick as you can when emptying the ice cream into the plastic container.
8. Hardening the ice cream
Once the mix has been churned, it will have a consistency similar to soft-serve ice cream (Mr Whippy). Although you can eat the ice cream straight after it has been churned in the machine, I recommend hardening it in a plastic continaer in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving. After about 4 hours, depending on your freezer, the ice cream will have a nice firm scoopable consistency, somewhere around -15°C, and be ready to serve.
9. Serving the ice cream
Scoop and serve the ice cream at around -15°C. If you can wait, allow the ice cream to warm to below -12°C before eating. As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 to -7.8°C, flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
10. Storing the ice cream
Ice crystals will continue to grow until the temperature drops to below -18°C. It is therefore critical to get the your ice cream into the freezer and down to below -18°C as quickly as possible to prevent a sandy and coarse texture from developing. Make sure that there is enough space in your freezer for the air to circulate freely. The more cluttered your freezer, the longer it will take for ice cream to reach -18°C and the bigger the ice crystals will get.
At -18°C, it is recommended that homemade ice cream be kept for about a week. Ice cream can be stored for several weeks at -25°C, and several months at -30°C. Even at these low temperatures, ice crystals will eventually start growing in size. The longer you store your ice cream in the freezer, the larger the ice crystals are likely to be and the sandier the texture.
Any questions or suggestions, feel free to send me a message.
Hope this recipe helps!
Bi-Rite Creamery’s Ginger Ice Cream – Recipe Review
Hi everyone!
After focusing only on my recipes and adventures, I thought it’d be interesting to compare my method of ice cream making to somebody else’s. After trolling through ice cream recipe books on amazon and ice cream shop reviews on google, one name kept popping up: Bi Rite Creamery. Bi-Rite Creamery, run by Kris Hoogerhyde and Anne Walker in San Francisco, has received a plethora of positive reviews on yelp.com and is well known for its amazing ice cream, most notably the legendary salted caramel. I commend them for using only organic cream, organic milk, organic sugar, and organic egg yolks in their base mix and it is great to see a small business doing so well.
Kris and Anne have also released a book titled Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones. I remember pre-ordering the book online and counting down the days to its release. When it finally arrived, I jumped straight in and spent the day reading through; I wanted to know what made their salted caramel so ‘orgasmic’. As interesting a read as it was, I had never tried one of their recipes until last week when I decided to give their Ginger Ice Cream recipe a go. I wanted to compare their method of ice cream making to mine and so followed their instructions to the letter. This is my review of their recipe.
I will first list their recipe and instructions. I will then discuss what I thought of the instructions, what I thought of the finished ice cream, and finish with what I would do differently.
Here is the recipe for Ginger Ice Cream from p.178 Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough:
Ginger Ice Cream
2 1/2 ounces (71g) fresh ginger (a knob about 5 1/2 inches long by 1 inch wide)
2 cups (473ml) heavy cream
1 cup (237ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (50g) sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 large (102g) egg yolks
2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger (optional)
INFUSE THE MILK/CREAM
1. Peel the ginger and slice very thinly. Put the ginger in a nonreactive saucepan and add just enough water to cover. Put the pan over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, drain the ginger, and put it back in the pan. Stir in the cream, milk, half the sugar (1/4 cup), and the salt.
2. Return the pan to medium-high heat. When the mixture just begins to bubble around the edges, remove from the heat and cover the pan. Let steep for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the cream mixture has an intense ginger flavour. (Taste it to monitor the progress; the mixture will be come bitter if over-steeped.)
MAKE THE BASE
3. In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in the remaining sugar (1/4 cup). Set aside.
4. Uncover the cream mixture and put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.
5. Carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the egg yolks. Repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the bowl with the yolks. Using a heatproof rubber spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan as you slowly pour the egg-and-cream mixture from the bowl into the pan.
6. Cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and holds a clear path when you run your finger across the spatula, 1 to 2 minutes longer.
7. Strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean container. Set the container into an ice-water bath, wash your spatula, and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. Remove the container from the ice-water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours or overnight.
FREEZE THE ICE CREAM
8. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put the container you’ll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. If using candied ginger, add it in the last minute or so of churning, or fold it in by hand after transferring the ice cream to the chilled container. Enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, freeze for at least 4 hours.
