This chocolate recipe will produce a dark and extremely smooth and creamy chocolate ice cream with an intense chocolate flavour. The recipe will be split into two sections: SECTION 1 will cover the science of ice cream making as well as preparation tips, SECTION 2 will cover the recipe. I strongly recommend starting with section 1.
THIS RECIPE WAS UPDATED ON 15th JANUARY 2016
SECTION 1: THE SCIENCE OF ICE CREAM MAKING AND PREPARATION TIPS
1. Freezing the bowl and equipment
For this recipe, I use the Cuisinart ICE 30BC (click here for my review), which comes with a removable bowl that needs to be frozen overnight before it can be used. The following is a list of domestic ice cream machines with in-built compressors that I’ve tried and would also happily recommend:
- Lello Musso Pola 5030 Desert Maker (click here for my review)
- Cuisinart ICE-100 Compressor Ice Cream and Gelato Maker (click here for my review)
- Lello 4080 Musso Lussino (click here for my review)
- Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker (click here for my review)
TIP#1 – Cling film
For the Cuisinart ICE-30, the day before you start making your ice cream, take the bowl and cover the top with cling film; use an elastic band to help keep it in place. The cling film will help prevent water vapour in your freezer, as well as any ice that may fall in, from freezing to the inside of the bowl. Any water that freezes at the bowl wall will likely be incorporated into the mix during the churning process, with possible implications for texture if a sufficient amount is incorporated.
It’s also important to freeze enough water in some ice trays to make an ice bath. We’ll be using an ice bath to quickly cool the ice cream mix once it’s been heated, minimising the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’, between 5 (41) and 65°C (149°F), where bacteria likes to multiply.
TIP#2 – Freezing the container
Take a 1 litre plastic container and the freezer bowl and put them in your freezer overnight. Freezing the plastic container will remove any stored heat. Heat stored in the container causes the ice cream that contacts the side and bottom to melt, resulting in an increase in ice crystal size.
1.1. Ice crystals in ice cream
Ice crystal size is a critical factor in the development of smooth and creamy ice cream (Donhowe et al. 1991). Smooth and creamy ice cream requires the majority of ice crystals to be small, around 10 to 20 µm in size. If many crystals are larger than this, the ice cream will be perceived as being coarse or icy (Drewett & Hartel 2007; Goff & Hartel 2013).
Ice crystal size is determined by the mix composition and by the freezing process, of which there are two stages: 1. the dynamic freezing stage, where the ice cream mix is frozen in an ice cream machine while being agitated to incorporate air, and 2. the static freezing stage, where the partially frozen ice cream is hardened without agitation in a freezer. Ice crystals form only during the dynamic freezing stage and grow during the static freezing stage.
In this recipe, we will be looking at what we can do to promote the development of small ice crystals during the dynamic freezing stage and then preserve these small crystals during the static freezing stage.
2. Setting the freezer temperature
Your freezer’s temperature has a significant effect on residence time and on ice crystal growth.
2.1. Residence time
If you’re using the Cuisinart ICE 30BC, or any other machine that requires you to freeze the bowl before it can be used, your freezer’s temperature will have a considerable effect on residence time. Residence time is the length of time the ice cream mix spends in your ice cream machine during the dynamic freezing stage and has a significant effect on ice crystal size (Russell et al. 1999; Goff & Hartel 2013; Drewett & Hartel 2007; Cook and Hartel 2010). Russell et al. (1999) found that ice creams made with shorter residence times had smaller ice crystals.
Your freezer’s temperature determines the temperature of the freezer bowl when you leave it to freeze overnight. Lower freezer bowl temperatures can lower the bulk temperature of the ice cream faster, reducing residence time and improving the ice crystal size distribution (Russell et al. 1999; Drewett & Hartel 2007).
TIP#3 – Lower your freezer’s temperature
Set your freezer’s temperature as low as it will go, ideally between -23 to -29°C(-9.4 to -20.2°F), to get your freezer bowl as cold as possible. The colder you can get your freezer, the colder it will get the freezer bowl and the shorter the residence time is likely to be. The shorter the residence time, the smaller the ice crystals and the smoother the texture is likely to be.
I’ve found that my freezer’s temperature has a noticeable effect on residence time when I use my Cuisinart ICE 30BC. When I set my freezer to ‘super freeze’, which gets the temperature down to about -27°C (-16.6°F), it takes about 18 minutes to churn an 800g batch of ice cream. When I set it to -18°C (-0.4°F), it takes about 30 minutes to churn the same amount.
2.2. Ice crystal growth
No new ice crystals are formed during the static freezing stage but the existing small crystals grow in size until the temperature decreases to -18°C (-0.4°F), or ideally -25 to -30°C (-13 to -22°F), to halt this growth. If the ice crystals grow too large during the static freezing stage, a corse or icy texture will develop (Arbuckle 1986).
Quick hardening during the static freezing stage limits ice crystal growth (Goff & Hartel 2013). Similarly, Donhowe (1993) showed that faster cooling of ice cream during hardening resulted in smaller mean ice crystal size.
TIP#4 – Promote quick hardening
To promote quick hardening during the static freezing stage, make sure your freezer is as cold as it will go, ideally -25 to -30°C (-13 to -22°F). Place your ice cream at the back of your freezer where it’s coldest. Try and clear some space in your freezer when chilling your ice cream. Putting ice cream in a densely packed freezer will reduce heat transfer, resulting in an increase in freezing time.
3. Setting your fridge temperature
It’s also important that you set your fridge to between 0 and 2°C (32 and 35.6°F) 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 (Goff & Hartel 2013). If you don’t allow the fat globules sufficient time to crystallise, it is likely that your ice cream will suffer from relatively fast meltdown and less retention of shape.
