Below is the Excel spreadsheet I created to calculate my ice cream mix. It’s based on the calculations in Ice Cream (7th Ed) by Professor Doug Goff and Professor Richard Hartel, which I highly recommend reading. There are no restrictions on the use of this spreadsheet so feel free to download and use it as you…
Ice crystals in ice cream
12 MINUTE READ The best ice creams in the world have a smooth and creamy texture. This creamy texture, primarily associated with a high fat content, is also determined by the average size of the ice crystals. Ice crystal size is governed by the mix formulation, as well as by factors relating to the freezing…
Stevia in ice cream
14 MINUTE READ In this post, I’ll be covering the use of stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) as a natural sweetener in ice cream. I’ll cover the sweetness potency, flavour profile, and the sweetness temporal profile of stevioside and rebaudioside A, the two main compounds providing sweetness in stevia. I’ll also cover the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), metabolism, stevia and diabetes,…
Artificial Sweeteners in Sugar-Free Ice Cream
25 MINUTE READ In this post, I’ll be looking at the artificial sweeteners that are used in sugar-free ice cream production. These will include aspartame, neotame, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and, cyclamate. For each sweetener, I’ll cover the acceptable daily intake (ADI), sweetness relative to sucrose (table sugar), use in cooking, metabolism, and health concerns. This…
How long does homemade ice cream last in the freezer?
14 MINUTE READ The shelf life of food is dependent on changes in the microbial content, chemical nature (e.g., flavour), and the physical attributes of the product (Goff & Hartel, 2013). In ice cream, microbial growth does not occur to any significant extent during storage of either the mix or of the frozen product, so that physicochemical…
SECTION 1 – THE SCIENCE OF ICE CREAM MAKING AND PREPARATION TIPS
All recipes on the blog are broken into three sections: SECTION 1: The Science of Ice Cream Making and Preparation Tips; SECTION 2: Full Recipe; and SECTION 3: Quick Recipe. To avoid repeating SECTION 1 in each recipe post, we’ll be covering it here. We’ll be looking at the importance of producing small ice crystals, maintaining these…
Sugar in ice cream
Ice cream generally contains seven categories of ingredients: fat (dairy or nondairy), milk solids-not-fat (MSNF) (the lactose, proteins, minerals, water-soluble vitamins, enzymes, and some minor constituents), sweeteners, stabilisers, emulsifiers, water, and flavours (Goff & Hartel, 2013). In this post, we’ll be looking at the role of sweeteners in ice cream. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THE…
PROTEIN IN ICE CREAM
6 MINUTE READ Ice cream is comprised of a mixture of air, water, milk fat, milk solids-not-fat (MSNF) (the lactose, proteins, minerals, water-soluble vitamins, enzymes, and some minor constituents), sweeteners, stabilisers, emulsifiers, and flavours (Goff & Hartel 2013). In this post, we’ll be looking at the role of protein in ice cream. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…
Why does ice cream melt?
A slow melting rate and good shape retention are generally considered desirable qualities in ice cream. Ice cream has three main structural components: air cells, ice crystals, and fat globules, which are dispersed throughout a continuous phase of unfrozen solution (Muse & Hartel, 2003). These components affect the melting rate. Structural attributes include properties of…
Partial coalescence of the ice cream fat emulsion
Ice cream is an oil-in-water emulsion in which an oil phase, usually consisting of milk fat, is dispersed into a continuous aqueous phase (Fredrick et al., 2010). Emulsions are thermodynamically unstable, meaning that the oil and water will separate due to high interfacial tension between oil and water surfaces. Immediately following homogenisation, where the fat…
I run a small-batch ice cream start-up based in Manchester, U.K.