This coffee ice cream recipe produces extremely smooth, dense, and creamy ice cream with an intense coffee flavour. It will be split into three sections: SECTION 1: The Science of Ice Cream Making and Preparation Tips; SECTION 2: Full Recipe; and SECTION 3: Quick-Read Recipe.
Please click here to read SECTION 1: The Science of Ice Cream Making and Preparation Tips. I strongly recommend starting with this section.
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SECTION 2: FULL RECIPE
PREP TIME:
About 15 minutes
HEATING TIME:
About 35 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
Cream
Full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed milk
Unrefined sugar
Skimmed milk powder
Egg yolks
80g Gourmet whole coffee beans or ground coffee
50g Vodka
Produces just under 900 ml (0.95 quarts) of ice cream mix
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF MILK FAT
Milk fat contributes significantly to the rich, full, and creamy flavour and to the smooth texture of ice cream (Goff & Hartel, 2013). Not enough milk fat is likely to produce ice cream that is coarse or sandy, whereas too much will likely result in a heavy buttery texture. Above is the spreadsheet I use to calculate my mixes and I’ve included it for you guys to accurately calculate the quantities of milk and cream that you’ll need. It’s based on the mix formulation calculations in Ice Cream (7th ed) (2013) by Goff & Hartel, which I highly recommend reading.
It’s important that you check the fat content percentage of the milk and cream that you’ll be using. Here in the U.K, our double cream and skimmed milk contain between 47.5% and 50.5% and less than 0.5% of milk fat respectively. You can use full-fat, semi-skimmed, or skimmed milk.
To start, enter the fat percentage of your cream in the yellow Cream Fat % cell located on the top left of the spreadsheet. Do the same for the milk fat percentage in the yellow Milk Fat (%) cell. PRESS ENTER, OR CLICK ON A DIFFERENT CELL, FOR THE SPREADSHEET TO UPDATE. The spreadsheet will then display the quantities of milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and skimmed milk powder needed (in grams) in the cells in blue.
2. PREPARING COFFEE EXTRACT
Belitz et al. (2009) describe flavour as the interaction of taste, odour, and textural feeling which results from compounds divided into two broad classes: those responsible for taste, and those responsible for odours.
2.1. TASTE COMPOUNDS
Taste compounds are generally nonvolatile at room temperature, meaning that they interact only with the taste receptors on the tongue (Belitz et al., 2009). The four important basic taste perceptions are provided by sour, sweet, bitter, and salty compounds.
2.2. AROMA COMPOUNDS
Aroma compounds, on the other hand, are volatile, meaning that they evaporate at room temperature and are perceived by the odour receptor sites of the nose. They reach these receptors in two ways: 1. through the nose; and 2. via the throat after being released by chewing (Belitz et al., 2009).
Myhrvold et al. (2011) argue that it is the aroma that gives a food most of its characteristic sensor signature and that what we smell in our nose is as important or more so than what the mouth tastes. Similarly, McGee (2004) argues that most of what we experience as flavour is odour.
Alcohol, being volatile, releases aroma compounds relatively quickly, giving a sharp burst of flavour. We’ll therefore be using a tincture, or an alcohol infusion, to give our coffee ice cream a sharp burst of flavour. In my tests, coffee ice cream made with 2 teaspoons of coffee extract had a more pronounced flavour than that made without coffee extract.
For the coffee extract, infuse 10g of freshly ground coffee with 50g of vodka in your fridge overnight.
TABLE 21.7. Odourants of roasted coffee. From Belitz et al. (2009).
2.3 EXTRACTING FLAVOUR
Most of the aroma compounds in coffee are non-polar and so dissolve more in fat, oil, or alcohol, than in water. We’ll be steeping ground coffee beans in our mix overnight to dissolve the flavour compounds in the mix. The milk fat in ice cream hangs on to aroma compounds during eating meaning that their flavour appears more gradually and lasts longer (McGee 2004).
3. 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’ll be using the zip lock bag and ice bath to ensure that the mix is cooled as quickly as possible after heating. This minimises the time the mix spends in the ‘danger zone’, between 5°C (41°F) and 65°C (149°F), where bacteria likes to multiply. The longer your mix spends in this temperature range, the more bacteria is likely to multiply and impart an undesirable taste and smell.
4. HEATING THE MIX
Weigh your pan and record its weight. We’ll use this weight to check whether we’ve achieved the desired 13% 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’re constantly stirring. You’ll risk burning the milk proteins and curdling the egg yolks if you do not constantly stir the mix. It takes me 10 minutes to get my mix up to 71°C (160°F).
Once the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), turn the heat down to low, move your pan slightly off the heat, and continue heating and stirring until the temperature reaches 72°C (162°F). Use a food thermometer to keep your mix at 72°C (162°F) for 25 minutes, adjusting the position of your pan to help regulate the temperature. Don’t worry if you go slightly over 72°C (162°F); just try and keep the temperature as close to 72°C (162°F) as you can.