4. The size of your pan
The size of the pan you use will affect the rate of evaporation and heating time. I use a large pan with a 23cm diameter to achieve a 15% reduction after 25 minutes heating at 72°C (162°F). If your pan is smaller than 23cm, you will likely need to continue heating your mix for a further 5 minutes or so to reach the desired 15% reduction. Let’s have a look at why it’s important that you heat your mix for the full 25 minutes at 72°C (162°F) and achieve at least a 15% reduction. .
5. The importance of heating time and temperature
There are three principal reasons why we will be heating our mix to 72°C (162°F) and holding it there for at least 25 minutes: 1. to pasteurise the mix, 2. to improve foaming and emulsification, and 3. to improve body and texture.
5.1. Pasteurisation
If you’re running a business and making ice cream to sell, you need to ensure that you are in compliance with food safety legislation. Here in the U.K, the Dairy Products (Hygiene) Regulations 1995, Schedule 6, part v 1 (a) states:
1. Pasteurised ice-cream shall be obtained by the mixture being heated—
to a temperature of not less than 65.6°C (150.1°F) and retained at that temperature for not less than 30 minutes;
to a temperature of not less than 71.1°C (160°F) and retained at that temperature for not less than 10 minutes; or
to a temperature of not less than 79.4°C (174.9°F) and retained at that temperature for not less than 15 seconds.
Ice cream needs to be pasteurised in order to destroy all pathogens and the enzyme phosphatase that may be harmful to health. This is just as important for those of us making ice cream to sell as it is for the home cook.
5.2. To improve foaming and emulsification
The second reason we’ll be heating our mix to 72°C and holding it there for 25 minutes is to improve whey protein foaming and emulsification. Foam formation and its stability is important for texture and for the retention of air that is incorporated into the ice cream during the dynamic freezing stage. Heating milk so that the whey proteins undergo partial protein unfolding yields a more voluminous and more stable foam and improves the emulsifying characteristics of milk protein (Philips et al., 1990). At high temperatures, however, foaming and emulsifying characteristics may be impaired due to protein aggregation (phillips et al., 1990).
At what temperatures, then, do the whey proteins found in milk start to undergo beneficial partial protein unfolding and at what temperatures do they start to aggregate? Sava et al. (2005) held that thermal denaturation of whey protein involves 2 steps: an unfolding step at 70 to 75°C (158 to 167°F), and an aggregation step at 78 to 82.5°C (172.4 to 180.5°F), that mostly follows unfolding.
TIP#5 – 72°C (162°F) for 25 minutes
I’ve found that when I hold my mix at temperatures above 72°C (162°F) for a prolonged period of time, the unpleasant ‘eggy’ hydrogen sulphide taste begins to form and becomes noticeable on eating. I would therefore recommend heating your ice cream mix to 72°C (162°F) and holding it at this temperature for 25 minutes as this significantly improves ice cream body and texture. I’ve run several tests where I have kept the temperature constant at 72°C (162°F), as well as the composition, but have varied the heating times. I’ve found that a mix heated for 25 minutes produces smoother and creamier ice cream than compared to mix heated for 5, 10, and 15 minutes at the same temperature.
5.2.1. Surface hydrophobicity
Surface hydrophobicity is also important in determining emulsifying activity (Monahan et al., 1993). Damodaran (1996) held that denatured proteins have better foaming properties, attributed to increased hydrophobicity, and greater interfacial contact. Sava et al (2005) found that surface hydrophobicity increased considerably at temperatures between 70 and 77.5°C (171.5°F) when whey protein was heated for 45 minutes, with greater increases noted after longer heating times.
Functionality of whey protein also depends on its solubility. Heating at a temperature between 70 (158) and 75°C (167°F) results in a minimal loss of solubility. Sava et al. (2005) noted a decrease in solubility of only 10 to 20% compared with the native protein after 45 minutes.
The literature points to an optimal heating temperature for whey protein at somewhere between 70 (158) and 75°C (167°F). In this temperature range, whey proteins undergo reversible unfolding, which improves foaming and emulsification. Holding whey protein at between 70 (158) and 75°C (167°F) for an extended period of time significantly increases surface hydrophobicity with only a minimal loss of solubility, which improves foaming.
5.3. To improve body and texture
The third reason we are going to heat our ice cream mix to 72°C (162°F) and hold it there for 25 minutes is that heating milk also improves body and texture because of the denaturation of proteins and the consequent increase in their water-holding capacity (Goff & Hartel 2013), which contributes to smooth and creamy texture by helping to minimise ice crystal growth.
6. Weigh your pan
Before you start preparing your mix, it’s important to first weigh your pan and record its weight. This is necessary so that you can check the level of reduction after 25 minutes heating.
The starting weight of our mix will be 1086g (1000g mix + 86g cocoa powder, chocolate, sea salt, and coffee beans). After 25 minutes of heating and a 15% reduction, you should have a mix weight of 936g plus the weight of your pan. If your mix weighs more than 936g plus the weight of your pan, put it back on the heat and continue heating.
Here is how to check the level of reduction after heating for 25 minutes:
My 23cm diameter pan weighs 1606g.
1606g pan + 1000g starting mix + 86g cocoa powder, chocolate, sea salt, and coffee beans) = 2692g starting weight.
After 25 minutes of heating, my total weight (1606g pan + 850g 15% reduced mix + 86g cocoa powder, chocolate, sea salt, and coffee beans ) should be 2542g.
If my total weight after 25 minutes heating is greater than 2542g, I will continue heating until the weight falls to 2542g or less.
7. Why is skimmed milk powder added to ice cream?
The use of skimmed milk powder in commercial ice cream making is usually associated with economy-style ice cream as it is a cost effective way of reducing the more expensive cream whilst maintaining total solids. In homemade ice cream, however, I’ve found that it is essential for the promotion of smooth and creamy texture.
