Ingredients for homemade ice cream

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

Don't use that junk. Condensed and powdered milk taste like [censored].
Use less milk and more cream. If you're using a "mix," it'll probably
be pretty marginal no matter what else you do.

--Bryan

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

I am hardly an expert on making ice cream, but I know a little. It seems
to me that you are trying to duplicate the cheap tricks that the
commercial manufacturers use to reduce costs and increase profits. If
you are going to make the effort of making your ice cream at home, why
not do it right?

Wouldn't you rather have some rich and fantastic ice cream, fatty and
fattening as it may be, once a week than some watered down pseudo-ice
cream every day?

--
Peter Aitken

"Peter A" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

I am hardly an expert on making ice cream, but I know a little. It seems
to me that you are trying to duplicate the cheap tricks that the
commercial manufacturers use to reduce costs and increase profits. If
you are going to make the effort of making your ice cream at home, why
not do it right?

Wouldn't you rather have some rich and fantastic ice cream, fatty and
fattening as it may be, once a week than some watered down pseudo-ice
cream every day?

--
Peter Aitken

Amen to that Brutha Peter!

Keith (Who just this weekend made both a fantastic fresh peach/vanilla and a
Chunky Monkey imposter for 2 different social events....neither were of the
low-fat low-flavor variety)

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

One of the advantages of making your own ice cream is the good ingredients
that go into it. I have never heard of adding cornstarch, and I just can't
see the advantage, other than making a more pudding-like consistency. I use
the ice cream custard base from the recipe book that came with my Cuisinart
ice cream maker:
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
2 Tblsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cups sugar

Scald the milk and cream mixture. Meanwhile beat the sugar, egg yolks and
vanilla until light and frothy. When the cream is scalded, stir some of the
hot mixture into the egg mixture to temper, return it to the pot and cook
over low heat, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes until it is thick
enough to coat the spoon. Let it cool, then refrigerate it to get it as
cool as possible before putting it into the freezer.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

One word - BLECH! Sounds positively disgusting. Ice cream is so easy to
make, why ruin it with shortcuts?

Ice cream is made from heavy cream, milk and sugar. That's it. Some
recipes call for raw eggs. The rest is all flavorings. The butterfat
content determines the richness while the amount of air you churn into it
determines the texture.

Cornstarch, powdered milk, condensed milk, cooked custard are just never
found in old fashioned ice cream. Get yourself a real ice cream freezer,
plenty of ice and rock salt and make it right. You'll be glad you did. The
results are well worth it.

Paul

Thanks for your answers, but I think there was some misunderstanding -
I am sorry for not having made myself clear.

I was adding powedered milk just to increase milk solids; I do use
heavy cream, of course, to increase butterfat content. But butterfat
and milk solids are different things, and have different effects:
insufficient butterfat would result in bad texture (ice particles),
while insufficent milk solids make ice cream feel kind of "too light",
"not enough body". I am using the same ingredients as mentioned above
( 2 cups cream + 2 cups milk + 3 eggs etc), but the ice cream comes
out as too light, IMHO.

BTW, regarding the recipe above: for some reason everybody recommends
to prepare custard with the milk only, and add cold whipping cream
only to the refrigerated custard, right before the final step in the
ice cream maker. Basically, the cream should not be heated, I believe.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

Are you going to put in carrageen, BHT, BHA, artificial flavor, yellow #5
and other chemicals? Probably not so don't put any of that stuff in either.
Good icecream has only cream, maybe milk, sugar, fruit or nuts, and maybe
egg yolk.

Philadelphia Vanilla

This famous recipe, named after the city of Philadelphia that was once the
ice cream capitol of America, is simple to make and has a particular
delicate flavor. Its only ingredients are cream, sugar, and flavoring.

6 cups of light cream
1 cup of sugar
3" vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Heat cream until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add sugar. Stir until
dissolved. Allow to cool, then scrape the seeds from inside the vanilla
bean, and add to the cream with salt. Stir again. Chill the mixture, then
pour into ice cream freezer and stir until very stiff. Leave in freezer to
ripen for a few hours before serving. Makes two quarts.