5. COOLING THE MIX
After 25 minutes of heating at 72°C (162°F), take the pan off the heat and weigh it. If the weight is greater than 1044g 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 to 1044g plus the weight of the pan.
Carefully pour the mix into the zip-lock bag and seal. Place the sealed bag in the ice bath and pour about a tablespoon of salt onto the ice to lower the temperature and cool the mix faster.
6. GRINDING THE COFFEE
Once the mix has cooled to about 10°C (50°F), use a coffee grinder to finely grind 70g of coffee beans. You can also use ground coffee as long it’s fresh. Add the ground coffee beans to the zip-lock bag and mix well. Once the mix has cooled to below 5°C (41°F), place the zip-lock bag in the fridge and leave overnight to age and to extract the coffee flavour compounds.
TIP #1 – ADD THE COFFEE TO THE COLD MIX
During testing, I found that adding the ground coffee to the mix at room temperature or below produced ice cream with a more pronounced coffee flavour. This compared to adding the ground coffee to the mix during the heating stage, which produced ice cream with a more subdued flavour.
7. CHURNING THE MIX
Once you’ve aged your mix overnight, sieve your mixture into a large bowl. You’ll need to spend a good 10 minutes using a large spoon to press down firmly on the ground coffee to extract the flavour. You’ll get a nice dark-coloured and stronger coffee flavour the more of the mix you extract from the ground coffee. The small coffee granules that seep through the sieve will add flavour and colour and won’t adversely affect texture.
Pour the mix into your machine followed by 2 teaspoons of the coffee extract.
TIP#2 – FREEZER BOWL WALL TEMPERATURE
If you’re using an ice cream machine with an in-built compressor, with the bowl in the machine, switch on the compressor and leave it running for 15 minutes before adding the mix. This will ensure that the freezer bowl is as cold as possible when the mix is added, which increases the rate of nucleation and reduces residence time.
TIP#3 – EFFICIENT HEAT TRANSFER
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. 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.
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, resulting in greater ice crystal growth.
8. DRAW TEMPERATURE
Your ice cream will be ready when it develops a nice dry, stiff texture, and starts forming ribbon-like swirls. It should have a draw temperature (the temperature at which the partially frozen ice cream is removed from the machine) of between -9°C and -12°C (15.8°F and 10.4°F) with a lower draw temperature usually resulting in smaller ice crystals (Arbuckle, 1986).
Below are the residence times and draw temperatures for the domestic machines I’ve tried:
- Lello Musso Pola 5030 Dessert Maker: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 13 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
- Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker: 600 ml (0.63 quarts) – 16 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
- Cuisinart ICE-100 Ice Cream and Gelato Maker: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 35 minutes, -10°C (14°F).
- Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker: 700 ml (0.74 quarts) – 34 minutes, -9°C (15.8°F).
- Whynter ICM-200LS: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 28 minutes, -10°C (14°F).
- Cuisinart ICE 30-BC: 900 ml (0.95 quarts) mix – 34 minutes, -11°C (12.2°F).
9. EXTRACTION TIME
The extraction time (the time it takes to get your partially frozen ice cream out of your machine and into the 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, resulting in coarse or grainy texture.
TIP#4 – QUICK EXTRACTION
Just holding ice cream at a relatively warm room temperature as you extract it from your machine results in an increase in mean ice crystal size and a decrease in the number of ice crystals present. It’s therefore important that you extract the ice cream from the freezer bowl and get it into your freezer as quickly as possible.
10. THE STATIC FREEZING STAGE
At a draw temperature of between -9°C and -12°C (15.8°F and 10.4°F), your ice cream will have a consistency very similar to that of soft serve ice cream and will need to be placed in your freezer to harden. After about 4 hours, depending on your freezer, your ice cream will have a nice firm scoopable consistency, somewhere around -15°C (5°F), and be ready to serve.
11. SERVING YOUR ICE CREAM
Serve your ice cream at around -15°C (5°F). As the serving temperature is increased from -14.4 (6.1) to -7.8°C (18°F), flavour and sweetness become more pronounced.
If you do give the recipe a go, I’d love to hear your thoughts so please do get in touch. Please help other chefs by using the stars at the top of the page to rate the recipe and please spread the love on facebook with the buttons below. Ruben 🙂
SECTION 3: QUICK-READ RECIPE
- For the coffee extract, infuse 10g of freshly ground coffee with 50g of vodka in your fridge overnight.
- The next day, fill a large bowl with some ice. Place some table salt and a zip-lock bag next to the bowl ready for later.
- Combine the sugar, skimmed milk powder, egg yolks, cream, and milk in a large pan. Heat over a medium heat until the temperature reaches 71°C (160°F), making sure you’re constantly stirring.
