About Me
About me:
Hellooo! I’m Ruben and I’m on a mission to change ice cream.
Something about me: I graduated from Aberystwyth University in 2007 with a degree in law and started law school in 2008. After the first day of law school, I realised that I’d rather watch paint dry than sit in a law office for 12 hours a day and so swiftly dropped out.
I recently completed a one-year placement as an English teacher in a middle school in South Korea. This was an incredible experience and gave me the opportunity to research milk science, as well as the science behind ice cream making, in my spare time.
Although I enjoy teaching, I am obsessed with entrepreneurship and making perfect ice cream. My goal is to open a very small ice cream shop in Oxford, England, where people can come and hang out and enjoy truly gourmet ice cream.
I have designed this blog to share what I have learned about the science of ice cream making. I want to dispel the myth that supermarket ice cream, all too often packed with emulsifiers, stabilisers, artificial colours and flavours, is better than homemade ice cream.
I firmly believe that by getting to grips with the science, and using only natural good-quality ingredients, you can make homemade ice cream that is far superior to anything bought in a supermarket.
Living the dream
I’m slowly working my way towards opening a very small shop in Oxford, England. After many months of sitting and counting people in Oxford, or ‘market research’, I’m convinced that there is room for this poor young ice cream maker.
Now comes the not-so-fun part of applying for funding; that’s where I am now. If you are interested in backing a lonely ice cream maker, I’d love to hear from you. You can also make a small contribution towards my quest for world domination via paypal using the button below; any contributions, whether small or large, would be very much appreciated!
About the ice cream:
Where big companies use expensive equipment, I use science. I make all my ice cream myself, by hand, and with a lot of love. I use only organic cream, organic milk, organic eggs, and organic sugar to make my ice creams; I do not use any artificial emulsifiers, stabilisers, colours or flavours, that all too often find their way into ice cream.
I hope that, with this blog, you continue to develop your passion for ice cream making at home!
All the best.
Ruben
Yaaaaaaaaaaay!
At the Alcester Food Festival!
Enjoying ice cream, I hope, at the Alcester Food Festvial!
Hey great site I too have a passion for making ice cream. I have read much of the same material you have. Just saw your salted caramel recipe I will have to try it. I usually use powdered milk or egg yolks I have never used them together. Well I will let you know how it comes out. Thanks for the recipe and other great info.
Hi Mike, glad you find the information useful. I have found that a mix containing both egg yolks and skim milk powder produces a far smoother and creamier ice cream than one containing just one of these ingredients; give it a go and see what you think.
I would be interested to see how your salted caramel ice cream turns out so do keep me updated.
All the best, Ruben
Your recipe is a good one! Although to be honest I always tend to lean more towards an American-style ice cream. I guess it depends on the flavor.
So I was wondering about what you wrote above. Are you going to work at an ice cream shop in Oxford or were you hoping to open your own? My wife and I hope to open a shop here in NYC one day. I recently enrolled in the Penn State University ice cream short course. It doesn’t start until January unfortunately. I see that you’ve done a lot of research have you had the opportunity to take any courses? If so please tell me if they were worth it.
Thanks
Mike
Hi Mike, I’d be interested in getting your feedback on American-style ice cream; I imagine it to be less creamy and rich because of the lack of lecithin from the yolks? Did you try the salted caramel recipe?
I want to open an ice cream shop in Oxford: it is such a beautiful city and I think it needs some artisanal ice cream. I’ve also applied for a street seller licence from Oxfordshire County Council for the summer so I might be there sooner than I thought!
Sounds great that you and your wife want to open an ice cream shop in NYC. I’ve been following some of the smaller producers there (Van Leeuwen and Milkmade) and like the street food vibe you guys have.
I did want to enrol on the ice cream course run at University College Cork, Ireland, by Professor Douglas Goff, (who has written some good papers on ice cream making), but wasn’t in Europe at the time it was being run. I will try to attend in 2013. I have heard good things about the Penn State course; I think the owner of Jeni’s Ice Cream did one there.
Let me know how your course goes if you do yours before I do mine!
All the best.
