all about ice cream
everything I learned in the two years it took me to perfect my ideal base recipe
hey hi hello,
Welcome baaaack to bake chats! And I know the dead of winter is the perfect time for this deep dive, but it was either share it now that it’s done or wait until late spring which felt unfair.
*This post has a few affiliate links, which if you click and purchase from I receive compensation at no additional cost to you.*
Today we’re doing a deep dive on ice cream. If you’ve followed me on socials for a while then you know that I’ve spent a while developing this base recipe. Two years to be exact, not straight through but over time, pretty casually at first, then with moments of intense passion and rigor. There are ebbs and flows when it comes to developing your base recipes ya know. And when you look at the final recipe you might think to yourself, girl this looks like every other ice cream recipe I’ve ever seen… what took so long? Well, an unhealthy level of perfectionism for one. But, also striving to hit specific recipe marks.
This is now my base ice cream recipe, from here I’ll be able to use this base as the jumping off point for any other flavor I’d want to create. The work that went into creating this base makes crafting other flavors happen with ease. I put a ton of emphasis into my base recipes for this purpose, the ease of riffing with them later on. I’ll be able to make changes and swaps to the recipe and yield similar texture results.
We’re gonna hit a lengthy deep dive on a few of the different factors that impact your final results before getting into the recipe.
I wanted an to limit the formation of ice crystals without the use of stabilizers like, guar gum, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, or commercialized blends of ice cream stabilizers. NOT, because I have anything against them. I actually LOVE the silky smooth texture they bring to ice cream. We will talk more about the their function and the role they play in ice cream in just a sec. But, I was really against the idea of asking you guys to buy another pricey, harder to source ingredient, that has limited use outside of this one recipe. Sure, if you do a lot of GF baking you can find use for the rest of the bag of xanthan gum, but if not? Then what? A bag of this stabilizer taking up valuable pantry space- when the amount you’d need too, is 1/8 teaspoon per 1k of ice cream base? I didn’t want to create a recipe that the final texture/outcome relied heavily on a single ingredient, that sure could be left out, but then you’re not making the same ice cream ya know.
A lot of the information learned on ice cream came from “Hello, My Name is Ice Cream” by Dana Cree. It’s a great resource if you want to dive in deeper on the scientific understanding of ice cream, its parts and the role they play in the final product.
We’re gonna go over some of the key factors I found useful to making a less icy, super smooth ice cream at home.
Now, ice cream is going to have ice crystals present no matter what it’s kinda in the name. But, what I wanted to limit is the perception of ice when eating. I want you to think about a chocolate chip cookie for a second. If you chopped up your chocolate incredibly fine in to shards before mixing into the dough, once the cookie was baked and you’re ready to eat it, you get flecks of chocolate with a balanced flavor, but it’s not overwhelming because all of the chocolate is evenly dispersed. Now imagine, same dough, same chocolate but instead of chopping it up fine, you condense it all into one spot in the dough. All the chocolate now in one space. When you go for that bite, the flavor of the chocolate is overwhelming. The same thing is true for the ice crystals in ice cream. With ice cream you want those ice crystals to be evenly dispersed throughout the final product. If your ice crystals start to coalesce, they’ll meet up with each other to create larger, more noticeable crystals. So, we have to mitigate the free water in the base to avoid larger formations.
CREAM/FAT
Fat is going to bring flavor and a firmer texture to your ice cream. The fat from heavy cream is slower to melt and is going to help your ice cream keep shape once scooped.
Ice cream needs to be at least 10% butterfat to be considered ice cream, 12-14% is considered premium ice cream and 20% is the physical cap for fat in cream. Too much fat in your ice cream and you get this sort of slick coating all over your mouth and the final scooped texture is crumbly.
Also, when more fat is present it takes longer for flavor to present itself, but will linger on the tongue for longer. Whereas lower fat content ice creams have a more immediate flavor impact. Something so consider as you start to play around with flavoring and infusing the base. Softer more delicate flavors will thrive in a low fat environment, which means you might want to opt for a different Philadelphia style base recipe without yolks as they account for 18% of the fat in this recipe . This mitigation of flavor also helps control your perception of sweetness in the final product.
YOLKS
Now this is a custard style ice cream base, so there are yolks here. Yolks are packed with proteins, so as they start to cook down with the base they begin cross-link with each other to create a web (you’ll remember this from flan). This web works to catch and bond the fat and water in the custard base. As the base slowly cooks the yolks will begin to thicken the mixture. A thicker mixture = a smoother, less icy final base in the end.
SUGAR/SUCROSE
Sugar (sucrose) is not just sweet in recipes, especially in ice cream. Sugar is integral to the final texture and structure of your ice cream. Sugar bonds with the water present in your base, depressing the freezing point, preventing it from freezing down impossibly hard. Not enough sugar in the base and the fats in the base will freeze down solid, making the final product harder to scoop. Too much sugar in the recipe and the ice cream will remain soft in the freezer, seemingly never freezing down. The right amount of sugar in your base keeps the final ice cream scoopable.