(i) WHAT I THOUGHT OF THE INSTRUCTIONS
COOKING THE MIXTURE
The only issue that I had with the recipe was the lack of precise time and temperature figures for cooking the ice cream base; this is an issue that is all too common to ice cream recipe books. In my opinion, not knowing what temperature to cook the ice cream mix to makes it extremely easy to curdle the egg yolks, develop the unpleasant ‘eggy’ hydrogen sulphide taste, and cause proteins to irreversibly unfold, which is detrimental to texture.
Also, not knowing exactly how long to hold the mixture at a specific temperature and having to rely solely on the coat the back of the spoon trick not only makes ice cream making at home extremely inconsistent, but makes it difficult, if not impossible, for cooks, especially those that are new to ice cream making, to judge when the ice cream mix is done.
At the beginning of the book there is a handy Techniques section, which aims to guide the cook through the heating process with useful pictures and instructions. The TIP at the top of p.15 states:
After adding the egg yolk mixture to the saucepan, it might take anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes for the base to thicken properly. The amount of time depends on your stove, the size and shape of the pan you’re using, and how hot the cream mixture was to start with. Be patient and pay close attention as it cooks – practice is the best teacher!
I found the 1 to 5 minutes suggestion to be extremely confusing. At step 6. of the recipe, I cooked the mix over medium heat for 5 minutes. I then took the mix off the heat and checked whether the mix [coated] the back of a spatula, and [held] a clear path when I ran my finger across the spatula, which it didn’t. I then put the mix back on a medium heat for an additional 5 minutes. Again the mix did not coat the back of the spatula. I was extremely confused as to what to do because the TIP appeared to suggest a heating period of between 1 to 5 minutes. I checked the recipe again and noticed that point 6 of the Techniques section stated:
You’ll notice that the mixture will start to thicken slightly and you’ll feel a little more resistance as you stir.
How much resistance should I feel and how thick should the mix be I wondered. Partly because of these conflicting TIPs, I think that too many cooks stop cooking the mix way before it has been sufficiently concentrated, which increases the likelihood of the ice cream having a coarse and grainy texture.
The dreaded ‘coat the back of the spoon’ trick
Another reason that I stopped cooking the mix after a total of 10 minutes was that I noticed the temperature rising above 80°C. Again, the lack of a precise heating temperature, I believe, makes it extremely easy for cooks to continue heating the mix well above 80°C, curdling the egg yolks and promoting the ‘eggy’ hydrogen sulphide taste.
At this point I decided to continue cooking the mix until I was happy that the mix coated the back of the spatula and that I felt a little more resistance as I stirred; this took a further 40 minutes of heating at around 73°C. Again, I don’t think that many cooks would have continued heating the mix for such a long time if they weren’t aware of the importance of reducing the mix. What this means is that in all too many cases, the mix isn’t reduced enough to promote the development of small ice crystals and a smooth and creamy texture.
(ii) WHAT I THOUGHT OF THE FINISHED ICE CREAM
TEXTURE
I thought the texture of the finished ice cream was very nice and creamy. However, I think that this was partly because I was aware of the importance of heating the mix for such a long time. I think that many more home cooks would be able to make truly creamy ice cream if only they were made aware of the importance of concentrating the mix for 60 minutes during the heating process.
The ice cream whipped well in the machine and had a nice dry texture, partially due to the high percentage of egg yolks.
FLAVOUR
The ice cream tasted a lot like lemon curd with a slight tingle in the back of the throat. This wasn’t a negative flavour (maybe because I love the flavour of lemon curd) but it should have had more of a pronounced ginger flavour. It may have been that heating the mix for 40 minutes together with the ginger resulted in a loss of many of the volatile flavour compounds and weakened the ginger flavour. The ice cream had a nice sweetness to it and a slight egg yolk aftertaste. The egg yolk flavour wasn’t negative but was noticeable.
(iii) WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY
SPECIFIC TIME AND TEMPERATURE FIGURES
If I were asked to re-rite the directions for this recipe, I would first and foremost tell the cook the importance of heating the mix for 60 minutes to promote reversible protein unfolding and increase the protein content in a mix. I would also write a short paragraph explaining at around about what temperature egg yolks start to curdle, as well as a short paragraph explaining the ‘eggy’ hydrogen sulphide taste that is produced by eggs at high temperatures. I would use both of these points to stress the importance of holding an ice cream mix at around 71.4°C for 60 minutes.