I guess American ice cream may be slightly less creamy but it doesn’t have that custard taste which I think for certain flavors may be a good thing like fruit flavors. However most of the artisanal producers in NY use eggs I guess that’s one way my concept differs. I’ve had Van Leeuwen it’s really good I haven’t had Milkemade but I know it’s pretty pricey. If you get a chance check out Ample Hills in Brooklyn they make and pasturize there own mix and are similar to what I would like to be doing at least in terms of doing it from scratch.
Hey I like the updates to the site haven’t been here in a while it
looks good.
Hi Mike, good to hear from you again. I’d love to try one of your egg-less recipes if you have a good one.
Thanks for the website. My great grandfather made home made ice cream that he sold out of his store. The tradition has been handed down to me. I generally use a traditional ice cream make made by White Mountain Freezer. I’ve found better recipes than my grandparents had. Good stuff on a hot summer day!
Hi there, glad you like the website. Do you run your own ice cream shop?
No ice cream shop…..I just make it for family and friends at special events. Most of my homemade flavor center on a base recipe of 2 eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, and one cup of whole milk. To that base, I add vanilla, malt, strawberries,orange juice, or what to make the flavor I want
What is this special way of increasing NMS that you are talking about? I would also prefer not to use skim milk powder.
Whoops, I read your sweet cream base article and figured out how. That’s very interesting. What do you do when adding things such as strawberry puree or chocolate which reduce the NFMS even more? Should I read those other recipes? Because I’m on my phone right now, haha.
Hi Kevin,
I haven’t had any problems adding chocolate to a mix. Adding cocoa powder and cocoa butter will slightly increase the total solids content but I am not sure by how much exactly. I have been able to get good texture in the chocolate ice cream recipe: http://icecreamscience.com/2012/06/03/chocolate-ice-cream-recipe/.
Because strawberries contain a lot of water, adding strawberries to a mix will increase the water content thereby decreasing the percentage of non-fat milk solids. I have gotten round this by heating the strawberries to evaporate some of the water. This does have its drawbacks however; a loss of colour and a slightly altered flavour being the two most significant changes. I’m currently working on a way to reduce the water content in strawberries with minimal heat in a vacuum. Until I have figured the vacuum thingy out, heated strawberries is the best solution I have.
Hope that helps but let me know if you have any more questions.
All the best, Ruben
Dear Ruben,
I have nominated you/your creamy blog, for the Sunshine Award!Congratulations!
You can pick up your badge and information/rules on how to pass the torch and play it forward at : http://kickass-cooking.com/2012/12/15/thanks-for-the-sunshine-award/
No pressure, you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to..just thought it was a good way to tell you that I love your blog!
Seen your blog posted over at kickasscooking,com and had to come see what Ice cream Science was. Your blog is amazing, really like it. Check out savorthefood.wordpress.com when you got a minute. It’s all about food and dessert. Cooking food, writing about food and eating food.
Hey thanks for sharing your post’s with us. Looking forward to your future post’s.
Chef randall
savorthefood.wordpress.com
So glad I came across you on YouTube and now your blog. Just recently ordered a Cuisinart ICE-100 and looking forward to putting your science to the test! I will shoot you a message on Twitter, too. I’m a coffee geek (amongst other things). I’m Japanese-American and find your journey interesting as I have family in Japan, have lived and went to college (Sophia University) there, and still visit from time to time. Cheers!
Ohio! And that’s the extent of my Japanese language skills. I absolutely loved Japan and hope to return one day (oh how I miss the wasabi ice cream and the sushi).
I hope the blog helps. The ICE 100 hasn’t been released in the UK yet so would be great to get your feedback once you’ve put it to the test.
All the best, Ruben
Haha, ohayou! It would be cool to see you come up with a wasabi ice cream recipe! I would skip the sashimi ice cream, though
.
Yes, I will try to make a product review of some sorts on my YT channel (/consumerfanatics). Forgive the recent content on there. It’s not really a focused channel. And the presentation won’t be as good as yours. I ended up selling my video recorder so I might have to iPhone it for the ICE-100.
I’m writing since i had in mind the same dream of making my small organic ice cream business (although my professional background is totally different) in eastern europe, where i live with my wife and son.
i was looking for some mentoring .. perhaps some training, some ideas .. do you have the time? contact me if you are interested! kisero@gmail.com
Hi Kisero! Thanks for getting in touch. I will send you an e-mail to discuss some ice cream!
