Ice cream making

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Jackamus

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I started to make some ice cream using full cream milk, egg yolks, cornflour and sugar. I just about got to the point where it was cooked in a Bain Marie when it started to curdle.

The photo shows the result after I added some cocoa powder however it was curdled before adding the cocoa powder.

What causes curdling?
 

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I've not made an ice cream with an egg custard, but it is my understanding that cooking for too long or at too high a temperature can curdle custards.
I read an article somewhere on it, let me see if I can find it for you.

Well, there's a surprise, I'm notoriously bad at research and this popped up immediately! Good Luck!
fixing curdled ice cream
 
Thank you for your speedy response and explanation. In my case it was definitely cooking too long! I'll be more careful next time.
 
When you make ice cream with eggs you have to keep the temperature for getting too high. Use and instant read thermometer and heat the egg and milk mixture to 170ºF-173ºF and keep it at that temperature for five minutes.

Why do you use a recipe that includes cornflour? It's not a common ingredient in ice cream.
 
Thank you for the temperature advice.

I'm a beginner at making ice cream so I just followed a recipe I found in a book about ice cream making.

I imagined that the cornflour helped thicken the custard. So why do you think it was included also are you saying I don't weed to use cornflour. If not is there a substitute?
 
The vast majority of ice cream recipes do not include corn starch/flour. It's a thickener and not necessary.

Try this recipe.

Vanilla Ice Cream

2 C Heavy Cream
2 C Whole Milk
6 Lg Egg Yolks
7 Tb Corn Syrup
¾ C Sugar
1½ Tb Pure Vanilla Extract

Place the cream and milk into a 3-quart saucepan, over medium heat. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the corn syrup and sugar and whisk to combine.

Gradually add the cream/milk mixture to the egg/sugar mixture in small amounts while whisking constantly.

Return this mixture to the pan. Continue to cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches 170ºF. Maintain this temperature for 5 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into a container and allow it to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Place the mixture in the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store until the mixture is fully cooled.

Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. This should take approximately 25 minutes.

Transfer the ice cream to a suitable container for freezing and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream and add the cover. Place the container into the freezer for several hours until it is fully hardened.
 
Thank you for the recipe and I will have a go at it.
Can I assume that once the custard is made then I can add any flavors I choose?

I do a lot of baking and like to be very precise about ingredient quantities. I avoid using cups, teaspoons etc. I like to use grams for everything so I use the cups and teaspoons but weigh them and make a note.
 
Thank you for the recipe and I will have a go at it.
Can I assume that once the custard is made then I can add any flavors I choose?

I do a lot of baking and like to be very precise about ingredient quantities. I avoid using cups, teaspoons etc. I like to use grams for everything so I use the cups and teaspoons but weigh them and make a note.

This is a recipe specifically for vanilla ice cream. It's not a base for various flavors. What flavors are you considering.
 
How large is your freezer?
My Mom,s is much like above but wuth whole eggs.
If you want fruit, add frozen fruit and less vannila.
Moms made 3qt I think.
and a pinch of salt.
Go easy on the heavy cream or you might make Butter!
Eric, Austin Tx
 
I don't use eggs when I make ice cream. My homemade ice cream might be creamier or richer tasting if I did, but it's fine the way I make it. If I were making vanilla ice cream, I probably would, since vanilla is nice, but can use a bit of help.

If you are interested in a recipe for strawberry ice cream with no eggs, I'll be happy to share.
 
Jacamus, as I'm sure you must already know, just keep working on one recipe. LOL, once you got this to your satisfaction then many of us here will gladly jump in with more recipes.
Please stick around and let us know how it goes!
 
Thank you all for tips and advice. The problem with using a book of recipes is that you can't ask a book questions!
OK I agree that its a good idea to perfect one recipe first. Then try others.
Is there a rule of thumb about adding flavours using a vanilla ice cream as a base?
I'm thinking about adding fruit. Should I always use fresh fruit?
 
My ice cream making skills are very limited. The only fruit flavoured one I've made was Mango and it used frozen fruit. But I have recipes that use either fresh or frozen so I can't really say which is better. Only experience will tell you which you prefer. I imagine the end result will depend on the recipe itself.
 
You can use the vanilla ice cream recipe I posted for other flavors but leave out the vanilla. Vanilla can dull fruit/cirtus flavors.

Fresh fruit is not a necessity. I use frozen blueberries when I make blueberry ice cream.
 
I don't use eggs when I make ice cream. My homemade ice cream might be creamier or richer tasting if I did, but it's fine the way I make it. If I were making vanilla ice cream, I probably would, since vanilla is nice, but can use a bit of help.

If you are interested in a recipe for strawberry ice cream with no eggs, I'll be happy to share.
You have never steered me wrong. My strawberry ice cream was lacking strawberry flavor.
 
I make about a half dozen flavors of ice cream depending on what I think might taste good at the time.

Vanilla, Blueberry, Pistachio, Pineapple, Maple Walnut, Ginger & Coffee Kahlua. The last two less often.
 
You have never steered me wrong. My strawberry ice cream was lacking strawberry flavor.
I'm still tweaking the amounts. But, this is pretty much the recipe I use. I can't find my notes, but I remember that we used these really flavourful, organic strawberries and the first time I made it, there was too much strawberry. I think I cut the amount in half the next time, but it might have been down to 3/4. If, you are using the very large, low flavour strawberries, the full amount is probably right.

 
LOL! I too have a Cuisinart machine! I forgot that there were a number of recipes in it. Thanks for reminding me.

I bought a small freezer just for ice cream because it had a manual thermostat which would go up to -11ºC. My regular freezer's maximum temperature is -18ºC which makes the ice cream too hard.
Does any one have any advice about freezers and ice cream?
 
LOL! I too have a Cuisinart machine! I forgot that there were a number of recipes in it. Thanks for reminding me.

I bought a small freezer just for ice cream because it had a manual thermostat which would go up to -11ºC. My regular freezer's maximum temperature is -18ºC which makes the ice cream too hard.
Does any one have any advice about freezers and ice cream?
I just want to point out that they got the conversion of cups to ml wrong for the heavy cream so, if you still have cup measures, use those or check the arithmetic yourself.
 
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