I would also remove the ginger from the mix and not cook it together with the eggs, milk, sugar, and cream. I would, instead, add the ginger at the end of the heating process and let it steep in the mix overnight. The ginger flavour in the above recipe was too subtle for me.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A LARGE PAN
I would also stress the role, and importance, of a large pan in ice cream making. The book does mention in the Techniques section that The amount of time [to thicken a mix] depends on your stove, the size and shape of your pan… However, I think that it needs to go further in detailing that a large pan will increase the surface area that is in contact with the heat and so the rate of evaporation. The larger the pan, the more water will evaporate during the heating process. The more water that is evaporated, the more concentrated the mix becomes and the creamier the texture is likely to be.
Overall, the ginger ice cream had a nice sweet lemon/ginger flavour with a slight kick in the back of the throat. It had a nice creamy texture with a slight egg aftertaste that added to the richness of the ice cream.
I hope this review helps. Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments. 
Ice Cream Adventures! Sweet Potato Ice Cream, Enoshima, Japan
A quick post about my ice cream adventures in Japan. I stumbled upon sweet potato ice cream, which wasn’t bad at all. Quite a sweet mild flavour with a hint of potato; a very interesting flavour.
Soft-serve sweet potato ice cream
Why won’t you let go!
It’s never too cold for sweet potato ice cream
Strange Ice Cream Flavours – Miso
Hellooooo!
Up until last week, the strangest ice cream flavour that I had come across was blue cheese and chocolate. I think this is now the strangest ice cream flavour that I have come across: miso. I found this small ice cream truck selling soft-serve miso ice cream in Kyoto, Japan.
The flavour wasn’t bad at all; it tasted a lot like sweet coffee. The texture could have been a bit smoother but it wasn’t bad for soft serve. Here are a few pictures from my trip to Kyoto.
Blue Cheese Chocolate Ice Cream – Recipe
Blue Cheese AND Chocolate Ice Cream?
You may be wondering why I am suggesting using blue cheese in ice cream but trust me it works, especially paired with chocolate.
Blue cheese and chocolate work really well together because they have very similar molecular profiles. Both cocoa and blue cheese share many flavour molecules, including a host of ketones. Ketones generally give a very fruity or blue cheese character and are also present in many fruit flavours.
Over 60% of ketones in blue cheese are also found in cocoa. Because they share so many flavour compounds, they are two ingredients that work extremely well together. The blue cheese will intensify the intense dark chocolate flavour and also add a floral note.
Ingredients: organic cream, organic semi-skimmed milk, organic un-refined sugar, organic free-range eggs, organic cocoa powder, organic dark chocolate, organic coffee beans, organic vanilla extract, and blue cheese.
The cocoa powder should have a fat content of around 20% and the chocolate a cocoa solids content of between 70 and 85%. The cocoa powder will contribute the intensely dark chocolate flavour, whilst the chocolate is used predominantly for the cocoa butter, which contributes fat for that rich and creamy texture.
The coffee beans and sea salt are used to really bring out and compliment the dark chocolate flavour, whilst the vanilla extract will round off any sharp bitter notes from the chocolate and contribute a slightly sweet flavour.
If you are using cream at 36% fat:
Cream 474g
Semi-skimmed milk 413g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Cocoa powder 20g
Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 40g
Blue cheese 25g
Whole coffee beans 3g
Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
If you are using cream at 38% fat:
Cream 448g
Semi-skimmed milk 440g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 40g
Blue cheese 25g
Whole coffee beans 3g
Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
If you are using cream at 50.5% fat:
Cream 333g
Semi-skimmed milk 555g
Sugar 141g
Egg yolks 72g
Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 40g
Blue cheese Sea salt 25g
Whole coffee beans 3g
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
It is important to use good quality organic ingredients for the best flavour
The tables below will show the composition of the ice cream mix (not including the cocoa fat) before and after heating. The totals are expressed as a percentage of the mix.
