This vanilla bean ice cream recipe uses the science behind ice cream production to produce exceptionally creamy ice cream with an extremely smooth and buttery mouthfeel. The volatile flavour molecules in the vanilla extract give the ice cream an immediate burst of flavour that is followed by the sweet, creamy, rich, full bodied, and somewhat woody, flavour of grade A (or ‘black’) Bourbon vanilla beans.
You might also like to read:
• Lello 4080 Musso Lussino Ice Cream Maker – A Comprehensive Review
• Cuisinart ICE-100 Ice Cream Maker – A Comprehensive Review
• Fiber in ice cream
• The role of fat in ice cream
• Why is corn syrup used in ice cream?
PREP TIME
About 10 minutes
HEATING TIME
30 minutes at 77°C (170°F)
EQUIPMENT
Food thermometer
Ice cubes
Zip-lock freezer bag
INGREDIENTS
Cream
Milk
Sugar
Skimmed milk powder
Inulin
1 large grade A (or ‘black’) Bourbon vanilla bean.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Produces 800 ml (0.85 quarts) of ice cream mix
PART 1: QUICK-READ RECIPE
- To start, enter the fat content of your cream in cell B1, and the fat content of your milk in cell B2 in the mix composition spreadsheet. Press enter to update the spreadsheet. Cells B5 to B9 (in green) display the amount of each ingredient, expressed in grams, that you’ll be using for this recipe.
- Fill a large bowl with cubes of ice. Place a zip-lock bag next to the bowl ready for later.
- Run a sharp knife down the vanilla pod to separate it into two. Scrape out the sticky material containing the small black beans into a small bowl. Dice the two vanilla pod halves into small pieces or, preferably, grind in a coffee or spice grinder. Add to the bowl containing the sticky material and set aside for later.
- Before you combine your ingredients, weigh your pan and note down its weight.
- In your pan, combine the sugar, skim milk powder, inulin, cream, and milk. Stir well.
- Over a medium heat, bring your mix up to 75°C (167°F) whilst constantly stirring; this usually takes me between 13 and 15 minutes.
- Once the temperature reaches 75°C (167°F), turn the heat down to low, move your pan about 1/4 of the way off the heat, and continue heating and stirring until the temperature slowly reaches 77°C (170°F), which should take another 2-3 minutes.
- Keep the mix at 77°C (170°F) for 30 minutes, stirring constantly and adjusting the position of your pan to help regulate the temperature. Don’t worry if you go slightly over 77°C (170°F); just try and keep the temperature as close to 77°C (170°F) as you can.
- After 30 minutes at 77°C (170°F), take the pan off the heat and weigh it. Subtract the weight of your pan, which you wrote down earlier, from the total weight displayed on your scales to get the weight of your mix post-heating. If your post-heating mix weight is greater than 871g, place the pan back on the heat and continue stirring until you get it to 871g.
- Once you get the mix weight down to 871g, add the blended vanilla powder/diced pieces and sticky material. Put the pan back onto the heat and, whilst stirring, keep the temperature above 72°C (162°F) for 15 seconds to pasteurise the vanilla pod.
- Carefully pour your mix into the zip lock bag that you placed next to your ice bath. Seal the bag and place it in your ice bath.
- Once your mix has cooled to 7.2°C (45°F), which should take no more than 1.5 hours, place the zip-lock bag in the fridge and leave it overnight. To improve the extraction efficiency of the beans, I’d recommend sloshing the mix around the bag every few hours. This will give your ice cream a stronger vanilla flavour.
- The next day, carefully sieve your mix into a large bowl or jug using a clean wooden spoon to press down on the vanilla powder/pieces to extract as much of the flavour as possible. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the mix and pour it into your ice cream freezer.
- When your ice cream reaches between -10°C and -12°C (14°F and 10.4°F) (a cheap infra-red thermometer does the job nicely), quickly extract it from your machine and into a container. Place in the freezer to harden to a serving temperature of around -15°C (5°F), which should take 2 to 3 hours.
PART 2: LONG-READ RECIPE
Table of Contents
1. Mix composition spreadsheet
Don’t worry if the spreadsheet below looks confusing, I’m going to walk you through it step by step. You just need to pay attention to the cells in yellow, green, and blue.