GLUCOSE and CORN SYRUP
Also, forms of sugars. While sucrose is a disaccharide, glucose and corn syrups are monosaccharides. What this means in the context of ice cream is that due to their make up, glucose or corn syrup are more effective at holding free water in the base, aiding in a lower perception of iciness.
Glucose isn’t as sweet as sucrose either. On a scale of relative sweetness with sucrose being considered 100% sweetness, glucose is 75% as sweet. Corn syrup, without high fructose corn syrup, also sits at about a 70-75% sweetness in relation to sucrose. So, the choice to use corn syrup (with no added high fructose corn syrup) in the recipe stems from wanting a final product that isn’t overwhelmingly sweet but also scoopable in the end since this recipe does have a high percentage of butterfat. It’s also widely and pretty readily available.
STABILIZERS
So commercial stabilizers make for great ice cream. Xanthan gum, guar gum etc. These ingredients are powerful thickening agents, they swell and absorb more of the water molecules that eventually lead to icy textures. Using them leads to incredibly smooth and creamy ice cream with longer “shelf” (freezer) life. These stabilizers are incredibly powerful and a little goes a long way.
If you want to add one, I tested this recipe with The Perfect Ice Cream blend from Modernist Pantry. For this batch size, I whisk 1/8 teaspoon of the stabilizer in with the sugar and egg yolks before proceeding with the recipe as written. *If you’re interested in working with other stabilizers I’d highly recommend reading through Hello, My Name is Ice Cream for proper amount + activation techniques as different stabilizers work in different ways.*
I’ve also found the xanthan gum in vanilla bean paste to aid in overall texture. It has a little bit of gelling power left to it so when added to ice cream base it is still able to absorb some of the free water. So if you don’t have vanilla beans you can swap for VBP and reap some of those additional benefits!
THE METHOD
I take a page from the method of making Philadelphia-Styled ice creams, where you bring your dairy to a boil and let it simmer away for 2 minutes. Here we will bring the milk to a simmer, letting some of the water in the milk evaporate. The less water in the base, the less ice in the cream, ya know what I’m saying. Just the milk, no boiling the heavy cream here. Boiling and cooling heavy cream can break its emulsion, especially if the cream is heated to high temps or from prolonged periods of time. Sure 5 minutes of simmering isn’t anything crazy but I’d rather not risk it. Instead the cooked custard is strained into cooled heavy cream. This leaves us with a creamy rich final product.
ICE CREAM MACHINES
`There are a few types of machines available, in a poll I found that most of you used the sort that use pre-frozen canister that you freeze overnight before using. Most common being the Cuisinart machine + the Kitchen Aid stand mixer attachment. These are more affordable options, I mean, I regularly find Cuisinarts at thrift stores for under $20. But, you do have to do a little more planning + waiting to have ice cream. I think they’re great options if you don’t make ice cream all the often. I used the Cuisinart for 7 years before upgrading to a compressor model. In a cross test, I find these models incorporate less air, less overrun than my Lello, so the final texture is ever so slightly denser. The few gripes I have with these models are, having to find the space the store them in the freezer, since ya know mine is always half full of cookie dough. It also doesn’t maintain a steady temp. Once it starts to warm up it’s efficacy starts to go down and can take up to 40 minutes to churn ice cream. You have to get multiple drums (which means finding double the space in the freezer) if you want to do multiple spins/flavors of ice cream. But, if you’re not making tons of ice cream that’s virtually a non-issue
I have and use a Lello 4080 Musso Lussino machine for all my ice cream making. It retails for $800+ and I got it for $400 from Kitchens for Good here in San Diego. It’s a compressor model of ice cream machine, which means it has a compressor (ok Einstein). The compressor in the machine means ya plug it in, turn it on, wait for it to chill down for about 10 minutes and boom you’re ready to make ice cream. Because these are self-freezing, you can spin multiple rounds of ice cream back to back. They also freeze down product quicker than the freezer drum models because they’re able to maintain a steady temperature. You want your base to freeze down and churn down ASAP to avoid… yeah you guessed it!! The coalescing of ice crystals. The cons to a compressor model are definitely the size. My Lello is 40# and bulky as hell. She sits on the dining room table because I don’t really have cupboard or counter space for her.
For denser chewier ice cream made from the same base you’ll want to opt for a machine that churns and incorporates air at a lower rate, the pre-frozen canisters are perfect for that texture. In the end we still need ice crystal formation and overrun otherwise your ice cream will eat like frozen pudding. The speed at which the dasher/blade turns the more air the machine will incorporate, leading to more overrun in churning the same base. The Kitchen-Aid ice cream bowl attachment is a great option for a happy medium since it’s one of the few at home models that you’re able to control the speed of the spin.
Then we have the PacoJet Jr, the Ninja Creami. Enough of you asked for a test on this machine, so thank my cousin Marley for lending me his. Unlike the other machines, you freeze the base down in canisters before the churn, then the machine spins the base with a high speed blade. Which the prefreeze can take 24+ hours to fully freeze your base- though I’ve learned that freezing with the lid off can cut down on freeze time significantly. The thickness of your storage container plays a role in how quickly the ice cream freezes down- the thicker the walls, the longer it will take. The base does freeze down into a super icy block, I could feel large crunchy ice crystals as I checked the base to see if it was completely frozen. With the OG Paco the blade spins at ultra high speeds redistributing the frozen crystals leaving you with an ultra creamy final product. The Creami falls short with this base recipe, the final texture was incredibly icy.