Composition of mix before it has been heated
1. Freezing the freezer bowl
For this recipe, I use the Cuisinart ICE30 which comes with a large 2 litre bowl. The day before you start making your ice cream, take your ice cream freezer bowl and cover the top with cling film; use an elastic band to help keep it in place.
Put the bowl in a plastic bag and tie the ends. The plastic bag and cling film will help prevent water from freezing to the inside of the bowl whilst in the freezer. Water frozen to the inside of the bowl will melt into the mix, increasing its water content thereby causing a sandy texture.
Take a 1 litre plastic container, the freezer bowl, and the ice cream dasher and place them in your freezer. Freezing will remove any heat stored in the dasher and container. Heat that is transferred to the ice cream during freezing from the container or dasher increases ice crystal size, by melting the crystals, contributing to a sandy texture.
It’s also important that you freeze enough water to make an ice bath. Freeze water in several ice trays or small plastic containers.
2. Setting the fridge and freezer temperature
It is very important that set your fridge to between 0 and 2°C to increase the rate of crystallisation when you age your mix in the fridge overnight. Crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts.
Set your freezer to around -25°C, or as cold as you can get it. Once churned in the ice cream maker, the quicker you can get your ice cream to below -18°C, the smaller the ice crystal are likely to be. The temperature and rate of hardening determine the final ice crystal size . Hardening is complete when the temperature at the centre of the container drops to -18°C or lower, preferably -25 to -30°C. The longer it takes for the ice cream to reach these temperatures, the larger theice crystals will grow and, subsequently, the sandier the texture.
It is also important to get your freezer bowl as cold as possible. The colder your bowl is, the quicker it will freeze the ice cream. The quicker you freeze your mix, the smaller the ice crystals are likely to be and the creamier the texture.
I set my freezer to ‘super freeze’ when chilling my freezer bowl. This drops the temperature to around -27°C. At this low temperature, it takes me about 15 minutes to churn a mix, which is very good for a domestic ice cream maker (professional ice cream makers take about 8 minutes). If I set my freezer to around -18°C, it takes about 20 minutes for the bowl to churn and freeze a mix. Remember, the quicker you can churn your mix, the smaller the ice crystals are likely to be and the creamier the texture of your ice cream.
Good old delicious Green and Black’s organic dark chocolate3. Preparing an ice bath
Once you have allowed enough water to freeze, take a large pan and fill it with enough ice to make an ice bath. Have a large zip-lock freezer bag ready next to the bowl, along with some table salt. The purpose of using a zip lock bag and water bath is to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible, minimising the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’; between 5 and 65°C. In this temperature range, bacteria in your mix is likely to multiply, imparting a very undesirable smell and taste. Allowing bacteria to multiply is also not the best thing for your health.
4. Size of pan
As strange as it sounds, the size of the pan in which you heat your mix is very important. The larger the diameter of your pan, the more water will evaporate during heating. This is important because the fundamental reason for heating your mix for 60 minutes is to concentrate the milk solids non fat, more specifically the protein. By concentrating the mix, you increase the percentage of protein. Protein plays a significant role in limiting the size of ice crystals, thereby improving texture, so the higher the percentage of protein in your mix the better.
I recommend using a large pan with a 23cm diameter. This will allow you to concentrate your mix by about 32%. If you use a pan with a small diameter, you won’t be able to reduce the mix by the same amount in 60 minutes. The texture won’t be as smooth and creamy as a that prepared in pan with a larger diameter.
Use a large pan with a 23cm diameter, similar to the one on the left
5. Heating your mix
Once you have prepared the ice bath, add the sugar and the egg yolks to the heavy pan. Mix the eggs and sugar together until both ingredients have combined. The sugar mixed with the yolks will help prevent the yolks from curdling. Add the cream, milk, and cocoa powder. Break the chocolate bar into small pieces and add to the pan. Gently stir the mix before you switch the heat on.
Over a medium heat, heat the mixture until the temperature reaches 70°C, making sure that you are constantly stirring the mix. You will risk burning the proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you do not constantly stir.
Once the temperature reaches 70°C, turn the heat down to low and continue heating until the temperature reaches 71.4°C. Use a kitchen thermometer to keep the temperature at 71.4°C for 60 minutes. This will ensure that the whey proteins undergo reversible unfolding, but not aggregation, which will significantly improve the texture of the finished ice cream.