Let’s start with the fat content of your milk and cream. For this recipe, you can use any kind of cream (US: light, whipping, heavy; Australia: light, thickened, single, double; Canada: half and half, table, whipping; UK: singe, double) that has a fat content above 19%. Here in the UK, the fresh double cream I use contains 47.5g of fat per 100ml, which equates to 47.5% fat, and the whole milk 3.7g of fat per 100ml, or 3.7% fat. You can use milk of any fat content.
To start, enter the fat content of your cream in cell B1, and the fat content of your milk in cell B2. Press enter to update the spreadsheet. Cells B5 to B9 (in green) display the amount of each ingredient, in grams, that you’ll be using for this recipe.
That’s all that we need to do to the spreadsheet for now; we’ll come back to it later after the heating stage.
2. Inulin
Inulin is a dietary fiber found in a variety of plant foods such as bananas, barley, chicory, and onions. It’s an ingredient that I’ve only just recently become extremely interested in not only because of its association with a wide range of health benefits, which include improved bowel habits (1), increased calcium absorption with positive effects for bone health (2), and a reduced risk of heart disease (3), but also because it significantly improves texture; I’ve discussed the texture enhancement abilities of dietary fiber in my post on fiber in ice cream.
3. Prepare an ice bath
The next step is to prepare an ice bath. An ice bath is a mixture of ice and water that you’ll use to cool your mix as quickly as possible to no more than 7.2°C (45°F) within a maximum of 1.5 hours. 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.
Fill a fairly large bowl about 2/3 of the way with ice cubes and place a large zip-lock freezer bag next to the bowl ready for later.
4. Vanilla beans
I’ve tested Tahitian, Indian, Bourbon, and Ugandan vanilla beans, and have found that grade A (or ‘black’) Bourbon beans have the best flavour and aroma. Bourbon vanilla is the term used collectively for beans from Madagascar, Reunion, Comoro Islands, and the Seychelles. The aroma is sweet, creamy, rich, full bodied, tobacco-like, somewhat woody, deep balsamic, and has sweet spicy back notes (4).
The only downside to grade A Bourbon beans is that they are ridiculously expensive. You can use lower grade B Bourbon, or Tahitian, Mexican, Indonesian, Indian, or Ugandan beans that are, generally, cheaper and will still give fairly decent results.
4.1. How to choose vanilla beans
When choosing vanilla beans, a high vanillin (>0.20%), high moisture (>20%) bean is the most likely to deliver the best quality flavour.
4.1.1. A high vanillin content
Vanillin is the most abundant of the vanilla flavour constituents, varying considerably from trace quantities to almost 3% by weight of cured vanilla beans, and is generally used as a prime indicator of flavour quality. The lower the vanillin content, the lower the quality of the bean, not just because of the vanillin itself, but also due to the other flavour notes that develop along with vanillin during curing.
4.1.2. A high moisture content
The moisture content of commercial vanilla beans varies from 10% for poor quality lower grade beans to 35% for gourmet beans (5). Drier beans are less aromatic than high moisture beans and flavour notes, such as pruney, woody, floral, fruity, and rummy, which develop along with vanillin during curing, do not develop and/or are lost, in over-dried (low moisture) beans (6).
4.1.3. Bean length
The length of the bean is also a good indicator of quality with grade A beans usually measuring over 15 cm (5.9″) in length.
4.2. Preparing your bean
Vanilla’s flavour is contained in two different parts of the pod (commonly referred to as the bean): the sticky material that contains the small black beans, and the pod wall.
On a chopping board, run the tip of a sharp knife down the pod to separate it into two. Using the back of the knife, scrape out the sticky material into a small bowl.
If you have a coffee or spice grinder, grind the two halves of the pod into a fine powder. Studies has shown that vanillin yield increases with decreasing pod particle sizes: powdered pods have a higher vanillin yield than 2mm and 5mm chopped beans (7). If you don’t have a coffee grinder, dice the two pod halves into small pieces; the smaller you can get them, the better.
Add your ground/diced pod halves to the same bowl containing the small sticky material and set aside for later.
4.3. Why use vanilla extract?
Rob Linforth, Principal Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham’s Faculty of Science, notes that as we eat, what we register most intensely is the rate of change of flavour: that is, we perceive a quick, powerful burst of flavour more intensely than a slow, gradual build up of flavour (8).