All the best,
Ruben
Cool site.
.Either way will be fun finding out.
I ‘ve been lazy & working so I brought ice cream from a local Deli
( they stocked Steves a brand I really liked).
But he closed up & with summer coming I’ll start making my own
again soon.
I’ve got access to somed Duck eggs,could be really good,or really
bad
Anyway enjoying the site.
All the best Joel.
hi! having found your blog after picking an apparently well regarded ice cream maker from breville, I am wondering if it (the machine) was not such a good choice.
First it is impossible to hold the dasher so it scrapes around the pot, and indeed when emptying it there is a thin layer of icy mix coating the pot. Second even with precool selected, and a cold aged mix, the churn time until the machine decides the motor is straining against the consistency varies but is rarely less than 40 minutes. Of course I can select a softer setting to finish faster but perhaps that is counter productive?
am I doomed to have larger than optimal ice crystals forever with this machine?
second question: when holding the custard at just over 70c for 50 minutes, do you need to stir it at all?
thanks!
Hi there Justin!
Fear not for there is always hope for the aspiring ice cream maker, or some other words to that effect. Even if you can’t push the dasher against the side of the machine, this won’t necessarily mean that you’ll be left with grainy ice cream. The 40 minutes churn time is a bit long but, again, it doesn’t necessarily condemn you to a life of grainy ice cream. What do you mean by selecting a softer setting on your machine? Does this mean that the dasher doesn’t beat as quickly? I’ve never come across an ice cream machine made by Breville before.
It is very very important that you hold the ice cream mix at around 71.4°C for 60 minutes instead of 50; the extra 10 minutes really does make a difference! It is also imperative that you stir! If you don’t stir the mix, it is likely that the egg yolk will stick to the bottom of the pan, causing it to curdle. You also slightly increase the rate of evaporation by stirring, which contributes to developing a creamy texture.
Hope that answers your questions. Let me know if you need any more help.
All the best, Ruben
thanks, I understand your mix thickening process now. As you know, every public recipe simply advises stopping after ~10 minutes when you can run a line down the back of a wooden spoon hence my 50/60 confusion. This maker is a breville bci600xl, it defaults to auto where you essentially select how stiff the product needs to be, so the dial selects from gelatos thru sorbets to finally, ice cream, of three hardness settings. For instance I made salted caramel contained in its manual – very similar to your recipe – and the mix after gaining maybe 30% in volume gets stiff enough that the motor really slows down by 40 minutes, then that triggers the machine to stop. It claims to be doing all this churning at -30c not sure how accurate that is. The ice cream was a hit though. If I age the mix instead of just ice-bath cool it, and do the one hour reduction, it’ll be superior still, I look forward to tasting the improvement.
Awesome site! Your recipes and techniques inspired me to make some of my own. I just made toasted pumpkin seed ice cream – and its delicious – if you like pistachio, you’d probably like the pumpkin seed flavour too.
Hi Ruben
Great blog! This has been the most helpful website for ice cream making that I have found, and I’ve seen a lot of sites – so, thank you!
Like you, (and Kisero above) I am really keen to make my own organic ice cream with minimal use of processed goods (and one day sell it, if it is good enough:). I really would like to make Philadelphia style ice cream with no eggs, and was wondering if you had any advice, tips as to how to make good, smooth ice-cream with a decent shelf life without the emulsifying benefit of eggs? Is it possible? Thank you
Hi Suzy!
Thanks for getting in touch. I’ve never actually made egg-free Philadelphia-style ice cream myself so you probably know more about it than I do! Have you tried any recipes from the Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams book? I know that she doesn’t use any eggs in her recipes and focuses instead on cream cheese and some kind of starch.
Sorry for the lack of info in this reply. Come over to the world of egg-based ice cream!
Let me know if you need any more help.
All the best, Ruben
Thanks Ruben. I have tried out Jeni’s recipes and they do produce some great , creamy ice-cream. But like you, I am trying to avoid anything too processed (ie tapioca starch and corn syrup). I am impressed you have even given skim milk powder the boot! Seems though, that you have to have some sort of emulsifier. So egg based ice-cream – here I come!