Skimmed milk powder’s primary role in homemade ice cream is to increase the non-fat milk solids (NMS), namely the whey protein. Flores & Goff (1999) demonstrated that milk proteins had a large impact on texture by limiting ice crystal size and enhancing their stability. I’ve not been able to achieve the same smooth and creamy texture in my homemade ice cream after 25 minutes of heating without the addition of skimmed milk powder.
SECTION 2: THE RECIPE
Makes just over 1 quart (1 litre) of ice cream
PREP TIME:
About 15 minutes
HEATING TIME:
About 30 minutes
EQUIPMENT:
Food thermometer
Ice cream maker
A zip-lock bag
Ice trays
1 litre plastic container
Ingredients:
Cream
Full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed Milk
Unrefined sugar
Skimmed milk powder
Egg yolks
30g Cocoa powder
50g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
3g, or 1/4 tsp, fine sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3g whole coffee beans
1. The importance of butterfat
Milkfat contributes significantly to the rich, full, and creamy flavour and to the smooth texture of ice cream (Goff & Hartel 2013). It’s important that you check the fat content of the cream and the milk that you’ll be using in order to calculate your mix.
Above is the spreadsheet I use to calculate my mixes and I’ve included it for you guys to calculate the exact quantities of milk and cream that you will need. Simply enter the cream fat (usually found on the back of the cream carton and around 35% for you guys in the U.S) and milk fat percentages in the two yellow cells at the top of the spreadsheet. This will then give you the quantities of milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and skimmed milk powder needed (in grams) in the cells in blue.
You can use full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed milk. Here in the U.K, our double cream and skimmed milk contain around 47.5% and less than 0.5% of fat respectively, which I have entered as the default values. I recommend using organic milk and cream and organic free-range eggs whenever possible. I use organic milk and cream and organic free range eggs for my business and find that I get a much richer flavour from organic milk and cream and a much deeper colour from free range egg yolks.
2. Preparing an ice bath
Before you start preparing your mix, take a large bowl 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. We will be using the zip lock bag and water bath to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible once it has been heated, minimising the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’, between 5 (41) and 65°C (149°F), where bacteria likes to multiply. The longer your mix spends in this ‘danger zone’, the more bacteria is likely to multiply, imparting an undesirable taste and smell.
3. Heating the mix
Weigh your pan and record its weight. We will use this weight to check whether we have achieved the desired 15% reduction after 25 minutes of heating.
Once you’ve prepared the ice bath and weighed your pan, add the sugar and skimmed milk powder followed by the egg yolks. Mix the yolks, sugar and skimmed milk powder to help prevent the yolks from curdling during heating.
Add the cream and milk and spend a good minute or so mixing all the ingredients before you switch on the heat.
Over a medium heat, heat the mixture until the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), making sure that you are constantly stirring. You’ll risk burning the proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you do not constantly stir the mix.
Once the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), turn the heat down to medium-low, move your pan slightly off the heat, and continue heating and stirring until the temperature reaches 72°C (162°F). Use your thermometer to keep your mix at 72°C for 20 minutes, adjusting the position of your pan to help regulate the temperature.
After 20 minutes of heating, add the chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee beans, and sea salt, and continue heating for another 5 minutes to dissolve the chocolate and cocoa. Remember that it’s important that you keep your mix at 72°C (162°F) for the full 25 minutes to obtain optimum foaming and emulsifying characteristics. A mix heated for less than 25 minutes will not have the same smooth and creamy texture.
4. Cooling the mix
After 25 minutes, take the pan off the heat and weigh it. If the weight is greater than 936g plus the weight of the pan, place it back on the heat and continue heating for another 2-3 minutes or until you get the weight down sufficiently.
Carefully pour the mix into the zip-lock bag and seal. Place it in the water bath and pour about a tablespoon of salt onto the ice to lower the temperature and cool the mix faster.
Once the mix has cooled to room temperature, place the zip-lock bag in the fridge and leave overnight to age.
5. Churning the mix
Once you’ve allowed your mix to age overnight, strain through a sieve to remove the coffee beans and pour it into your machine.
TIP#6 – Leave the compressor running for about 15 minutes
If you’re using the Cuisinart ICE-100, Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop, Lello Musso Pola 5030, Lello Musso Lussino 4080, or any other machine with an in-built compressor, with the bowl in the machine, switch on the compressor and leave it running for 10-15 minutes before adding the mix. This will ensure that the freezer bowl is as cold as possible when the mix is added, which will contribute to a reduction in residence time.
TIP#7 – Use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl
If you’re using the Cuisinart ICE 30BC, use your thumb to push the dasher against the side of the bowl as soon as you pour in the mix. This will ensure that the dasher scrapes off the layer of ice that freezes to the side of the bowl. 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 and increasing the residence time. Remember that the longer the residence time, the larger the ice crystals will grow and the sandier the texture is likely to be. Goff & Hartel (2013) note that even a very thin layer of ice remaining on the bowl wall can cause a dramatic reduction in heat transfer. The longer you keep the dasher pushed against the bowl wall, the shorter the residence time is likely to be.
Use a spoon to push along any static lumps of ice cream and ensure that the mix is constantly moving whilst in the machine. Static lumps will likely take longer to freeze, giving the ice crystals more time to grow.
6. Extraction time
Your mix will be ready when it develops a nice dry, stiff texture, and starts forming ribbon-like swirls. When you remove the dasher, your ice cream should stick firmly to it.