Flavour can be best defined as a combination of taste, aroma, texture, temperature, sight (and even sound) experienced by an individual when eating or drinking. Flavour results from two types of molecules: those that are volatile (i.e. small and light enough to evaporate from their source), which are responsible for aromas; and those that are non-volatile (i.e. don’t easily evaporate at room temperature), which are responsible for taste. It is generally believed that aroma is more important than taste in determining overall flavour, a generalisation that can be easily demonstrated by observing the difficulty in distinguishing between an apple and a pear if our nose is blocked by a cold or pinching fingers. Alcohol (vanilla extract is made up of alcohol, water, vanilla pods, and sometimes sugar), being volatile, releases aroma compounds relatively quickly, giving a quick burst of vanilla aroma as soon as it is eaten.
5. Heating the mix
Before you combine your ingredients, weigh your pan and write down its weight. You’ll use this measurement later at the end of the heating stage.
Add the sugar to your pan, followed by the inulin, skim milk powder, cream, and milk. Stir well.
For the next step, you’ll need a food thermometer and a timer.
Over a medium heat, bring your mix up to 75°C (167°F) whilst constantly stirring (this step usually takes me between 13 and 15 minutes). Once the temperature reaches 75°C (167°F), turn the heat down to low, move your pan about 1/4 of the way off the heat, and continue heating and stirring until the temperature slowly reaches 77°C (170°F), which should take another 2-3 minutes.
Whilst stirring, keep the mix at 77°C (170°F) for 30 minutes, adjusting the position of your pan to help regulate the temperature. Don’t worry if you go slightly over 77°C (170°F); just try and keep the temperature as close to 77°C (170°F) as you can.
5.1. Why heat the mix to 77°C (170°F) for 30 minutes?
I know that keeping the mix at 77°C (170°F) for 30 minutes is quite cumbersome, but it’s essential for two reasons: 1. to pasteurise the mix, and 2. to significantly enhance smoothness of texture by promoting reversible protein denaturation.
5.1.1. To pasteurise the mix
Ice cream needs to be pasteurised to destroy all pathogens and the enzyme phosphatase that may be harmful to health. Pasteurised ice cream can 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 (9).
5.1.2. To promote reversible protein denaturation
Milk proteins are classified in two major categories. The first and most abundant is the casein family, and the second the whey proteins. When milk proteins are subjected to heat treatment, the whey proteins may undergo structural changes, commonly known as denaturation. Protein denaturation involves 2 steps: an unfolding step at 70 to 78°C (158 to 172°F), and an aggregation step at 78 to 82.5°C (172 to 180°F), that mostly follows unfolding (10).
Heating milk so that the whey proteins undergo partial protein unfolding yields a more voluminous and more stable foam, improves the emulsifying characteristics of the proteins, imparts beneficial body and smoothness of texture, increases the meltdown time of the ice cream, and contributes to reduced iciness (11 12 13 14). Foaming and emulsifying characteristics, however, may be impaired if protein undergoes aggregation (15). Studies have shown a greater degree of protein denaturation with longer heating times (10 16).
6. Mix weight after heating
After 30 minutes at 77°C (170°F), the next step is to weigh your mix. This step is a bit cumbersome but I’ll go through it step-by-step with an example.
Here we go.
After 30 minutes at 77°C (170°F), take your pan off the heat and place it on a set of digital scales. Subtract the weight of your pan, which you wrote down earlier, from the weight displayed on the scales and write this post-heating mix weight down on sheet of paper; you’ll need this figure to update the mix composition spreadsheet later.
If your post-heating mix weight is greater than 871g, place the pan back on the heat and continue stirring until you get a post-heating mix weight of 871g; don’t worry if the temperature doesn’t rise back up to 77°C (170°F) during this extra heating time. If your post-heating mix weight is considerably lower than 871g (below around 771g) after 30 minutes, you can still go ahead and freeze your in your ice cream machine, but it will likely be too sweet.