Do not let the temperature rise above 71.4°C. You will risk aggregating the proteins, which is detrimental to texture, and developing the unpleasant and eggy hydrogen sulphide taste if you heat the mixture above71.4°C.
Heating the mix for 60 minutes may sound like a long time but believe me it is a small price to pay for extremely creamy ice cream. Holding the mix at 71.4°C for 60 minutes will mean that you will concentrate the mix by about 32%. Concentrating the mix will increase the percentage of protein, which contributes significantly to a smooth and creamy texture. I have played around with the heating periods and have found that a mix heated for 60 minutes will produce a much creamier and smoother ice cream than one heated for 15, 30, and 45 minutes.
After 50 minutes, add the coffee beans and the blue cheese to the pan. When you cook with coffee your kitchen is filled with a delicious coffee aroma. That aroma is the volatile compounds escaping from the bean. Adding the coffee beans towards the end of cooking will minimise the loss of these volatile flavour compounds through evaporation, ensuring that more stay in your mix to compliment and boost the chocolate flavour.
Stir well to ensure that the blue cheese is dissolved into the mix.
6. Cooling the mix
After 60 minutes, take the pan off the heat and carefully pour the mix into the zip lock bag. Add the vanilla extract and close.
Add about 3 tablespoons of salt to the ice in your ice bath. This will significantly lower the temperature of the ice, thereby cooling your mix faster.
Once the mix has cooled to about 10°C, place it in the fridge and leave overnight. It is important to allow enough time for the ice cream mix to age. Remember that crystallisation of fat during the ageing process helps maintain the shape of ice cream when it is served and also helps minimise the rate at which the ice cream melts.
7. Churning the mix
Once you have allowed the mix to age overnight, place the freezer bowl in the machine and add the dasher. Put the lid on and, with the machine switched on, pour in the mix. You can remove the coffee beans with a spoon prior to freezing if you wish. I do not recommend using a sieve as the mixture will be too thick. I personally leave the coffee beans in.
As soon as you pour in the mix, use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl. Pushing the dasher against the side will prevent any ice from freezing to the side. Any ice that is frozen to the side of the bowl will act as an insulator, slowing the release of heat from the ice cream to the bowl. If the transfer of heat from the ice cream to the freezer bowl is reduced, the ice cream will take longer to freeze. The longer the ice cream takes to freeze, the larger the ice crystals will grow and the sandier the texture will be. Keep the dasher pushed against the side of the bowl until you have finished churning the mix (sore thumbs is an additional price to pay for smooth creamy ice cream).
Use a spoon to push along any static lumps of ice cream. Any static lumps will start to melt, causing a sandy texture.
After about 20 minutes (or about 15 minutes if your freezer was set to around -27°C), switch the machine off and quickly empty the mix into the pre-chilled container. The longer you take to empty the ice cream into the container, the longer the ice cream will spend at room temperature. At room temperature, ice crystals will start to quickly melt. If ice crystals melt, they will grow bigger when the ice cream is placed in the freezer. Therefore, the longer the ice cream spends at room temperature, the sandier the texture will be. Be as quick as you can when emptying the ice cream into the plastic container.
Ice crystals will continue to grow until the temperature drops to below -18°C. It is therefore critical to get the your ice cream into the freezer and down to below -18°C as quickly as possible to prevent a sandy and coarse texture from developing.
8. Freezing the mix
Quickly place the container in the freezer and freeze overnight. Make sure that there is enough space in your freezer for the air to circulate freely. The more cluttered your freezer, the longer it will take for the churned ice cream to reach -18°C and the bigger the ice crystals will get.
At -18°C, it is recommended that homemade ice cream be kept for about a week. This is because some bacteria are still able to multiply at -18°C. Below -18°C, it becomes too cold for bacteria to multiply and so ice cream can be kept for longer.
9. Serving the ice cream
The next day, take the ice cream out of the freezer and let sit to thaw for between 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is soft enough to scoop. Serve the ice cream at below -12°C. As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 to -7.8°C, flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
Please let me know if you try this recipe as it would be great to get your feedback!
Enjoy your ice cream!