Peach

Fresh fruits make healthful, delicious flavorings for homemade icecreams.
Raspberries or other full-flavored fruit can be substituted for peaches in
this recipe.

6 cups of light cream
1 1/4 cups of sugar
Pinch of Salt
1-2 cups of peach pulp

Heat cream to just below boiling point. Remove from heat, add sugar and
salt, and stir until dissolved. Add peach pulp when cool. Makes two quarts.

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups Milk

2 cups Whipping cream

2 Eggs -- beaten

1 1/4 cup Sugar

2 medium Ripe bananas -- peeled

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/8 teaspoon Ground nutmeg

Directions:

Ina saucepan combine milk, cream, eggs, and sugar.

Cook and stir over low heat until mixture thickens slightly and coats the
back of a spoon. Cool to room temperature.

Puree bananas in blender ( 1 cup). Combine cooled custard, bananas, vanilla,
salt and nutmeg. Pour into freezer container. Freeze according to
manufacturer's directions.

Dave Smith said:

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Quoted message said:

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

One of the advantages of making your own ice cream is the good ingredients
that go into it. I have never heard of adding cornstarch, and I just can't
see the advantage, other than making a more pudding-like consistency. I use
the ice cream custard base from the recipe book that came with my Cuisinart
ice cream maker:
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
2 Tblsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cups sugar

Scald the milk and cream mixture. Meanwhile beat the sugar, egg yolks and
vanilla until light and frothy. When the cream is scalded, stir some of the
hot mixture into the egg mixture to temper, return it to the pot and cook
over low heat, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes until it is thick
enough to coat the spoon. Let it cool, then refrigerate it to get it as
cool as possible before putting it into the freezer.

Now THAT is a recipe. I'd up the vanilla a bit, but I always do in
pretty much every recipe that calls for vanilla. I'd also add that
the yolks should be very free of egg white, which is icky raw.
I'm as effusive with compliments as insults. Good ingredients in, a
darned good chance of good food out, as long as people don't scorch
instead of merely scald.

--Bryan

Quoted message said:

Thanks for your answers, but I think there was some misunderstanding -
I am sorry for not having made myself clear.

I was adding powedered milk just to increase milk solids; I do use
heavy cream, of course, to increase butterfat content. But butterfat
and milk solids are different things, and have different effects:
insufficient butterfat would result in bad texture (ice particles),
while insufficent milk solids make ice cream feel kind of "too light",
"not enough body".

Huh. I've made ice cream with very high-fat cream (and therefore, with
low milk solids) and the only thing wrong with it is it is way
too rich, such that you can't eat more than a tiny amount. The
texture is just fine (to me, anyway).

Steve

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Thanks for your answers, but I think there was some misunderstanding -
I am sorry for not having made myself clear.

I was adding powedered milk just to increase milk solids; I do use
heavy cream, of course, to increase butterfat content. But butterfat
and milk solids are different things, and have different effects:
insufficient butterfat would result in bad texture (ice particles),
while insufficent milk solids make ice cream feel kind of "too light",
"not enough body". I am using the same ingredients as mentioned above
( 2 cups cream + 2 cups milk + 3 eggs etc), but the ice cream comes
out as too light, IMHO.

BTW, regarding the recipe above: for some reason everybody recommends
to prepare custard with the milk only, and add cold whipping cream
only to the refrigerated custard, right before the final step in the
ice cream maker. Basically, the cream should not be heated, I believe.

No, don't heat the cream. And again, it is the slow, steady churning, while
freezing that whips air into the mixture. This is where the texture comes
from. Tooo much air is not good, too little neither. Powdered milk just
tastes nasty and I can't think of it being any help in a recipe.