The point at which your mix is ready for extraction will vary from 14-45 minutes depending on the machine you use. For the Cuisinart ICE 30BC, your ice cream should be ready at around 30 minutes of churning. For the Cuisinart ICE-100 and the Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop, this should be after 32 and 33 minutes respectively. For the Lello Musso Pola 5030, your ice cream will be ready after around 14 minutes and the Lello Musso Lussino 4080 after about 16 minutes.
Just before your mix is ready, quickly take the plastic container out of the freezer and have a large and a small spoon ready. It’s important that you empty your ice cream from the freezer bowl and get it into your freezer as quickly as possible. The extraction time, that is the time it takes to remove the ice cream from the machine and get into into your freezer, has a considerable effect on ice crystal size. This is because as you extract your ice cream from the bowl and into a plastic container, it spends time at room temperature. At this relatively warm room temperature, some of the ice melts from the large ice crystals and the crystals that were initially small melt completely. When you then get your ice cream into your freezer for the static freezing stage, the melted ice re-freezes onto the large ice crystals that survived. The result is that the total number of ice crystals is reduced and their size increases, the perfect formula for coarse texture.
TIP#8 – Get your ice cream into your freezer as quickly as possible
Just holding ice cream at relatively warm room temperatures as you’re extracting it from your machine results in an increase in mean ice crystal size and a decrease in the number of ice crystals present (Goff & Hartel 2013). It’s therefore important that you extract the ice cream from the freezer bowl and get it into your freezer as quickly as possible.
7. Static freezing
When you finish churning your ice cream, it will be extracted from your machine at around -5°C (23°F) and will have a consistency very similar to that of soft serve ice cream. Ice cream is usually served in its scoopbable state at around -12°C (10.4°F) and so you will need to get your ice cream into your freezer to harden. Because ice crystals continue to grow until the temperature drops to -18°C (0.4°F), ideally -25 to -30°C (-13 to -22°C), the faster you get your ice cream below these temperatures, the less ice crystal growth will occur.
After about 4 hours, depending on your freezer, the ice cream will have a nice firm scoopable consistency, somewhere around -15°C (5°F), and be ready to serve.
TIP#4 (again) – Promote quick hardening
To promote quick hardening, make sure your freezer is as cold as possible when you freeze your ice cream. Place your ice cream at the back of your freezer where it is coldest. Try and clear some space in your freezer when chilling your ice cream. Putting ice cream in a densely packed freezer will reduce heat transfer, resulting in an increase in freezing time.
8. Serving your ice cream
Serve your ice cream at around -15°C (5°F). If you can wait, allow the ice cream to warm to below -12°C (10.4°F) before eating. As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 (6.1) to -7.8°C (18°F), flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
9. Storing your ice cream
At -18°C (-0.4°F), it is recommended that homemade ice cream be kept for about a week. Ice cream can be stored for several weeks at -25°C (-13°F), and several months at -30°C (-22°F) (Goff 2012). Even at these low temperatures, however, ice crystals will eventually start growing in size. The longer you store your ice cream in the freezer, the larger the ice crystals will grow and the sandier the texture is likely to be.
Try to minimise the number of times you take your ice cream out of the freezer as temperature fluctuations especially promote recrystallisation during the storage of the ice cream (Donhowe & Hartel 1996). Goff & Hartel (2013) state that temperature fluctuations may be associated with 1. changes of temperature of storage, 2. heat shocks, where ice cream is left at room temperatures for extended periods of time, and 3. opening and closing of doors in freezers and storage cabinets. Changes of temperature of storage are associated with frost-free home freezers where temperatures can vary quite widely during the frost-free cycle (Ben-Yoseph & Hartel 1998). Heat shocks occur when ice cream is removed from the freezer, thawed before serving, and then the unfinished ice cream returned to the freezer.
TIP#9 – Switch off your frost-free setting
If possible, switch off your frost free setting when storing ice cream to prevent temperature fluctuations, which contribute to ice crystal growth.
I’d love to hear from you if you do give the recipe a try so do get in touch and say hello!
All the best,
Ruben 🙂
If you’ve found this post helpful and would like to say thanks, you can help me write more content by using the links below to order your ice cream goodies from the chaps at amazon. 🙂
References
Arbuckle, W.S., 1986. Ice Cream (4th ed). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Belitz, H.D., Grosch, W., & Schieberle, P., 2009. Food Chemistry (4th ed). Berlin: Springer.
Ben-Yoseph E, Hartel RW. 1998. Computer simulation of ice recrystallization in ice cream during storage. J Food Eng 38(3):309–29.
Cook, K. L. K., & Hartel, R. W. 2010. Mechanisms of Ice Crystallisation in Ice Cream Production. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. 9 (2).
Damodaran, S., (1996) Functional properties. In: Nakai, S., Modler, H.W. (Eds.), Food Proteins – Properties and Characterization. VCH Publisher, New York, pp. 167–234.
Donhowe, D. P., Hartel R. W., and Bradley R.L., 1991. Determination of ice crystal size distributions in frozen desserts. J. Dairy Sci. 74.
Donhowe, D. P. (1993) Ice Recrystallization in Ice Cream and Ice Milk. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsm-Madison.
Donhowe, D. P., and R. W. Hartel. 1996. Recrystallization of ice in ice cream during controlled accelerated storage. Int. Dairy J. 6.
Drewett, E. M. & Hartel, R. W. (2007) Ice Crystallization in a Scraped Surface Freezer. J Food Eng 78(3):1060-1066
Flores, A. A. & Goff, H. D. (1999) Ice Crystal Size distribution in Dynamically Frozen Model Solutions and Ice Cream as Affected by Stabilzers. J Dairy Sci. Volume 82, Issue 7, Pages 1399–1407
Goff, H.D. (2012) RCI 720, -Finding Science in Ice Cream. Presentation – Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science.