This is a reminder that within a recipe, everything is a factor for success not just the set of ingredients!!
STORAGE
I like to store my ice creams in delis. Deli walls are thin so the cold from the freezer is better able to penetrate and keep the ice cream cold. Containers with thick insulation/walls make it harder for the ice cream to continue to freeze down keeping it softer for longer. The longer it takes for your spun ice cream to fully freeze down, the more time ice crystals have time to coalesce and bond to each other, making them larger and easier for the tongue to perceive.
YOUR FREEZER
Now you could have done everything right, eliminated as much free water as possible, used a high-end machine, used a perfect blend of added stabilizers and your freezer can come along to ruin it all. At every point in the churning and hardening process ya want to get things frozen down as quickly as possible. In theory sounds easy enough. But, your home freezer doesn’t operate at there same level as a commercial deep freezer. Super fast freezing doesn’t give the ice crystals a chance to converge. Most home freezers can take anywhere from 4-12 hours to finish freezing/hardening the ice cream, which gives the ice crystals more time to move around and meet up with each other.
All freezers also go through some level of a defrost + refreeze cycle so there will be an occasional fluctuation in temperature throughout the day. Plus with any opening and closing of the door slowly drives the temp up. A 5 degree increase is enough to get the ice crystals moving again, wanting so desperately come together. Overtime in the freezer, the quality of your ice cream will degrade. It’s best consumed within 2 weeks of churning.
CUSTARD BASE ICE CREAM RECIPE
*If you like your recipes in a quick-glance format, paid subscribers get a clean, printer-friendly PDF version at the end of the post. It’s easier to scroll and keep open on your phone. Plus, perfect to print for your recipe binder.
Actually, the base recipe would be if you left out vanilla for a pure dairy experience. So depending on if you’re gonna make vanilla ice cream or start playing around with infusions and mix-ins you can opt to leave the vanilla in or out. I buy my vanilla from Slofoodgroup, and use the spent pods to make vanilla extract or sugar after all the beans have been scraped out. Though here, you can sub the vanilla beans for 2 tablespoons of paste.
TOOLS:
Mixing bowls, 2 medium + 1 large
INGREDIENTS
350 grams whole milk
50 grams light corn syrup
2 vanilla bean pods, split and scraped
370 grams heavy cream
130 grams granulated sugar
100 grams egg yolks (approx 5 large yolks)
3/4 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt- half if using Morton’s
DIRECTIONS
Add 350 grams whole milk, 50 grams light corn syrup and the caviar of 2 vanilla bean pods to a medium saucepan. Placing the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
While that comes to temp, prepare an ice bath for your base. Fill a large mixing bowl with about 4 cups of ice and 1/2 cup of cold water. Nestle a smaller, shallow metal or glass bowl into the ice water. Fill this smaller bowl with 370 grams of heavy cream. Place the fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.
Once the milk is at a simmer, drop the heat to medium-low and maintain the simmer for 5 minutes. You do not want this to boil, so keep an eye on it. Gentle simmer. 5 minutes. Set a timer.
While that simmers away, to a separate bowl add the 130 grams of granulated sugar, 100 grams egg yolks and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Use a whisk to aerate the mixture. It should be light and paled in color.
Once the 5 minutes of simmering is up, gently temper the hot milk into the sugar yolk mixture. You’ll add a ladle full of milk to the yolks, whisking to fully combine before adding the next ladle full. The mixture will be sufficiently tempered once about half of the warm milk has been added in.
Pour the tempered yolks into the remaining milk in the saucepan, while agitating the mixture in the saucepan with a rubber spatula.
Keep the mixture moving with the rubber spatula to avoid scorching/scrambling the egg proteins.
Cook until the mixture reaches 180-185F. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of the spatula, a process known as achieving nappe.
Strain the mixture into the heavy cream that’s sat over the ice bath. Use the rubber spatula to gently swirl the two together until evenly combined.
Stir the base every so often until it reaches 50F or below.
Transfer to a storage container, covering the top of the base directly with plastic wrap.
Chill in the fridge overnight, allowing your ice cream base to cure.
The next day pour the base into your ice cream machine and churn to the manufacturer’s instructions. Depending on the machine this could take 15-30 minutes. You want the base to reach a texture similar to soft serve ice cream and should have a temp of 25F (this can be hard to reach in drum style machines).
Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe airtight container. Nothing too thick otherwise this can get in the way of the ice creams ability to freeze down, which can ultimately affect its final texture *refer to all the information above on that one* I usually just throw it into a deli.
Label + date your container always.
Freeze for a minimum of 3-4 hours before scooping and serving. Of course you can sneak a few spoonfuls of the fresh churned ice cream too.
Consume within 2-3 weeks for the best texture.
Enjoy!!