- When the mix reaches 71°C (160°F), quickly turn the heat down to low and position your pan slightly off the heat. Continue heating and stirring until the temperature reaches 72°C (162°F).
- Once the mix reaches 72°C (162°F), continue heating for 25 minutes, whilst constantly stirring. Keep the temperature as close to 72°C (162°F) as you can throughout this 25 minute heating period.
- After 25 minutes of heating, carefully pour the mix into the zip lock bag and seal. Place the bag in the ice bath and pour about a tablespoon of salt over the ice.
- Once the mix has cooled to room temperature, grind 70g of fresh beans and add to the mix in the zip-lock bag. Stir well. Place the mix and ground coffee in your fridge and leave to age and infuse overnight.
- The next day, sieve the mix into a large bowl. Spend a good 10 minutes or so pressing down on the coffee beans to extract as much of the flavour as possible. .
- Pour the mix into your ice cream machine, followed by 2 teaspoons of the coffee extract.
- After about 30 minutes of churning, depending on your machine, quickly empty the ice cream into a plastic container and place in the freezer for about 4 hours to harden.
- After about 4 hours, your ice cream will have a nice firm consistency and will be ready to serve.
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., and Hartel, R. W., 1998. Computer simulation of ice recrystallization in ice cream during storage. Journal of Food Engineering 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. Journal of Dairy Science. 74.
Donhowe, D. P., 1993. Ice Recrystallization in Ice Cream and Ice Milk. PhD thesis, University of Wisconsm-Madison.
Donhowe, D. P., and Hartel, R. W., 1996. Recrystallization of ice in ice cream during controlled accelerated storage. International Dairy Journal. 6.
Drewett, E. M. & Hartel, R. W., 2007. Ice Crystallization in a Scraped Surface Freezer. Journal of Food Engineering. 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. Journal of Dairy Science. Volume 82. 7. 1399–1407
Goff, H. D., 2012. 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. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 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. Journal of Food Science. 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., Rotaru, G. & Hendrickx, M., 2005. Heat-induced changes in solubility and surface hydrophobicity of β-Lactoglobulin. Agroalimentary Processes and Technologies. Volume 11. 1. 41-48.
Great post, thank you for it and your research. I found that steeping the coffee grounds overnight produced an off flavor that was not enjoyable, but also it was very difficult to get all the grit out of the mixture, even when re-straining it.
What worked beautifully was a half a cup of strong decaf espresso — eg ristretto-ish double shots until a half cup. (I know everyone might not have an espresso machine, so I would recommend a half a cup of very strong brewed coffee.) I offset this 120g of liquid per your formulas with around the same volume of 35% heavy cream. I also skipped the alcohol-steeped coffee but threw in a shot of Stoli at the churn.
Other minor tweaks to your great base: A tablespoon of 100% chocolate powder, one of Madagascar vanilla, one of EV coconut oil, and a teaspoon of sea salt. This came out like a professional batch: smooth & creamy with great coffee flavor. Raves all around!
Made this twice now — first time in accidentally used regular cane sugar vs the unrefined.
This was the best batch of ice cream I’ve made yet (I’m still new to this).
Coffee ice cream is my favorite and I’m on a mission to try every recipe that sounds good. If i find one that i think rivals this, I’ll post.
Open issue: I’m not sure I’ve found the optimal strain size to keep the coffee grounds out but avoid making the straining process an ordeal.
Noob question. I read the full and short recipes twice but don’t see at what point the coffee extract is added to the mix. apologies if I’m just missing it.
Hey Troy, thanks for getting in touch. You’ll get a more delayed flavour release of you just infuse the beans in the mix, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you use the extract as well, you’ll get a sudden release of coffee flavour from the extract as soon as you out the ice cream in your mouth, followed by a slower flavour release as from the butterfat. Both compliment each other, not using the extract will also give you great ice cream. Hope that helps, Ruben
thanks Ruben. just to confirm, should I add the extract before I start heating the mix? or do I wait until after the mix is reduced and cooled and add the extract with it when it goes into the machine for churning? or does it matter?
love your site, btw
The latter, you’ll evaporate a lot of the flavour molecules if you add the extract before heating.
Hello Ruben,
Congratulations on your approach to ice cream making, I have made many recipes over the years, but yours are far and away the best. The creaminess and the texture are perfect. I tried the pistachio and the lemon curd and everyone agreed my ice cream making had reached a new high. I have tried ice cream using gum, but I found it too sticky. I would much rather do the 25 minute thing.
What I particularly liked about your approach was that provided I use the spreadsheet, an accurate set of scales, a thermometer and a clock, I do not have to worry, I know it will be right. It is a scientific approach, it is a bit fiddly, but at the end of the day a lot more relaxing than just trying to decide if the custard “coats the back of a spoon” etc.