Goff, H. D. and Hartel R. W. (2013) Ice Cream. Seventh Edition. New York Springer.
McGee, H., (2004) On food and cooking. New York: Scribner.
Monahan, F. J.,McClements, D. J. & Kinsella, J. E. (1993) Polymerization of whey proteins in whey protein-stabilized emulsions. J. Agric. Food Chem. 41:1826–1829.
Myhrvold, N., Young, C. and Bilet, M., (2011) Modernist Cuisine. China: The Cooking Lab
Phillips, L. G., Schulman, W. and Kinsella, J. E. (1990) pH and heat treatment effects on foaming of whey protein isolate. J. Food Sci. 55:1116–1119.
Russell, A. B., Cheney, P. E., & Wantling, S. D. (1999) Influence of freezing conditions on ice crystallisation in ice cream. Journal of Food Engineering. 29.
Sava, N., Van der Plancken I., Claeys W., & Hendrickx M., (2004) The Kinetics of Heat-Induced Structural Changes of B-Lactoglobulin. J. Dairy Sci. 88:1646-1653
Sava, N., Rotaru, G. & Hendrickx, M. (2005) Heat-induced changes in solubility and surface hydrophobicity of β-Lactoglobulin. Agroalimentary Processes and Technologies, Volume XI, No. 1, 41-48
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Hi Ruben,
I’ve just bought my ice cream machine after seeing your YouTube review. I wanted to ask you a question regarding balancing the fat ingredients. In your excel file you make the calculation only from the fat of milk and cream, what about the other ingredients? For example, fats of almonds? Are only the fat from milk and cream the one to affect consistency?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch and apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Yes you’re right that the fat from added ingredients does affect texture. I need to update my nut and chocolate recipes with a reduced milk fat percentage. I don’t have a function for this in the spreadsheet yet, I’ve just been using good old trial-and-error.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben! I’m just getting into ice cream making, and I’ve found your posts to be an amazing resource. One question I had was regarding the type of cocoa powder you use. I’ve read there are different types, dutched and natural. Also maybe what brand you use? Thanks!
Hi there Drew!
Thanks for reaching out. Great to hear the blog is helping; it is very much still a work-in-progress! For the chocolate recipe on the blog, I used natural cocoa. Dutch process cocoa, or alkalisation, is where cocoa is treated with an alkali solution primarily to change the colour (you get darker looking chocolate with alkalised cocoa), but also to influence the flavour (the flavour of alkalised cocoa tends to be mild and mellow). I think the brand I used was Green and Blacks here in the UK.
I’ve been working on a new chocolate recipe over the past few weeks and have found that 100% cocoa mass gives a better flavour than a combination of chocolate and powder.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
Thank you so much for sharing all these incredible information with which I am starting to understand the whole science of ice cream making.
Your chocolate ice cream recipe which we made at home came out very well… My kid loved it!
I would like to request whether you could share the excel sheet for the calculations with me which would be useful to try out other recipes. I had tried using the mix calculations sheet which you had shared in a separate post but I guess the milk quantity in the sheet outputs in single digit grams and therefore was not sure if that was right.
Thanks a ton for all the inspiration.
Hi Ruben. It’s me from the roasted banana comments 🙂
I tried this one next, and it’s amazing. Everything went well. I didn’t have any coffee beans, but it’s great without. So chocolate-y.
For my next batch, i want to make matcha ice cream for my wife, because she loves it, and we haven’t seen it in my country anywhere. She is from Thailand where it’s all the rage. Do you think I can use this recipe and swap chocolate for matcha powder? I’m thinking it’s gonna need more sugar though.
Thanks again.
PS: Can you send me your spreadsheet please? I would love to play with it. Sune.Justesen @ Gmail.com
Hi Sune!
Great to hear the chocolate ice cream turned out well 🙂 What was the texture like?
I haven’t tried making Matcha ice cream before but yes I think you could substitute it for the cocoa powder. Just be careful not too use too much as you might get a grainy powdery texture. I wouldn’t recommend increasing the sugar. I’d start off with around 20g matcha powder and then adjust from there. Please do let me know how you get on with the matcha if you do give it a go.
Sure, I’ll e-mail you though my spreadsheet shortly.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi,
first sorry for my basic English skills
Got a “Turbine a Glace” Ice Maker from France – really worth beeing tested by you !
Bevor I got the machine I was investigating Ice cream recipes – your work was nr 1 in my personal ranking
thanx Very much – so appreciated !
recalculated your Excel Worksheet with my fat percentages and doing 51% of your measures
doing the heating procedure with a “Kenwood Cooking Chef” Machine exactly applying the time table !
Mixing al the times – as fast as 7 minutes to reach 72% C for 20 Min adding schoco + 5 minutes mixing again raching nearly exactly the gramms calculated (-15% reduction)
After cooling over night at 2 °C I got a totaly stiff cream – exactly a choco ganache – perfect for doing the cover of a viennice “Sacher Tart” – with no air in it – unable to poor it in the ice machine
Have to mix it up with milk to get in a semi fluid consistence
What was going wrong ???
Please help
Alex
Hi Alex!
Thanks for your message. Your English is very good! Do you mean you are only making 500g of mix when you say you are doing 51% of my measures? What is schoco? Is this chocolate powder or a chocolate bar?
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
I’m going to give a try on your ice cream recipe but I wonder if I could use refined sugar (granulated sugar or corn syrup) instead of unrefined . If it is possible, please tell me the quantity I should use. Or can you give me some images of the unrefined sugar you used ? I really love this science page of yours.Thank you very much!
Hi Rai!
