Ice Cream

Ice Cream

Super-Premium Ice Cream Recipes

Ice cream recipes first appeared in the 18th century and a recipe for ice cream was published in 'Mrs Mary Eales's Receipts' in 1718:

To ice cream

"Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten'd, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; than take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou'd freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Raspberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten'd; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream."

I am not sure whether we would all enjoy this sort of recipe for ice cream today but there is no doubt that flavours have moved on and Georgian England would be shocked at what is served today, good and bad!

Ice cream recipes have moved on too and over the course of the last few years, many major brands have added doughy products, chocolate pieces, gummy bears etc in order to shift more products at an affordable price. Just like the toppings put on ice cream at most of our parlours, many of these contain 'e' numbers ready to send your child into orbit.

One is only likely to find recipes such as Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Liquorice Ice Cream and Coffee & Tia Maria Ice Cream, all made with natural ingredients at your local artisan producer. Really unusual recipes will include such things as Marmite Ice Cream, Strawberry & Mascarpone Ice Cream and Red Bull & Vodka Sorbet.

The basic ingredients of ice cream are milk, cream, egg yolks and sugar with fruit, such as strawberry and raspberry or other produce such as honeycomb or hazelnuts, included to alter the taste. Sadly, the national brands are forced to make the additions cheaply and have to resort to adding milk powder, reconstituted whey, water and other bulking agents. This is because they are profit-driven.

Sugar for My Sweet and an Eggceptional Taste

Relatively few people know this but the secret to good ice cream is not the recipe but the quality of the sugar. Whilst anyone can add milk, cream, egg yolks and other ingredients together, caster sugar, or other recipes that proffer a recommended sugar, never quite taste the same as the best ice cream. This is because a good ice cream contains sugars in differing refinement levels from coarse to ultra-fine. The best will contain up to 20 differently graded sugars.

Some manufacturers do not include egg yolks in their recipes and quote allergies to justify their exclusion. The sad truth is that cost implications drive their real reasoning and the benefits of eggs in all ice creams is not the just the flavour they add but the superb texture of the final product. Any ice cream recipe that omits egg yolks, which are expensive, is short-changing the final product.

Finally, if cost is irrelevant and sheer perfection is sought, there are many recipes for ice cream that will send one to heaven and back. Some fruit ingredients like blood orange, passion fruit, guava or açai or other specialist ingredients like liquid pistachio nut oil or Japanese Green Tea will set one back a king's ransom. The final result is well worth while if made correctly. If not, it can be an expensive disaster.

Japanese 'Fuku' (the best) Matcha - Green Tea - ice cream is exceptionally difficult to find in Europe but it is possible to find it. The ingredients for it can always be found if you are prepared to track them down.

Television programmes such as 'MasterChef' and 'Come Dine With Me' have shown us what can be done if one has the willingness to try and even the experts have commented on the quality of the contestants' super-premium ice cream recipes. If they can do it, so can you. Dust off the apron, put on the pinafore, turn on the gas and start cooking!

About the Author

recipe for making ice cream

matcha ice cream

Why does my ice cream always turn out like frozen whipped cream?

My ice cream always turns out fluffy and whipped in my ice cream maker. It doesn't freeze well and doesn't have a dense texture to it. I am using an electric ice cream maker. Has anyone else run into this problem or does someone know how to fix it?
I am using an electric ice cream maker, with 1 quart of capacity. I am using 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk. The ingredients are think enough, but how do I prevent it from whipping?

It sounds to me like too much air is being whipped into the ice cream or you are using ingredients without an appropriate cream content. The heavier your milk, the heavier the ice cream. skim milk, 2 percent, etc. will make light ice cream. You want Heavy whipping cream, Evaporated milk or whole milk as the base. Also, I have heard a friend complain that the pre packaged ice cream "mixes" that she has used in her electric ice cream maker really sucked. She thought it was not ice creamy like at all and in fact tasted like sweetened air. Try some old fashioned recipes like in a good OLD cook book, or look up some old fashioned recipes on the internet.

Here are some tips:

Hints for Making Better Ice Cream
The consistency of ice cream may vary from batch to batch. Several factors that will affect the firmness or consistency of ice cream are the recipe used, how hot or cool the day is, size of ice, temperature of the salt water, and temperature of the mixture before it is churned.

Too Soft - If after 20 minutes of steady cranking on manual models you feel no drag or tightening, or if motor on electric model continues to run freely after 30 minutes, then the salt water is not cold enough, therefore, the ice cream is not hardening. You should add another 3 ounces of table salt or 5 ounces of rock salt. This will begin to reduce the saltwater temperature and cause the ice cream to harden. As the ice melts, you may have to continue to add ice and salt until the ice cream is the consistency of mush.

Too Grainy, Icy or Hard - If the cranking mechanism becomes too hard to turn in less than 20 minutes on manual models, or if motor stalls in less than 20 minutes on electric models, resulting in coarse or an inconsistent texture of ice cream, the saltwater became too cold too fast. In this case, you used too much salt and the ice cream froze too fast on the edge of the can, and/or you did not used crushed ice.

Recipe Hint - Preparing the ice cream mixture the day before makes smoother ice cream and increases the yield.

Recipe:
Old-Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream
6 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
13-ounce can evaporated milk (1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
1 gallon whole milk
chipped ice
rock salt
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar gradually, stirring constantly. Add salt, vanilla and canned milk. Add about a pint of the fresh milk and mix.

Pour mixture into ice cream freezer can. Add enough of the remainder of the milk to fill can to the middle of the top board of dasher. (If the freezer can has a "fill" line on it, fill no higher than that line.)

Assemble the ice cream freezer. Add alternating layers of chipped ice and rock salt to barrel around freezer can. Crank freezer until ice cream begins to freeze (cranking will become harder as ice cream freezes), adding more ice and salt, as needed. When handle becomes difficult-to-impossible to turn, remove turning mechanism, and carefully remove top from freezer can; remove dasher. Replace top. Cover can with more ice and salt. Cover ice with an old towel, allowing ice cream to "cure" for at least 1 hour. If yours is an electric freezer, follow manufacturer's directions, but the curing step is essential.

Makes about 5 quarts of ice cream.

Good luck!

Kim

Borgore - Ice Cream