EXAMPLE
After 30 minutes at 77°C (170°F), I take my pan off the heat and weigh it on my digital scales. The scales display a total weight of 1950g. I know that my pan weighs 1060g (I weighed the empty pan before I added all the ingredients) so I subtract 1060g (the weight of my pan) from 1950g (the weight of the pan and post-heating mix), which gives me 890g. I know that my target post-heating mix weight (cell E4) should be 871g so I will put the pan back on the heat and continue heating and stirring for another 2 – 3 minutes. After 3 more minutes, I take my pan back off the heat and weigh it again. This time the scales display 1931g. I subtract 1060g (the weight of my pan) from 1931g (the weight of the pan and post-heating mix), which gives me 871g. Success.
7. Cooling the mix
Once you get your post-heating mix weight down to 871g, add the blended vanilla powder/diced pieces and sticky material and put the pan back onto the heat. Whilst stirring, keep the temperature above 72°C (162°F) for 15 seconds to pasteurise the vanilla pod.
Switch the heat off and carefully pour your mix into the zip lock bag that you placed next to your ice bath, making sure that you scrape out as much of the vanilla powder/pieces as possible. Seal the bag and place it in your ice bath, which should, by now, contain a little melted water. If it doesn’t, add just a little bit of tap water.
Once your mix has cooled to 7.2°C (45°F), which should take no more than 1.5 hours, place the zip-lock bag in the fridge and leave it overnight. To improve the extraction efficiency of the beans, I’d recommend sloshing the mix around the bag every few hours. This will give your ice cream a stronger vanilla flavour.
8. Freezing your mix in your ice cream machine
The next day, carefully sieve the mix into a large bowl or jug, using a clean wooden spoon to press down on the vanilla powder/pieces to extract as much of the flavour as possible. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and pour your mix into your ice cream machine. I’d recommend reading my review of either the Lello 5030 Musso Pola, or the Cuisinart ICE-100, where I discuss the key principles of the freezing stage.
8.1. How do I know when the ice cream is ready?
Draw temperature (the temperature at which ice cream is extracted from the machine) significantly influences texture, with lower draw temperatures producing smoother texture. In my tests, I’ve found that ice cream extracted at between -10°C and -12°C (14°F and 10.4°F) is perceived smoother and creamier than that extracted at conventional draw temperatures of around -6°C (21.2°F). I’d recommend getting a cheap infra-red thermometer to read the draw temperature.
Quickly scoop your ice cream into a pre-chilled container and place it in the freezer to harden. It will take between 2 and 3 hours to get your ice cream to a serving temperature of around -15°C (5°F).
9. Mix composition spreadsheet adjustment
When I make this recipe, my mix weight usually decreases from a pre-heating mix weight of 1050g (cell E3) to a post-heating mix weight of 871g (cell E4), a result of the reduction of water through evaporation. It’s unlikely, however, that you’ll get exactly the same post-heating mix weight as I do because of a host of factors, including the size of your pan, rate of stirring, and room temperature, that affect the rate of evaporation.
If you don’t achieve a post-heating mix weight of 871g after 30 minutes of heating, I’d strongly recommend adjusting my Excel mix composition spreadsheet so that the next time you make this recipe, you’ll end up with the correct mix composition after exactly 30 minutes of heating.
To start, download the spreadsheet by clicking on the ‘download’ icon that’s four icons in from the right of the black bar under the spreadsheet; you won’t be able to save any changes you make to without downloading the spreadsheet. Enter your post-heating mix weight, which you wrote down earlier, in cell E4. Changing the post-heating mix weight will alter the mix composition so you will also need to adjust the data in cells B3, B4, E1, and E2, so that the data in row 11 (in blue) is as follows:
• Total solids (cell A11): 50%
• NFMS (cell C11): 12%
• Fat (cell D11): 18%
• Sugar (cell E11): 16%
• Inulin (cell F11): 4%
The spreadsheet will then update the weight of each ingredient in cells B7 to B9. The cream (cell B1) and milk (cell B2) fat content will be set to my default when you download the spreadsheet so make sure that you also update these to your cream and milk fat contents. Save the changes you make to the spreadsheet.
The downloaded mix composition spreadsheet will then be good to go the next time you make this recipe.
10. References
1. Marteau, P., Jacobs, H., Cazaubiel, M., Signoret, C., Prevel, J. M., and Housez, B., 2011. Effects of chicory inulin in constipated elderly people: a double-blind controlled trial. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 62.164-170.