In Australia we generally get cream at 35% fat and our low fat milk is 5%. The recipe spreadsheet adapted to this, no problem. As I like to make ice cream for Christmas, I did have to change the timing of preparing the ice bath though, as if I got out the ice 30 minutes before I needed it, it would all be melted for sure, as it is hot here at the moment.
I have just made the coffee ice cream and it is currently ageing in the fridge before churning tomorrow, so not sure how it will turn out. I accidentally used the proportions for the pistachio ice cream, which I can now see are a bit different, but I’m hoping it won’t matter too much. I see you have a picture of a very nice bottle of Australian red wine, so I might give that one a go.
Thank you for sharing your recipes, your approach and your knowledge, it is very generous of you. If we can ever travel again I’ll come to Manchester and buy a cone, just to see how mine compares.
Debra
Hi Debra,
Thanks for getting in touch and for the very kind feedback. I’m going to try and make the recipes a little less fiddly by adding water back into the mix after heating; this will remove the need to end up with a certain mix weight.
I hope your coffee ice cream turns out well and you’ll be more than welcome to stop by my kitchen for a sample if you ever make it to Manchester.
All the best to you in Australia,
Ruben
Ruben,
Have you tried different roasts in this recipe? I made a batch using French roast (although not your recipe and it only including a steeping step using whole beans (1.5 C.) in my base at app. 160°F for 60 min), and the flavor was very intense, and a bit to burnt/ashy/bitter for my liking. I’m actually not a coffee drinker, so my knowledge of the various roasts is limited. I plan to experiment, but was hoping you had some thoughts.
Cheers,
-Drew
Hi Ruben
Thank you for taking the time to create such an informative website.
I managed to get hold of an older secondhand cuisinart ice50bc and this was the first thing I made in it.
It was absolutely delicious! I certainly won’t be buying any again!
Kind regards, Emma.
Hi Ruben,
I had a taste of a deep and flavorful matcha (green tea) ice cream at a Japanese restaurant and was not able to taste anything even close to it elsewhere. The ice cream was a matcha bomb, bitter with deep matcha notes and not too sweet. The color was a deep almost brown-green.
Anway, I am trying to re-create it at home with your techniques and was wondering if I should follow your Coffee recipe here to seep matcha powder in vodka overnight or follow your Earl Grey Tea recipe to re-create this matcha ice cream?
My second question is my whole family and I are on a low sugar diet for health reasons (I know, but I am a ice cream/dessert fanatic). Is there any way I could reduce the sugar in the recipes?
May I use whole milk powder instead of skim?
Thank you so much, I truly enjoy reading your posts and learning so much about the science behind ice cream. It’s so important to me that i understand the reasoning behind each step and you are so great at teaching it.
Thank you very much and I look forward to your reply!
Hi Ruben,
First of all I must congratulate on your comprehensive ice cream science and fantastic tasting recipes. I use your spreadsheet all the time and it consistently produces great ice cream, even though I use a 25% low fat cream with 3.5% milk. I have a couple of questions:
1) The 72 degree heating process is quite time consuming. I usually heat it to 79 to just pasteurize and thicken the mixture. Does the 72 degree method really make that much of a difference?
2) Do you use a special kind of sieve to filter the coffee granules as my sieve lets in way too many granules.
Thanks
Hey Mayank,
Thanks for getting in touch. Great to hear the spreadsheet is helping.
Yes I agree that the heating method is quite cumbersome but it makes a huge difference to texture because of the effect of prolonged heating on the proteins.
I need to update this recipe. I’d recommend a coarse coffee grind and sieving the ground beans a bit before you add them to the mix. This will remove the finer grinds that get into your mix.
Hope that makes sense and helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Hey Ruben, awesome site!!
A question regarding the heating of the mixture, is it possible to skip the 71-72 degree step and just add to a bag in a 72 degree sous vide bath and let it reach the 72 degree temperature? 🙂 And just massage the bag from time to time?
Heu Marcus!
Thanks for getting in touch and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
Yes I’ve had quite a few people get in touch on here saying that they have had success with the sous vide method. My guess is that you would first probably need to heat all of the ingredients in a pan to dissolve the solids, and then transfer to a sous vide bag. You would also need to adjust the recipe using my spreadsheet as you will get very little, if any, loss of water through evaporation.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand and please do let me know how you get on with the sous vide method if you give it a go. I might try and publish a sous vide recipe on here when I get a chance.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben!
I can’t tell you how excited I am that I came across your post. I made this recipe yesterday and I’m just waiting for it to freeze before I serve it to my guests tomorrow. Anyway, I have a million questions for you but I’ll try and keep it brief.
1. What kinds of non-processed sugars do you recommend? (do you use different sugars for different flavours of ice cream?)