Thanks for getting in touch. You can indeed use refined sugar but I wouldn’t recommend using corn syrup because it will have a different effect on the texture and hardness of the finished ice cream. You can substitute an equal amount of refined sugar for the unrefined, I don’t know how much corn syrup you would need. The unrefined sugar I use is similar to brown sugar and only differs slightly in taste to white granulated sugar.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and please do let me know what you think if you do give the recipe a try.
All the best,
Ruben
Thank you for your help, Ruben !
I used refined sugar for my first batch basing on your recipe. I still got difficulties with maintaining the temperature at 72 degree Celsius for 25 minutes. I think I can find solutions for this problem.
Your Mix Calculation Table with 35% cream fat and 3.5% milk fat suggests using:
547g Cream
189g Milk
48g Skimmed Milk powder
140g Sugar
78g Yolks
But Skimmed milk powder is quite rare in my country, it’s completely imported and very expensive. Can I use 40g whole milk powder and 189g skimmed milk instead ? Moreover, I decide to decrease the amount of sugar at 110g for lower sweetness . In fact, I’m learning to make ice cream for commercial in the future.
I hope to learn more and more from you, Ruben !
Hi again Rai!
How did your ice cream turn out? You can indeed substitute whole milk powder for the skim milk powder. Decreasing the sugar will give you a harder ice cream and may result in slightly coarse texture because of the decrease in the total solids content. I wouldn’t recommend decreasing the sugar too much.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
My ice cream turned out perfectly, it’s smooth, creamy, rich in flavor, chewy and a little bit hard but melted down quickly .I put only 100g of sugar because the milk powder I used also contains sugar. Does the sugar affect the melting , may you tell me?
Thank you for your help !
Hi again Rai!
Great to hear your ice cream turned out well. Yes the sugar content does have an effect on melting. Sugar depresses the freezing point of the mix (lowers the temperature at which the water in the mix starts to freeze in the machine), resulting in faster melting. Because you’ve decreased the amount of sugar, your ice cream should actually melt slower than it would have done with the same sugar content in my recipe. I’d recommend having a read through my post on sugar in ice cream and on why ice cream melts.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
i made this chocolate ice cream using the 25 minute method and 100% bittersweet chocolate. I can only say, heavenly. I’ve used the 25 minute method five times now, with great results every time. It seems guaranteed to work.
🙂
Hi Rubenc
Thanks for your extremely detailed and well-researched blog posts. A joy to read.
I have two questions:
1) How do you keep the mix at a certain temperature for the 30 minutes? I have tried myself, but it is almost impossible for me to keep the temperature steady. I have been thinking about getting a sous vide machine of some kind and using that to heat the mixture.
2) You’re not using any stabilizers. Why not?
Thanks 🙂
Hi there Troels!
Thanks for getting in touch! I keep my mix at about 72°C using a food thermometer. I also have a magnetic stirring hot plate that does the work for me when I make larger quantities of ice cream for festivals. Yes it’s near impossible to keep the temperature at a constant 72°C. Don’t worry if you go slightly over; just try to keep as close to 72°C as you can and try not to go too far over for too long a time. The higher you go over, the more likely it is that you’ll develop the ‘eggy’ hydrogen sulphide flavour and cause irreversible protein denaturation, which is bad.
I don’t use stabilisers because I want to keep them and emulsifiers out of my ice cream. I’ve also found that denaturing the whey protein in the milk and cream, by keeping the mix at a constant temperature for a prolonged period of time, produces results similar to added stabilisers.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
How would you adapt this recipe for your newer 25 minute heating method using 50% cream.
Would it be just the standard proportions as used by your other 25 minute heating time mixes with the addition of 20g of cocoa powder and 40g of chocolate?
Or would you reduce the amount of cream and up the skimmed milk to balance out the fat content?
Cheers
Paul
Hi Paul!
If you are using the 25 minute method, use the following quantities:
Cream 40% fat 480g
Skimmed milk 0% fat 402g
Sugar 168g
Egg yolks 94g
Skimmed milk powder 57g
Follow the recipe for Vanilla Bean ice cream and reduce the mix by 13%. Then add dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 40g, sea salt just under 1/4 tsp, vanilla extract 1 tsp and whole coffee beans 3g.
I haven’t tried the dark chocolate ice cream recipe with the 25 minute method yet so I don’t know how rich it will be.
Please do let me know what you think if you do give it a go.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
Thanks for the reply – I’ll give it a go for this weekend.
Just to double check, there is no cocoa powder in the modified recipe?
Cheers
Paul
Oops. I forgot the cocoa powder. Do add it to the modified recipe.
🙂
Hi Ruben,
Chocolate Ice Cream update for you 🙂
I made the a batch this weekend using your updated instructions, the only thing I had to change was using double cream a 49% fat as that’s all I had in (what’s a few extra grams of fat between friends?).
I’m pleased to report that the result is quite spectacular – An extremely smooth, rich chocolaty sensation.
Oh I did change one more thing. I had cooked up a batch of chocolate fudge brownies earlier in the day, so some of those got chopped up and added to the ice cream at the end (my daughter insisted 🙂 )
Hi Paul!
Great to hear you got extremely smooth chocolate ice cream 🙂 The chocolate fudge brownies sound like an excellent addition and I will certainly be trying this out!
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben!
I tried this recipe yesterday but used more milk than cream. I wanted to see how “gelatto” came out on this machine.
Tried the gelatto when it just came out. Creamy texture, but the chocolate flavor wasn’t strong enough… not dark chocolate enough.
I did use Dark chocolate 73% x 40grs and the cocoa powder as well. Pure cocoa powder.
What would you suggest to make the flavor darker and stronger? Or do you recon it had to do with using more milk instead of cream. I am using whole milk 3% and heavy cream 36%.
cheers! I used 640 grs of milk 3% and 250 of cream 36%.
Hi again Gus!