2. Meyer, D., and Stasse-Wolthuis, M., 2006. Inulin and bone health. Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research. 4. 211-226.
3. Brighenti, F., 2007. Dietary fructans and serum triacylglycerols: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Nutrition. 11.2552-2556.
4. Ranadive, A. S. Quality Control of Vanilla Beans and Extracts. In: Havkin-Frenkel, D., and Belanger, F. C. ed. 2011. Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
5. Ranadive, A. S. Quality Control of Vanilla Beans and Extracts. In: Havkin-Frenkel, D., and Belanger, F. C. ed. 2011. Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
6. Gillette, M., and Hoffman, P., 2000. Vanilla extract. In: Francis, F.J. ed. 2000. Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology. 2nd Edn. John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 2383–2399.
7. Dong, Z., Gu, F., Xu, F., and Wang, Q., 2014. Comparison of four kinds of extraction techniques and kinetics of microwave-assisted extraction of vanillin from Vanilla planifolia Andrews. Food Chemistry. 149. 54-61.
8. Linforth, R. The Impact of a Droplet of Flavour. In: Blumenthal, H. (ed). 2009. The Fat Duck Cookbook. Bloomsbury.
9. Dairy Products (Hygiene) Regulations 1995, Schedule 6, part v 1 (a).
10. Sava, N., Van der Plancken, V, Claeys, W., Hendrickx, M., 2005. The Kinetics of Heat-Induced Structural Changes of B-Lactoglobulin. J. Dairy. Sci. 88:1646-1653.
11. Schmidt, K., Lundy, A., Reynolds, J., and Yee, L. N., 1993. Carbohydrate or protein based fat mimicker effects on ice milk properties. Journal of Food Science. 58(761–763):779.
12. Alvarez, V. B., Wolters, C. L., Vodovotz, Y., and Ji, T., 2005. Physical properties of ice cream containing milk protein concentrates. Journal of Dairy Science. 88:862–871.
13. Patel, M. R., Baer, R. J., Acharya, M. R., 2006. Increasing the protein content of ice cream. Journal of Dairy Science. 89:1400–1406.
14. Goff, H. D., 2008. 65 Years of ice cream science. International Dairy Journal. 18(7).
15. 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.
16. McKenna, B. M., and O’Sullivan, A. C., 1971. Whey protein denaturation in concentrated skimmilks. Journal of Dairy Science. 54.1075-1077.
HALO RUBEN, im very happy to find ur blogs, and i was read ur blog and i know u are a ice cream consultant. so, actually i send email to you for asking you to help me for make a cashew nut milk ice cream recipe coz i have a task to make cashew nut ice cream with best formula with no egg, no inulin, and skimmed milk powder, i wanna use non dairy whipped cream, cashew milk, sugar, stabilizer, emulsifier. Thank you ruben, i hope u read my message and directly u reply.
Hi Ruben,
I was wondering if it would be possible tofollow this when making vegan ice cream (as I’m lactose intolerant) using cashew milk/cream, coconut milk, and coconut oil?
Thanks in advance!
Or perhaps doing an almond milk , cashew milk/cream & coconut oil combo?
i really want to make it but why am i not seeing any mesurements of how much of each ingredient to put ?
Hey Kate,
Thanks for getting in touch. The quantities of each ingredients, in grams, are listed in cells B5 to B9 (the cells coloured in green) of the mix composition spreadsheet, which you can find under PART 2, 1. Mix composition spreadsheet.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand.
All the best,
Ruben
What an excellent, thorough, thoughtful and refreshingly open blog. Quite the accomplishment.
Thank you for sharing
Hello everyone , so I been Experimenting with different ice cream flavors etc but have one continuing issue . I cannot Have regular sugar so I am Using monk fruit . The taste is good the ice cream is smooth but it comes out of the freezer extremely hard . Should I add Some type of fiber to help . I also Substitute corn syrup with honey . I know Regular sugar would most likely fix this but it’s a no go and I really Like ice cream. I have Tried some of the vegan stuff in the stores and they are very soft so I figure There is a way just not sure how to proceed .