2. I know your recipes don’t include stabilizers, and I’m still not sure how I feel about them. If you were going to sell pints, would you use stabilizers?
3. What is the shelf life on your ice creams? (obv. you’d want to serve them right away, but what if customers bought pints-to-go)?
4. Have you done much experimenting with fruit? I recently tried a few different batches of Strawberry Ice Cream, and they all turned out quite icy, lacking that oh so smooth creamy texture. If you have any advise, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance, I love what you do!
Laura
Hi there Laura!
Thanks for getting in touch. How did your ice cream turn out? I need to update this recipe with a few new points that I’ve learnt this summer. I’ve tried non-refined light brown sugar, light muscovado, and dark muscovado, and each contribute a different flavour: the dark muscovado gives a strong molasses flavour that might work well with certain added flavours. At the moment, I use refined sucrose because I found that the un-refined sugars contributed flavours that I didn’t want when adding ingredients like pistachio.
Your second question is a good one. So, I’ve tested my pistachio ice cream, which doesn’t contain stabilisers, after 4 weeks of storage at -24°C and found that the texture was still incredibly smooth and creamy. For ice cream with a lower solids content, something like vanilla, I think the shelf-life will probably be shorter than the pistachio, which has a higher solids content from the added pistachio paste. increasing the storage temperature to -18°C, which is the temperature most people at home have their freezer set to, will also result in a slightly shorter shelf life. At the moment, I’m happy with a shelf-life of 4 weeks and so I don’t have any plans on using stabilisers.
I can’t say that I’ve done that much experimenting with fruit flavours, other than balsamic strawberry ice cream and roasted banana ice cream, but this is something I want to test once the busy summer season is over.
Hope that answers your questions. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
This was by far the best ice cream I’ve made to date! I used some single origin roast beans from Guatemala that I had in my cupboard and was very happy with the flavour. I think the biggest difference between this recipe and ones I had previously made, was the slight chewiness added from the skim milk powder. I served it at a family gathering last night and everyone was very impressed. I’m excited to see what flavours you create in the future 🙂
Hello Ruben,
It’s me again from the red wine ice cream post. I will try making this recipe now, but I think you’ve omitted an important instruction for those of us who have coffee grinders: how fine should we grind our coffee? A good grinder has a large amplitude for the coarseness of the grind, from the coarser stuff for french press and traditionally filtered coffee, to the finer stuff for espresso or even turkish coffee.
I use my grinder to make espresso only and I will probably try at that setting, which due to the finer grind should have more surface area for the coffee and hence more flavor extraction, but on the other hand I’m afraid too much ground coffee will pass through the sieve. It’s possible this might even affect the weight of ground coffee that should be used, although with such large extraction times the coffee grinds may be fully spent even at a coarser setting.
Thanks for any guidance, and by the way, although I thanked you previously for the recipes, I should also thank you for the science posts, which to me are equally enlightening.
Hello!
Thanks for getting in touch. Hope this reply reaches you before you try the recipe. I need to update this recipe as I have had better results using coarsely ground beans. I’ve found that too much ground coffee gets through the sieve with finely ground beans. It can be a bit unpleasant on texture if too much ground coffee gets through. I’d recommend coarsely ground beans, I have quite a few large bits of ground bean when I blitz my beans in my grinder. I only blitz for a few seconds.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need me to clarify anything.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
I read your posting interestingly .
I have question, by the way, Is there anything that substitutes for vodka?
I intend not to use alcohol due to some reasons.
Thanks ,
Joje
Hi there Joje!
Thanks for getting in touch. I haven’t found anything that you can substitute for alcohol when making homemade extract. You can leave the coffee extract out of the recipe and still get very good ice cream though.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and please let me know how your ice cream turns out if you give this recipe a try.
All the best,
Ruben
Summer is coming… I’m taking notes 🙂
Thanks for well written and clear instructions. I’m Turkish and will try with turkish coffee(it’s sold in ground form) – i wonder how it will turn out.
All the best.
I made this finally. I used finely ground coffee that is used for turkish coffee. For that reason i had to use a cheesecloth to sieve the final mix. Looking at the pictures you’ve taken, i see that you didn’t use a cheesecloth. So maybe i should use a less fine ground coffee. But i liked this method. Intense coffee flavour.
Also i want to post this formula for people that may have to use 35 % fat cream and 3.5 % fat milk like me:
cream: 668g
full fat milk: 211g
skim milk powder: 57g
sugar: 170g
egg yolks: 94g
total weight: 1200g
fat weight to total weight percentage : 20.1% = (19.485% for cream) + (0.615% for milk)
Thanks for sharing Alp! 🙂
🙂
Hello Ruben. Uliana here again. 🙂 Thank you for your email. I use a home made cream that local farmers cooperative make for me, they say it is 20% but I really think it is around 35%. I need to figure out how to measure the fat percentage of it myself so I know exactly.