Wow, that is a BIG increase in milk. I suspect that this increase muted the chocolate flavour. I’m surprised the texture was creamy because the increase in the water content, through the increase in milk, must have resulted in a low total solids content, which doesn’t tend to promote smooth and creamy texture in homemade ice cream.
The issue is that because the fat content in gelato is considerably lower than in ice cream, you have to compensate by significantly increasing the non-fat milk solids in the mix (this will be predominantly through increasing the amount of skimmed milk powder and also increasing the sugar and egg yolks). I haven’t tried making gelato myself as I’ve noticed that anything below about 18% fat in homemade ice cream doesn’t produce smooth and creamy texture (gelato usually comes in at below 10% fat).
If you want to make chocolate ice cream, give this recipe a go:
Cream at 36% fat: 533g
Milk at 3% fat: 205g
Skimmed milk powder: 46g
Egg yolks: 78g
Sugar 138g
Dark chocolate: 40g
Cocoa powder: 20g
Whole coffee beans: 3g
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Don’t go overboard with the chocolate as I suspect that too much will add a lot of fat and make this a really heavy ice cream. Use the instructions in the Vanilla Bean ice cream recipe post to heat your mix to 72°C for 25 minutes.
After reduction, you will have roughly the following composition (this does not include the fat added by the dark chocolate):
Milk fat: 21.5%
Non-fat milk solids: 10.11%
Total solids: 50.7%
Sugar: 15%
Egg yolks: 4.07%
Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on if you do give it a go.
All the best,
Ruben
Great Ruben! thanks a lot!
Today I am making the mix for chocolate ice cream with this recipe you gave me, based on the vanilla cooking times. I will give you my feedback tomorrow!
About the gelato, it came out creamy once taken out of the machine but then got less and less creamy with the days passing. The flavor on the other hand got better and better with the days passing.
I am trying to find a solution to the cost on my ice cream. Tried your new vanilla mix at 36% and it was amazing. But the cost for heavy cream here is way way to high… Is it milk powder what is used in stead of hevy cream? For now I am gonna keep using cream because of flavor and texture, but once I try to sell the product I am a bit worried for the cost in it.
What is sure is that the ice cream tastes very different to one bought in an ice cream shop. Thicker and creamier with more flavor.
Cheers!
Gus
Hey Ruben!
So I tried the recipe. It came out good in texture and flavor. Just one strange thing happened that did not happen before.
The solid chocolate melted but not completely. There where very very small particles of chocolate on the ice cream which was a bit strange for the texture.
Any ideas why this could have happened? it didn’t the first time.
Cheers!
Gus
Hi again Gus!
Good to hear the texture came out well. Was it as creamy as my other recipes you tried?
Try adding the chocolate to your mix about 5 minutes before you did last time and keep stirring. I suspect the cocoa in the chocolate didn’t have enough time to melt and disperse in your mix.
Hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
Hey Ruben!
Once again, a hearty hello to my favorite icecream recipe man =D
Alright, so i tried to use this recipe with your new updated 25-30 min cooking procedure and ingredients, to be precise i used the following quantities as you recommended them here in the comments section http://icecreamscience.com/roasted-banana-ice-cream-recipe/
Cream 650g (30% fat)
Milk 86g (3.5% fat)
Skimmed milk powder 46g
Sugar 140g
Egg yolks 78g
Cocoa Powder 20g
Dark Chocolate 40g – I used 80% Cocoa (Lindtt)
One mistake i did make was, i evaporated around 165grams instead of 150grams when cooking. Even though everyone loved the icecream, what went wrong was, when i took the mixture out of the fridge after leaving it overnight, it literally had the consistency of chocolate mousse. Even when i put it in the icecream maker, it was so thick the blades of the icecream maker wouldn’t pass through and it would just rotate the whole blob =S I added some milk as a last minute solution to loosen it up a bit (not that it helped much), but what i wanted to ask was, any ideas why this happened?
Even when i used the above mentioned quantities in the roasted Banana recipe, churning the icecream in the icecream maker wasn’t a problem, but the icecream in my opinion almost had a cheese cake taste to it, because it was so thick. Even though everyone loved it, not sure if this was supposed to happen.
So any clues/suggestion where i am going wrong?
Best Regards,
Humayun
Hi again Humayun!
The thick chocolate mousse consistency would suggest that you have too much fat or solids in your mix. This is probably because of the extra fat from the dark chocolate and, to a lesser degree, the evaporation of an extra 15g of water.
If you make chocolate ice cream again, try this recipe:
Cream 30% fat: 623g
Milk 3.5% fat: 113g
Skimmed milk powder: 45g
Sugar 140g
Egg yolks 78g
I have reduced the fat content in the above recipe from 21.5% to 21% after reduction.
Let me know how you get on if you do give this recipe a go.
Hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
Hello. My name is Wendy. I’m from Korea and I’m 13 years old.
I am going to make this awsome ice-cream~
But I have a question… What happens if I don’t put vanilla extract?
Hello Wendy! You can make this recipe without vanilla extract. The vanilla extract makes the ice cream sweeter but I think it is just as delicious without it!
I hope you like the recipe.
All the best, Ruben
Hi Ruben!
I used 38% fat cream and 4% fat milk. I thought the reason of many fat particles that came from dark chocolate because I used 80g of dark chocolate(72% cocoa solids).
And I bought a book “artisan gelato”. The author introduced some kinds of gelato by using same method. He heated the mixtures of milk and egg yolk without cream. In the final step, the heated mixtures were added to the bowl containing fresh cream in ice batch and whisked continuously for a minute. After that, aged the mixture. Ruben, how do think about the non-heated cream method?
Have a nice day~ Ruben
Hi Dunphy!