Paul

On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:25:55 -0400, Peter A <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

Another question: to increase body of the final product, I am adding
condenced or powered milk to the mix. But both of them (especially
powedred milk) has rather strong flavor, kind of salty, it is very
much out of place in the ice cream, so I cannot add more than 2
tablespoons of powdered milk per quart of the mix. Is there powedered
milk with more neutral flavor ?

I am hardly an expert on making ice cream, but I know a little. It seems
to me that you are trying to duplicate the cheap tricks that the
commercial manufacturers use to reduce costs and increase profits. If
you are going to make the effort of making your ice cream at home, why
not do it right?

Wouldn't you rather have some rich and fantastic ice cream, fatty and
fattening as it may be, once a week than some watered down pseudo-ice
cream every day?

I agree 100%. I have a KA ice cream attachment for my mixer that works
great. My only question in the recipes is that it calls for
egg-yolks(raw). A lot of people are queasy about using raw,
un-pasteurized eggs & recommend "Egg-Beaters" or the like. I can't
seem to find any egg beaters with just the yolks(I live in the
boonies). Is there such a product?

<[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

I was adding powedered milk just to increase milk solids; I do use
heavy cream, of course, to increase butterfat content. But butterfat
and milk solids are different things, and have different effects:
insufficient butterfat would result in bad texture (ice particles),
while insufficent milk solids make ice cream feel kind of "too light",
"not enough body". I am using the same ingredients as mentioned above
( 2 cups cream + 2 cups milk + 3 eggs etc), but the ice cream comes
out as too light, IMHO.

Find the real reason, such as churing at the wrong speed or wrong
temperature. Powdered milk is not needed and I've nver had an ice cream
that was too light. If anything, they are on the heavy side.

I did try all these simple recipes, with high quality ingredients
(organic milk and cream), and the ice cream comes out Ok. I am using
"Gelato by Lello" maker, I think it is pretty standard.

The final product is too soft unless I use cooked custard. And it
always feels less "full" in mouth than off the shelf ice creams, hence
my attempts to increase milk solids. But in any case, it is a far cry
from, let's say, Movenpick. I guess industrial processes do make a
difference. Or may be it is Swiss cows...

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I did try all these simple recipes, with high quality ingredients
(organic milk and cream), and the ice cream comes out Ok. I am using
"Gelato by Lello" maker, I think it is pretty standard.

The final product is too soft unless I use cooked custard. And it
always feels less "full" in mouth than off the shelf ice creams, hence
my attempts to increase milk solids. But in any case, it is a far cry
from, let's say, Movenpick. I guess industrial processes do make a
difference. Or may be it is Swiss cows...

The final product is rather soft but I assume you mean before it has been
allowed to chill in the freezer for a few hours, right? Seriously, is your
freezer cold enough? It should be around 20F or colder. I have not made
ice cream in quite a while, but when I did I used a hand crank freezer. The
ice cream was done when you just could not crank it any more. But it always
required at least 3 hours more in the freezer otherwise it had a soft-serve
consistency to it.

Heck, even my sherbets would be almost rock hard. And they have just water,
sugar and juice. My problem was not too soft, it was too hard.

Paul

Paul M. Cook said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I did try all these simple recipes, with high quality ingredients
(organic milk and cream), and the ice cream comes out Ok. I am using
"Gelato by Lello" maker, I think it is pretty standard.

Quoted message said:

The final product is too soft unless I use cooked custard. And it
always feels less "full" in mouth than off the shelf ice creams, hence
my attempts to increase milk solids. But in any case, it is a far cry
from, let's say, Movenpick. I guess industrial processes do make a
difference. Or may be it is Swiss cows...

The final product is rather soft but I assume you mean before it has been
allowed to chill in the freezer for a few hours, right? Seriously, is your
freezer cold enough? It should be around 20F or colder. I have not made
ice cream in quite a while, but when I did I used a hand crank freezer. The
ice cream was done when you just could not crank it any more. But it always
required at least 3 hours more in the freezer otherwise it had a soft-serve
consistency to it.