Anyways, I have been using your method and calculating it as 35% cream and 3% milk and the results are good. So, until I figure out the exact fat percentage of their cream, if you could help me calculate the rations with 35% cream and 3% milk that would be great. THANK YOU!
Hi again Uliana!
It’s a good idea finding out the exact fat content of the cream you’re using as soon as possible. Even a slight difference in the fat content of the cream you’re using to that that you should be using will likely have an effect on the texture of your ice cream.
If you’re using cream at 35% fat and milk at 3%, give the recipe below a go try:
Cream 734g
Milk 159g
Skimmed milk powder 146g
Egg yolks 101g
Sugar 146g
This will give you roughly a 1000g mix after 25 minutes heating. I’ve decreased the sugar content from 16.29 to 13.99% after reduction. I’ve had to compensate by increasing the fat content to 25%, which I suspect will make your ice cream a little heavier and richer. I haven’t tried this recipe myself so don’t know for sure how it will turn out but do give it a try.
I hope that helps. Let me know how you get on.
All the best,
Ruben
Thank you Ruben. 🙂 Any idea how I can find out the fat percentage of cream. I don’t think they are measuring it right.
No problem 🙂 That’s a good question. I’m not sure how to calculate the fat content in milk or cream but I think you have to send it off to a lab for testing.
Good luck!
Hello Ruben. I run a small ice-cream shop in central America and have been experimenting with different mixes and recipes for 2 years now. I have just started trying yours and love it! I had a big problem with my vanilla ice cream before, it tasted greasy and buttery. My guess is that I wasn’t cooking it for long enough/evaporating the water for long enough. It tastes much better now and the texture is amazing. I had a few questions:
1. I find the recipes are quite sweet to my taste, I like my ice cream less sweet. I want to adjust the sugar content however worried that it will throw other things off. I am not used to do gram measurement. My old recipes had ratio of 1cream:1milk:0.5sugar. The sweetness was perfect. Any way you can help me adjust your recipe so it is not as sweet but still works?
2. I usually multiply your recipe by 6 (so it fits my pan size) and that’s the amount we make. I do have a problem however that it take us a long time to do a batch. It takes about 4 hours from the start to the end of the mix. What pots can I buy to maybe speed up this process (you mentioned that the cooking time depends on the sizes of the pots). Even when I did just your single recipe it never took 25 minutes, maybe double that.
3. I prefer not to add any powdered milk, can I avoid this? We are actually trying to do chocolate today without the powdered milk to see how it works. I just don’t like to tell customers that we add powdered milk. Plus it is hard to find a good and inexpensive powdered milk where I am.
4. I think the last batch of vanilla I made tasted kind of eggy. Does your one do that? I know that some people believe that it is a good thing when vanilla tastes eggy. I know that it wasn’t cooked over 72 degrees, so that shouldn’t have been the problem.
Thank you thank you thank you for your amazing website.
Hi there Uliana!
Great to hear my method is churning out some good ice cream! Sure, I can try giving you a hand altering my recipe to reduce sweetness. I’ve just had a play around with my recipe and have been able to increase the fat content to 25%, non-fat-milk-solids to 11%, egg yolks to 4.62%, and decreased the sugar content from 16.29 to 13.99% (all percentages are after reduction). Just send me the fat content of the milk and cream you’re using and I’ll send through an updated vanilla ice cream recipe for you. I haven’t tried this new recipe myself so don’t know whether it will work.
Yes it will take you considerably longer to prepare a 6 litre batch. Larger diameter pots will help reduce the heating time, as will increasing agitation, or stirring. I haven’t tried making 6 litre commercial batches yet so don’t know the best way to significantly reduce heating times. It might be that you will just have to accept longer heating times for commercial batches using my method.
You can omit skimmed milk powder but this will mean significantly increasing heating times to compensate, which is not what you want to hear. Using just milk and cream does not give you sufficient protein to produce smooth texture. You could try using condensed milk instead of skimmed milk powder.
Did you get an eggy taste using my recipe? I don’t get an eggy taste in mine so it may be because you heated above 72°C or perhaps the 4 hour heating time had a negative effect on the yolks.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Ruben,
Hi! Yes,I think a short summary would be helpful.
I didn’t find anything difficult in the recipe steps, but wondered if it could be streamlined by combining everything in a blender before putting in the pan. You might have to start with the liquids and gradually pour in the sugar/milk powder as the blender is going.? I think I may give it a try– any reason why not that you can think of?
I have an ICE-20, which I don’t think is on the market anymore. Someday in the distant future I may splurge on a compressor machine, but the ICE-20 has done pretty well for me thus far.
I’ve made coffee ice cream in the past by steeping grounds in hot milk using a french press, which worked, but I really liked your way of doing it – the flavor was indeed more pronounced. I was a bit surprised as I’m not normally a fan of cold-brewed coffee.
