Its been a while since I’ve posted something I;ve actually made. Its not because I haven’t made anything. Its because I have made too many things that failed. Actually TWO things that failed. To tell you the story would be a long and painful tale. But I shall brave myself and tell it. I have failed in my ice cream adventures.
The first ice cream was a promising pistachio gelato. I was being too ambitious for my first recipe. But I was seduced by this recipe. Yes seduced. The promise of beautiful green slightly chewy pistachio gelato made me fall hook line and sinker. I DID not have pistachio paste of course, you can only get that in Italy or some place else, other that here of course. So I made my own by grinding pistachios. As you know, pistachios are salted and salty. So the resulting mixture was very salty, I smartly compensated by adding more and more sugar. The result was a salty sickly brown icy paste.
The next time, I was smarter and decided to opt for a simple vanilla bean ice cream. I misread the recipe and overcooked the yolks in the vanilla milk mixture and the whole thing split on me. It was a scrambled mess. I crossed my fingers and still hoped that by some miracle it could be churned into a smooth delicious yellow vanilla ice cream speckled beautiful with vanilla seeds. I then had a lot of trouble churning the mixture as I don’t know how long to chill it for and the more I churned, the more the whole machine sweated. Water was condensing on its sides. I then did not pursue and poured it into a tub and froze it. The result was an icy grainy mess. The taste was ok but the texture was almost unpalatable. I now have 2 tubs of terrible creams in my freezer. Anyone keen? I have a few issues, please help. I have a kenwood ice cream machine that needs the bowl prefrozen before the mixture is put in.
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How long to chill the mixture before churning?
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How long do I actually churn?
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I need a foolproof ice cream recipe for beginners. Please help!
Please help me cross this treacherous bridge into the world of wonderful ice creams. I might even put my machine up on ebay soon!
Photo courtesy of my mom, taken in a Bruneian rainforest.
I love making sorbets and icecreams. You will too, I am sure. First of all, there is a balance required between ingredients in icecreams, so don’t play too much with the ingredients or it won’t freeze as well as it should. Secondly, prepare carefully and follow directions.
I no longer make egg-based icecream - just sorbets and non-egg icecream. This eliminates the need to make a custard in the way that you were doing. The custard needs to be cooked in a double boiler (saucepan sitting inside another saucepan filled with water) and cooked slowly, while you stir continuously.
Sorbets are very fresh tasting, being just fruit juice/pulp and glucose or sugar syrup. They are very very good. Non-egg icecreams need to be eaten within a couple of days but are just as good as those with an egg / custard base.
Keep the icecream maker insert in the freezer at all times, so it is always ready for a batch of icecream.
It is good to chill the mixture if it has been heated, to at least room temp or lower before putting it into the icecream maker. Maybe an hour in the fridge? If you are making sorbet or non-egg icecream there is usually no need to chill before freezing.
Add mixture to the icecream maker. Churn until it is smooth and setting. It won’t be frozen solid, but close. In my machine this is 35 - 50 minutes. I scrape it into a freezer container and finish in the freezer for about 3 hours to let the icecream harden and the flavours to develop.
If you would like a good recipe, let me know what type you would like to try, and I will post one for you, or even email it.
Have a happy and Ganesha-blessed new year.
Thanks so much, really helpful! I think I didn’t churn my vanilla ice cream long enough. I was afraid cos the machine was really sweating a lot. The whole thing was covered with condensation.
I would love a recipe, thanks!
Ok, let me see what I can do in the next couple of days. I am so glad that you found my hints helpful. I think that you cooked the custard too quickly, hence you got scrambled eggs instead of custard.
I will see whether I can post something in the next couple of days. I do have a couple of mangoes on my kitchen counter that I must do something with real soon.
Ooh, I remember the first days of my ice cream machine.. not good. I agree with VegeYum that sorbets are a good way to start. As far as chilling goes, I always cool my ice cream base over an ice bath until it feels really cold. And most of my recipes advise at least four hours in the fridge (I usually don’t listen, but that’s another story). The base has to be cold, really, not just cool. And I don’t know what your freezer bowl is like, but I like to have mine 48 hours in the freezer before I use it. Seems to work better that way.
As far as custard goes… unlike VegeYum, I like to have a custardy ice cream. It’s SO smooth and silken. I have one tip– if your custard cooks just a bit too far and starts to separate, toss it into a blender or food processor for just a few seconds. It brings it back to smoothness in no time! I think I got that tip from David Lebovitz.
Oh so sorry, I have run out of time to post a sorbet or icecream. I am on my break from Thurs. Hope you have the courage to try again.
I no longer cook with eggs, that is why I no longer make the custard type.
I look forward to hearing about your next adventures when I return. hannehanne has some good advice - I am sure you will do amazing things.
hi hi,
i’ve been fondling with my ice cream maker as well but i’m using a compressor base one..
no idea how to work the chiller bowl types.
talk about over-cooking custard base ice cream, and it looked somewhat like semi scrambled egg. I put the cooked custard into a blender and it seems to turn out okay…
non-egg ice cream = gelato, which isnt too bad either…
hmm i’m toying with making pistachio ice cream as well..
i’m making far too much ice cream and needs help with consumption too..
interested?
Hi Baobei, thanks for dropping by..Of course I’m interested!