Heck, even my sherbets would be almost rock hard. And they have just water,
sugar and juice.

In the US sherbet typically contains some small amount of milk,
usually low fat milk. What you describe (juice n' sugar) is sorbet...
or depending on texture could be ices or granitas.

It's difficult to accurately describe frozen confections as every
locale on the planet has it's own unique traditional product.. even
hand scraped sno-cones can differ substantially as to texture and
flavorings from city to city, town to town, village to village. When
I was a kid a sliver of ice stolen from the ice man's truck was the
best summer treat, I guess because it was stolen. Later as a teenager
I sold Good Humor ice cream on the Coney Island beach... finally
graduated from trekking on fiery sand in the hot sun to driving a
Bungalow Bar truck. The very best ice crem I have ever eaten to date
was made by Barton's Bonbonaire, they had only vanilla and coffee,
their coffe ice cream sandwiches were to die for... I worked in their
kitchen at 80 DeKalb Ave, Brooklyn. That was chocolate... nothing
else compares.

Sheldon

Quoted message said:

I did try all these simple recipes, with high quality ingredients
(organic milk and cream), and the ice cream comes out Ok. I am using
"Gelato by Lello" maker, I think it is pretty standard.

The final product is too soft unless I use cooked custard. And it
always feels less "full" in mouth than off the shelf ice creams, hence
my attempts to increase milk solids. But in any case, it is a far cry
from, let's say, Movenpick. I guess industrial processes do make a
difference. Or may be it is Swiss cows...

It sounds like you are doing just fine, but then you're not ripening the
ice cream (repack in ice and salt and let it freeze hard.) I'm not
familiar with gelato makers; guessing it's not cold enough.

Try using a can of sweetened condensed milk to add milk solids (it will
also add a lot of sugar, so adjust acordingly)

Bob

Quoted message said:

Try using a can of sweetened condensed milk to add milk solids (it will
also add a lot of sugar, so adjust acordingly)

This brings us back to my original question. Condensed milk does not
taste good in ice cream (and sweetening does not kill this taste). May
be I shoudl try to scald the milk used in custard for long time, so
some liquid gets vaporised out of it, but somehow I doubt it will
work 🙂

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Try using a can of sweetened condensed milk to add milk solids (it will
also add a lot of sugar, so adjust acordingly)

This brings us back to my original question. Condensed milk does not
taste good in ice cream (and sweetening does not kill this taste). May
be I shoudl try to scald the milk used in custard for long time, so
some liquid gets vaporised out of it, but somehow I doubt it will
work 🙂

If you scald it that long, it will taste burnt. The problem is in the
processing, not the ingredients. When you say it is too soft, do you mean
right out of the machine? It will be soft until ripened in the freezer. Do
you mean it does not harden enough over time? It may be over processed and
has too much air in it.

More details of the problem will help; just don't start adding stuff to make
it the equivalent of store bought cheap stuff.

Quoted message said:

Some recipes mention cornstartch as a custard ingredient for cooked
custard ice cream, while others don't. What difference does it make ?

I've seen ice cream recipes that call for flour in some old
cookbooks. If a recipe calls for flour or cornstarch it's cooked
until it comes to a boil and the mixture thickens slightly. The
amount of flour or cornstarch used is only enough to thicken the milk
and cream slightly and to give it more body. Using just milk and
cream makes an ice cream that may seem too watery to some people.
Using all cream makes an ice cream that is too dense and rich. You
also run the risk of getting flecks of butter in your ice cream. Eggs
or egg yolks will also help the texture but some people can't eat eggs
and some ice cream flavors taste better witout the egg flavor. I
prefer to use unflavored gelatin as a thickener. I usually use one
and a half .25oz. size envelopes per gallon of ice cream or sherbet.
I just mix everything together, let it sit for about 5 minutes so the
gelating can soften, and then heat the mixture on the stove until the
gelatin and sugar are thoroughly dissolved.