I’ll have a go at the vanilla this weekend I think.
Anyway, thanks again!
Hi again Cory!
Thank you for the feedback; very much appreciated. I actually think it would take longer using a blender to combine the ingredients before heating but don’t see any reason why you couldn’t give this a go though.
Please do let me know how you get on with the vanilla ice cream 🙂
All the best,
Ruben
Hey Ruben,
A wonderful recipe and detailed tips on ice-cream making. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi there Shaheen!
Thanks for getting in touch and thank you for the kind words!
I hope the recipes help.
All the best,
Ruben
You used to recommend heating the mixture for 60 minutes. What has changed?
Hi there Hodie!
Thanks for getting in touch! I did indeed used to recommend heating the ice cream mix for 60 minutes at around 71.4°C. I got a lot of feedback from people on the blog who said that 60 minutes was simply too long so, to make the recipes more accessible, I have reduced the heating time to 25 minutes and changed the recipes slightly by including skimmed milk powder and increasing the fat content. This has resulted in smooth and creamy texture that is comparable to that made using the 60 minute method.
I’d love to get your feedback on the new 25 minute method, or anything else on the blog, if you do give the recipes a go 🙂
I hope that answers your question. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else!
All the best,
Ruben
Sorry for the late reply, but thank you! I will give this new approach a try.
🙂
I’ve made a few batches of your vanilla ice cream recipe and while looking at this new recipe post, I noticed you specify unrefined sugar(also recommended in the vanilla recipe which I hadn’t noticed before). I’m curious if you mean something like turbinado sugar or maple sugar? I have had good success using refined white sugar but just wondered what you use in your recipes.
Hi there Bruce!
Great to hear from you! How did you get on with the vanilla ice cream recipe? This is the unrefined cane sugar that I use: http://www.billingtons.co.uk/sugars/golden-granulated/. Turbinado would probably work, although I haven’t tried it myself. Brown or muscovado would be too strong for vanilla ice cream. I haven’t tried maple sugar before.
I prefer unrefined to white sugar simply because there is less processing involved but the difference in flavour in vanilla ice cream is minimal; both work well.
I hope that answers your question. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
I had really good results with the vanilla ice cream using your recipe. I’ve tried a few other recipes from other sources and while these turned out good, using your techniques and recipe resulted in the best ice cream. I do have another question…looking at some of your older recipes you were recommending cooking the mix for 60 minutes at 71.4 degrees C. Do you still advise cooking these older recipes for that long or is 25 minutes sufficient?
Great to hear your vanilla ice cream turned out well 🙂 I did recommend heating at 71.4°C for 60 minutes for recipes without the use of skimmed milk powder. I got a lot of feedback from people on the blog who said that 60 minutes was simply too long. I’ve tried to make the recipes more accessible by bringing down the heating time to 25 minutes and using skimmed milk powder to get the same smooth and creamy texture achieved using the 60 minute method. I’m in the process of updating all the recipes to reflect the new 25 minute heating method.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
“Turbinado would probably work, although I haven’t tried it myself. Brown or muscovado would be too strong for vanilla ice cream. I haven’t tried maple sugar before.”
Actually tried the vanilla which I have previously always made with refined caster sugar, with muscovado after noticing the ‘unrefined’ for the first time. Overwhelms the vanilla, but makes for a very nice Brown Sugar Ice Cream.
…and +1 for the science of… sections being separated from the recipes. More, shorter, well linked sections are easier to read, easier to take in, and easier to navigate.
Having said that, the recipes are still well worth all the extra scrolling.
🙂
Hi,
Great and very thorough post, thanks. I’m wondering if, for your regular readers, it could benefit from a summary. At a high level your coffee ice cream recipe is your creme anglaise base recipe + coffee flavour in the form of coffee infused in Vodka. Stating it so would make it I think easier and more enjoyable to read for people already knowing your work 🙂
Hi there Xavier!
Thanks for getting in touch! I think a recipe summary for regular readers is a great idea! 🙂 Would you find a summary more helpful at the beginning or the end of the post?
I’d love to get your feedback on the recipe, or anything else about the blog, if you do give it a try.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi, this is an excellent blog/site etc.! I have a question regarding evaporation – (this may be a dumb question and/or answered elsewhere, my apologies):
When evaporating, only the water content will reduce, correct? Thus the mass of solids in the initial mix and final mix should be equivalent. I ask as I would think that the final solids percentage should simply be the final (aka initial) mass of the solids (in the case above, roughly 567 grams) divided by the (reduced) mass of the final mix (if we reduce by 13%, the final mass is 1044 g as stated above). Thus the final solids percentage should be 54%, not 50.72%.? I wouldn’t be surprised if I am missing something though!! 🙂
Also, why have I never seen anything about evaporation in any of the texts and articles on ice cream that I have read? Seeing this on your site was a bit of a “Eureka!” moment as I have wondered why my batches in the 30-35% solids range never really turned out that well. I use an old ICE-20 machine at home, and usually brought the mix up to 160ºF (sorry, I’m in the US and use mixed units!) or thereabouts and removed, without any appreciable reduction.