HI Ruben,
I tried the above recipe and was blown away by the results. It was smooth, creamy and had amazing flavour. Thank you for sharing this recipe. However, my ice cream was soft even after hardening in freezer for 8 hours at -20°C degree, it had a wet appearance and it melted as soon as it was scooped. This has happened everytime, I tired the recipe. The only deviation from the recipe was that temperature fluctuated between 76 to 77 during the 30 minutes period and I aged the mixture at 2°C, for a day. Is this normal or I have made some mistake?
Hi Nidhi,
With regard to your question about the egg-free vanilla recipe, the inulin depresses the freezing point, or lowers the temperature at which the water starts to freeze, which means that less water is frozen at a given temperature, which in turn makes the ice cream soft. To raise the freezing point and make your ice cream harder, you could try reducing both the inulin and sugar content in the recipe by 1%. Let me know if you need a hand with this.
With regard to the fast meltdown, this is a consequence of not using egg yolks or an emulsifier because there is significantly less fat destabilisation during whipping, which means the air cells aren’t as stabilised, resulting in faster meltdown. To combat this, you could try using a stabiliser, something like sodium alginate or xanthan gum at 0.2% but you will then need to reduce the fat content.
I hope that helps.
Ruben
Thank you for the revert. I am trying to solve the problem of meltdown without adding any stabiliser. Let’s see how its goes. Will revert as I come across anything.
Hi Ruben, can I skip the step of pasteurising milk at 77°C for 30 minutes if I only use pasteurised milk products? All the milk products available, where I live, are pasteurised. Thanks for a brilliant site!
Hi Ruben!
A great fan of your blog or a finer student! I don’t have a icecream machine, I don’t want to invest in a icecream maker right now. Since I have only a hand held whisk, In the above process, if I pasteurise only milk, milk solids, insulin and sugar, chill it, beat it and then fold it with whipped cream will it ok? If not please suggest a few methods to make a decent icecream at home without icecream maker, i am sure not everyone in UK or US too do not have icecream makers. Awaiting your response.
Cheers
Jey
You can follow rubens method and recipe exactly, chill your mix in fridge for 3-4 hours and then move it to freezer, let it turn hard and the next day whip it using electric whisk on low for 1 minute until its pliable then beat on high for 7 minutes. You will get the same icecream with atleast 30% air.
oh my god! I cant believe i replied to my own comments exactly after a month.
Hi Ruben,
Great work on posting an egg free version of the ice cream, which specific make of inulin do you use ?, as there is lots out in the market.
Hi there Vee,
I used chicory inulin for this recipe.
Hope that helps.
Ruben
Thank you Reuben for your wonderfully informative site!
I found it when searching for a Strawberry & Balsamic Vinegar ice-cream recipe, which I’d imagined had to be A Thing given how well these ingredients go together! The slow pasteurisation/evaporation technique you espouse was a revelation, giving a result so much smoother than any I’d acheived in years of home ice-cream production (despite bastardising your instructions as explained below). I use an old-ish Krups GVS2 machine which still works after more than twenty years. The bowl has a higher capacity than other machines I’ve tried (1.5qt I think).
In a vain attempt to restrict my indulgence I make a base recipe with less eggs & sugar than usual – 650ml milk, 300ml cream, 1 whole egg, 75gm sugar (no milk powder). From memory the machine’s original recipe book advised to heat the mix to C90º until it thickens, “like a very thin custard” which I’ve always done. Using your method, even after 25 minutes at C72º this thickening (which I always assumed was necessary for correct texture) didn’t occur so I then cranked up the temperature briefly to achieve the thicker consistency before cooling rapidly with the ice bath. Before churning I usually add a small amount of liqueur (usually Baileys) which seems to prevent it getting too icy.
Following your above instructions I’ve ordered some inulin so I can try without egg altogether (plus skim milk powder) but I wonder if I can ALSO reduce the cream/fat content as you describe on the Fiber in Ice-cream page, perhaps by increasing the inulin ratio to 6% and reducing the fat by 25%? Or have you found 4% inulin to be the maximum without compromising other qualities?
Thanks in advance for any advice…
Hey Ben,
Thanks for getting in touch. Glad to hear you got good results with my pasteurisation method. ‘Bastardising’ my instructions made me chuckle. Have you tried reducing the fat in the egg free recipe? You could try increasing the inulin content to 6% and slightly reducing the fat by a few percentage points but I wouldn’t recommend reducing it by 25%. In my tests, I found that 5% inulin worked better than 6%. 6% inulin produced ice cream that melted faster and surprisingly wasn’t as smooth as 5%. You could also try combining 5% inulin with 0.5% citrus fiber and then reducing 18% fat by 25%.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
First and foremost, thank you so much for making your incredible work public. Either the recipes, or the comprehensive reviews would be worth bookmarking on their own. The two combined, incredible!
