Giving up on ice cream

[chami]

i bought an ice cream maker with built in chiller about 2 years ago but every time the ice cream comes out of the freezer its as hard as iron.
there MUST be an ingredient that commercial makers use that keeps it soft ish but i,ve tried adding lots of things to keep it usable.nothing but nothing works. .
please does anyone know the secret ingredient,before i chuck the machine out the window.

 

[lulu]

You mean your freezer, not the freezing bit of the icecream maker? If so...

Time. The better bought icecreams are on the hard side too. Just get it out when you sit down to supper, 15/20 minutes, should be fine.

It came out of my icecream maker I had perfect everyime, so the other thing to do is put it in to churn when you sit down to eat if you are close ebough to check it every once in a while.

I think that as well as things to stop it setting hard there is a lot of air in the cheaper brands of icecream, so its not as dense.

 

[Topaz]

My icecream always get eaten before it gets a chance to be frozen so I've never had that problem!

Maybe you need to use ingredients with a higher percentage of fat to make the icecream a bit creamier and less icy.

 

[chami]

OMG...i really could,nt use more fat.
i live in the West Country and fresh cream is my middle name.
i dare not tell you how much fresh cream i get through each week.

 

[fliggie]

We don't let ours set too long in the freezer, either, so its usually like soft serve when we eat it. I know that in the couple of ice cream books I've read through, eggs and sugar (I think) are the two ingredients that also help it from getting rock solid, as well as the cream (versus water) content.

Eat it quicker!!!!

 

[urmaniac13]

You need to add a little emulsifier in order to keep your ice cream from turning rock solid. You make a mixture, let it set in the fridge for several hours before you churn it in the ice cream maker for the maximum result. We use an Italian product, but this one seems pretty close.
When it is done right, nothing like a home made ice cream to make your day... don't give up, if it takes some trial and error. Good luck!!

 

[chami]

thanks for your help urmaniac13,will give it a go.

 

[college_cook]

Would you care to post your recipe? There might be something in there that helps us figure out if lack of fat is the problem.

The first thing I thought of was time spent in the ice cream maker. At the restaurant we make all of our own ice creams and sorbets, and one thing we do to keep them softer and lighter is to mix them longer. This incorporates more air which will stay trapped as it freezes.

I think the other thing that helps us a lot is that all of our ice creams start out with creme anglaise as a base, and there's plenty of fat in that. If you're not familiar it's basically cream, egg yolks, and sugar. It doesn't make for very healthy ice cream.... but hey, if you're eating ice cream then you're indulging already, so you might as well do it right!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The following link will give yu more than you want to know about using gels and other agents to get the texture you want.

Food Product Design: Ice Cream: Combination Chemistry

Seeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[chami]

thanks guys.
my recipe only uses fresh double cream,egg yolks,sugar and almond oil.
the flavour is wonderful but much too like ice.

 

[lulu]

Hmm, what kind of icecream maker are you using?

 

[Quadlex]

urmaniac13: I don't mean to sound rude, or like a know-it-all, but isn't an emulsifier something that helps a disparate mixture (like oil and water) hold together, like the lecithin in mayonaisse? I'm just not sure why it would help the icecream be softer *{scratches head}*

I agree with the "Aging" of the mixture, however... I turn making Gelato into a 2 day procedure, making a Creme Anglaise base, then leaving it in the fridge (covered) for a day.

Adding a shot of alcohol will lower the freezing temp of the mixture, resulting in a smoother flowing solution. But, you have to add it after cooking, and as such it won't be totally unalcoholic. You might also need to play with amounts to see how much you need to get flow but not something that won't freeze at all. And you've got to contend that you'll have something like one shot of booze across the entire batch of icecream, which isn't really enough to do anyone any harm, unless they're teetotal.

Vodka is best for not altering flavour, but you can also match to the icecream... Like Chambord for Raspberry icecream, and so on.