Anyway, I’m excited to try some of your recipes and the evaporation technique! Thanks!
Hi there Cory!
Thanks for getting in touch! Yes you are absolutely right; I was using the wrong formula to calculate the total solids content after reduction. I’ve updated the spreadsheet with the new formula. I think you’ve earned yourself some free ice cream so do get in touch if you make it across the other side of the pond! 🙂
I suspect that one of the reasons you haven’t read about evaporating ice cream mixes is probably because it costs time and money. Commercial ice cream manufacturers usually add the more cost-effective skimmed milk powder or condensed milk to increase the total solids (primarily the protein content) and so don’t need to evaporate any of the water.
Evaporation is key in mixes without skimmed milk powder or condensed milk as a way of increasing the protein content. For the recipes I’ve listed on the blog, I include skimmed milk powder to increase protein and so evaporation is simply a by-product of the 25 minute heating technique, which I’ve found significantly improves body and texture most probably because of the reversible protein unfolding that takes place. I know that the guys at Jenni’s ice cream evaporate their mixes for around 2 hours.
Thank you again for pointing out the error on the spreadsheet. Do get in touch if you have any other questions. It would also be great to get your feedback on any of the recipes you try 🙂
All the best,
Ruben
Thanks for the clarification! 🙂 I’ve been developing an ice cream/sorbet spreadsheet of my own, so I was curious…
It definitely makes sense that industry would use the NFDM to boost the numbers inexpensively.
I guess that explains why recipes I’ve made featuring condensed milk have turned out so well (the water’s already been evaporated). All of that said, I’m not above using skim milk powder or condensed milk if needed– it’s nice to have options!
I’m going to pick up a fresh bag of coffee beans fairly soon, so I think I’ll give this recipe a whirl. I’ll definitely let you know how it turns out. I’ve got to measure freezer and fridge temperatures first though!!!
There are a lot of really good ideas and info here, so keep up the good work!
Please do let me know how your ice cream turns out if you give the recipe a go! 🙂
All the best,
Ruben
Finally got around to trying this recipe after a busy week or two. Turned out extremely well. Only compliant was that it disappeared rather quickly….
Followed the recipe exactly – the only think changed is that my freezer can’t quite get cold enough (-5ºF is as low as it gets unfortunately). Fantastic coffee flavor and excellent overall texture. My wife said it was one of the best ice creams I made (and I’ve made a lot!). I used a tart, fruity Kenyan bean, and the flavors really came through in the finished product.
I really like your ice cream method – it’s very well thought-out. The zip-lock bag/ice bath cooling idea is genius!
One interesting thing I noticed – I churned the mix for about 25-30 minutes – the temperature ended up getting quite a bit lower than 19-23ºF before the texture looked right (dry and ribbon-like swirls, as stated above). Around 14ºF, I recall. I guess I attribute this to the relatively high amount of solids in the (evaporated) base compared to ice cream recipes I am used to, but I’m not really sure…
I know that when brewing coffee, some soluble solids are extracted – do you think this happens to an appreciable extent with the overnight steep in the custard mix?
Thanks again for the great recipes – I’m looking forward to trying the vanilla next!
Hi again Cory!
Great to hear the recipe turned out well! 🙂 Your freezer at -5°F isn’t bad at all; anything colder than about -2°F works well for machines with a removable bowl. The fruity Kenyan bean sounds great, I really need to experiment with different beans!
Can I ask whether there is anything about the recipe that you found tricky, did not like, or found difficult? I’m updating the recipes at the moment and want to make them easier for people to try. Do you think an additional section with just very basic numbered instructions would help? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Ice cream is usually drawn, or extracted, at around -21°F so your 19-23°F sounds about right. Yes you’re right that the high total solids content in the evaporated mix, especially the sugar and coffee extract if you added some, depresses the freezing point, which means your ice cream needs to be colder than you’re used to before it develops a nice firm and dry consistency. Did you use the Cuisinart ICE-30?
Yes I’ve found that steeping the coffee in the cold ice cream mix overnight allows for substantial flavour extraction. I found that adding the coffee to the hot mix in the pan didn’t produce as strong a flavour, presumably due to the loss of a proportion of the volatile flavour compounds in the beans. You could try adding the coffee to the zip lock bag whilst the mix is still warm to see how that compares. I wouldn’t recommend adding brewed coffee or espresso because of the loss of volatile flavour compounds, which would probably subdue the flavour.
Please do let me know how the vanilla turns out if you give it a try! 🙂
All the best,
Ruben