I think you used too much chocolate in your recipe! Try using only 40g of chocolate and 20g of cocoa powder. There will be too much fat in your ice cream if you use too much chocolate.
If you think the recipe is too rich, I would recommend not using the vanilla extract. I have never tried heating just milk and egg without cream but I don’t think I would recommend this method because I don’t think the texture would be as creamy. If you didn’t heat the cream, the protein in the cream will not be able to undergo reversible denaturation, which contributes significantly to texture.
Also, the law in the UK states that you have to heat all of the ingredients together if you make ice cream to sell; I don’t know whether this is the same in Korea.
If you do try the non heated cream method, please tell me what you think!
I hope this e-mail helps but let me know if you have more questions!
All the best, Ruben
Hi! Ruben~~~
I’m working in Namyangju, Kyunggido. ^^
Ruben, the first time I made dark choco ice cream by using your recipe. However, there were so many white-fat particles after overnight aging. I did not know why that problem happened.
And I felt the fatty milk and egg tastes when I had it. How do you think about the reducing of milk cream and egg yolk percentage? Because above tastes are a little bit rich in Koreans.
Have a nice day~ Ruben!
Hello again Dunphy! The many white fat particles suggests that the fat content is too high in your ice cream. What is the fat content of the cream that you are using? It is very important that you use cream with the same fat content that I say in the recipe.
Before you try reducing the egg content, please tell me what the percentage of fat of the cream you are using is.
Speak with you soon! Ruben
Hello! Ruben!
My name is Dunphy Seo, living in Korea~~
First of all, my english is very poor. Therefore, plz understand when I write down some questions or articles about making ice cream or gelato~~
I have a very small cafe and try to make ice cream or gelato for expanding my new business. However, I never make ice cream or gelato. So, I had been searching for the machines and recipes, and I watched your video about Cuisinart maker. That was very helpful and I got your “icecreamscience.com”.
I think, I will be your big fan!! Your methods and recipes are very gorgeous.
I bought ICE-30 after getting your detailed review. Thank u!!
If you don’t mind, I want to share with you about the progresses of making ice cream by using natural ingredients.
Ruben, Thank u!
Anyung haseyo Dunphy! It is very nice to read your message from Korea! Where in Korea is your business? I think that making good-quality ice cream is an excellent way to expand your business. I remember that I found just Baskin Robins when I was in Korea, which was terrible ice cream.
I hope my blog helps you and please do keep in touch and share your progress on making ice cream with me!
All the best, Ruben
I am eager to try this recipe. One suggestion might be to convert the measurements to cups, I had to look up the conversion of grams to cups.
Hi there Rachel!
Thanks for getting in touch. That’s not a bad idea at all; I need to update the blog and will will include the quantities in cups in the revamp.
Let me know how you get along with the chocolate recipe if you try it. 🙂
All the best, Ruben
Hi Ruben!
What effect does the fat in the chocolate have to the mix? Is there a total fat content that you try to meet (25%, 33%, etc.)? I have Laduree’s chocolate ice cream recipe and they call for 20% of the total weight in chocolate (200g out of a 1000g mix), which contains a large amount of fat. Should I cut down a little bit on the milkfat?
I also found that a lot of chocolates, even Valhrona, uses soy lecithins. Do you know how much lecithin is contained in eggs? From a quick search I found that chocolates will Ted to have about 0.5% lecithin. With 200g of chocolate this brings in about 1.0g of lecithin.
Thanks,
David
Hi David!
The fat from the chocolate and cocoa powder gives the mix a nice creamy and dense texture; I don’t find it too rich or chewy. There isn’t a fat content that I try to reach with the addition of the chocolate and cocoa powder; both of these ingredients are added primarily to develop the chocolate flavour, as apposed to adding them to improve texture. You could try cutting down on the milkfat if you are using a lot of chocolate, although I am slightly hesitant to suggest a change in quantities as any change does have an effect on the texture of the finished ice cream. I will try and post the directions to create your own ice cream mix, that way you can come up with your own recipe.
I’m not sure what the percentage of lecithin in egg yolks is but I don’t think the added lecithin in the chocolate will have a substantial or detrimental effect on the finished ice cream.
I noticed that in your earlier post you mentioned that you couldn’t incorporate much air into your ice cream; this suggests that the higher temperature might have caused the proteins to undergo irreversible protein denaturation, or some other bad bad effect that I don’t know how put in science talk. Did your ice cream have a slightly sticky dry texture when you removed it from the machine? I would recommend you heating the milk together with the other ingredients to 71.4°C and comparing the texture.
Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on.
Hi Ruben!
I’ve made several batches using your recipes and they tend to come out of the machine pretty smooth, as in your videos. I was hoping to get more overrun so that it comes out of the freezer very soft, without having to wait 10-15 mins. Otherwise, everything seems to be working fine.
The percentage of lecithin in the yolks turns out to be approx. 0.25% (per http://www.livestrong.com/article/459593-amount-of-lecithin-in-eggs/).
I’m currently have a batch of chocolate ice cream aging in the fridge, ready for the machine this evening. I cut down on the cocoa powder in half and bumped up the chocolate (keeping the total cocoa content the same) to make it a milk chocolate rather than a dark chocolate. It came out of the heating process quite nice and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
On a side note, I’ve tried the milk chocolate recipe in Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream and found the texture to be pretty good considering the short heating time, but it wasn’t as smooth and sticky as in your recipes.
Hey David!
Try leaving the ice cream in the machine for about 25-30 minutes if you want to increase the overrun. With chocolate ice cream, I don’t think the texture will suffer too much as a result of an increase in the residence time. Give it a go and see how it compares to your original batch.
I’ve been meaning to try Jenni’s dark chocolate ice cream recipe but it is a little tricky trying to get hold of the ingredients here in the UK!