I just ordered my Cuisinart ICE-100 based on your recommendation and I’m very excited to take her for a spin!
One question: have you ever used an immersion circulator for heating your mixes? I’m keen to simply adjust my target fat to 24% in your recipe spreadsheet, and heat the mix sealed in a vacuum bag at the precise target temperature with no evaporation.
As adjusting my initial target ratio compensates for the evaporated water with a higher cream/milk ratio, I don’t expect any impact to the results, but would love to hear if you have any direct experience!
Thank you again for your incredible work
Cameron (NYC)
Hi Cameron!
Thanks for getting in touch. How are you getting on with your ICE-100? I haven’t tried using an immersion circulator before but this may work, depending on how vigorously it is able to stir/disperse the mix. I have had quite a few people get in touch saying that they have successfully made ice cream using the sous vide method if that’s what you’re after. I thought about using this myself but don’t like the idea of my mix being in contact with plastic for such a long time, especially at 77°C. Have you tried prepping a mix sous vide with a closed bag?
All the best,
Ruben
Churning my first batch as we speak, can’t wait to taste it! I share your concerns about the plastic, so I used the stovetop method for my first attempt.
I’m thinking for my first sous vide attempt I might heat the mix on the stovetop to 170 to avoid any lingering in the danger zone on the heat-up. Then rather than attempt to hold at 170 on the stove while stirring, transfer to a sterilized 1.5QT mason jar, and immerse in a water bath preheated to 170 degrees. I think the occasional shake of the jar should keep things well-mixed for the tempering period. Will report back with my results!
I have made my last few batches using a sous vide machine (Anova). I used a deep pan full of water, and hung a pyrex jug on the edge of the pan (or stood on a small ramekin). It’s taken a couple of times to get it right.
The induction hob I have, makes controlled heating of a pan of mixture difficult. Hence resorting to the Anova. One advantage of this technique is that once you balance the temperature, the mixture tends to remain at a very steady temperature. The disadvantage is that it is slower than using a direct heat to achieve temperature, and achieve suitable reduction; I have only used this with an egg based mixture though.
The mixture cools very well in the pyrex jug, partially submerged in icy water, and can also be stored in the fridge by pushing a layer of clingfilm down onto the surface of the mix to exclude air.
Hope this helps!
I would like to do this recipe with a sous vide as well, but I can’t figure out what I need to adjust on the sheet. Any help here? I’m assuming I need to adjust the total mix fat and total nfms but I can’t get the ratio correct to keep all the ingredient solids % to be in line with your final %s.
Hi Nick, what is the fat percentage of the milk and cream that you’re using? I’ll put together a sous vide recipe for you once I have this info.
All the best,
Ruben
It looks like for what’s available to me, I will have 35% fat cream and 3.5% milk. They don’t specifically call that out on the packaging so I am using the nutritional facts on the back to calculate total grams of fat to total weight of a pint of cream/milk which is supposedly 464 grams. Hopefully that logic makes sense.
Ruben, I’ll be curious if you adjust the recipe for use with a sous vide… We just got our ice cream machine this past weekend, in part chose the one we got based on your extended review. But also lead to us trying Anova’s sous vide ice cream recipes to start, as had seen those when they came out and wanted to try another use for our sous vide… they came out great; however, I do think there is definite room for improvement and more accurate measurements for repeatable results.
So would definitely be curious on how to tweak your spreadsheets to factor this in. As I think a sous vide provides a more consistent heating environment vs a stove top pan, so far less concern for error.
Hey Bryan,
Thanks for getting in touch. Please see the reply to Nick’s comment above. I’m going to buy a sous vide machine and post a recipe when I have some time as I’ve had quite a few enquiries about sous vide ice cream.
Let me know if you need a hand.
All the best,
Ruben
Nick I had to google a few of the brands at my grocery store (in the US) as wasn’t on the package. Many of the ones I found were either 36% or 40%.
So here’s what I have. Let me know if my method makes sense….
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Land-O-Lakes-Heavy-Whipping-Cream-1-Pint/15556068
This is 5g of fat per serving, 32 servings to a pint. That gives me 160g of fat per pint. Where I’m having trouble is finding the weight of a pint of heavy cream.
This site (https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight) says that a pint of “Cream, heavy, heavy whipping” is 480g to a pint. So 160g/480g = 33.3% fat content.
Again, without buying it and weighing it (which I plan on), I can say precisely. But I think the method is sound and is probably fairly close.
Hey Nick,
My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. The land O lakes cream contains around 34% fat, a bit annoying that the carton contains ‘about 32 servings’ but hey. With cream at 34% fat and milk at 3.5% fat, try the following recipe sous vide:
Cream 394g
Milk 181g
Skim milk powder 56g
Inulin 31g
Sugar 117g
Blend all the ingredients using a hand blender. Heat at 77°C for 60 minutes. It would be interesting to do a test run where you keep the bag open and insert a thermometer to see how long it takes for the mix to reach 77°C so then you can start the 60 minute timer once the mix is at 77°C. Starting the timer as soon as you dunk the closed bag in the sous vide bag will still give pretty good results though. The above will give you roughly 700ml of mix. I’ve taken down the sugar content by 1% so I’d be interested to hear if you think the ice cream is to sweet, and also what the texture is like.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
I have been reading up on a lot of your Ice Cream recipes and noticed that the Double Cream you use is Not pastureized and not homogenized. All of the milk and cream that I can find here in the U.S. supermarkets only sell pasturized and homogenized products. Do pasturized and homogenized dairy products yield an inferior ice cream and is it still ok to use your recipes with pasturized and homogenized milk and cream? Thank you so much for all your knowledge!
-Alex
Hello,
I’ve only scratched the surface of your website and I’m truly fascinated at it’s detail and conciseness. Really well done. Thank you for all your well documented work! Do you think you could apply the method you describe to most conventional ice cream recipes? Basically do you think most recipes would benefit from a prolonged cooking period? Generally speaking.
Also, why do you choose to add the vanilla extract before churning as apposed to the night before as you did with the physical bean. Does the alcohol in the extract do something adverse?
Thanks again!
Hi Ruben.
What would the shelf life be on this do you think?
Hi there,
That’s a good question. I haven’t tested the shelf life but my guess is between 1-3 weeks at -18°C, a bit longer if you can get the temperature of your freezer down to -24°C.
All the best,
Ruben
Hi Ruben,
I’m a little confused about Section 9 in this recipe and the new vanilla gelato one. The numbers for all the categories (except eggs) are the same percentages for both recipes. I was under the impression that the main differences between ice cream and gelato were the different compositions. I thought the ice cream would have higher fat content than the gelato as well as less sugar. I’d appreciate it if you could fill me on the differences/similarities between these two.
Thanks!
Hey Kelsey,
Thanks for getting in touch. Well spotted, I didn’t update the values in section 9 in this recipe when I copied it from the gelato recipe, oops. I’ve corrected the post-heating values in section 9.
Thank you for pointing that out. I’d love to get your feedback on how difficult/boring the recipe is to follow if you do give it a go.
All the best,
Ruben
Kelsey, the estimated fat content for the finished gelato on my download spreadsheet is 8% whereas for the ice cream (above) it is 18%, the other vectors are similar.
Separately, I did have a problem downloading and opening the spreadsheets in LibreOffice 6.0.3.2 which gave an error ‘The data could not be loaded completely because the maximum number of columns per sheet was exceeded.’
Have you tried opening the spreadsheet in Excel Tony? I haven’t tried opening it in LibreOffice before.
Thanks Ruben and Tony,
Once I downloaded the spreadsheets I saw the difference. I did end up making your gelato recipe today (with a few mods), but I’ll leave that comment on that recipe page.
Thanks for sharing all your knowledge Ruben!
Looking forward to reading your feedback, especially on what you don’t like about the recipe 🙂
I don’t have access to Excel, but I did manage to open it with Google Sheets and seems to be working ok.
🙂
As always Reuben , a comprehensive step by step guide – brilliant ! Thank you for all you do ! Marie Amesbury (Lyme Regis, UK)
😀