Ice cream recipes

 This is just a basic cream-based ice cream recipe reference (not a sorbet, granita or similar). I'll also add some flavoured variants and also a bit of food science towards the end if you want to go the extra mile.

Equipment

You can make this recipe using just a spoon, a saucepan and a shallow tray you can stick in your freezer. However note that a whisk, immersion blender or food processor will make the "mixing" a bit quicker and more even. A confectionery and/or instant-read thermometer and a fine sieve will make the "cooking" part a touch more reliable and effective. An ice cream maker will save some effort in the "freezing" part and give you a better result (I have a cheap, Chinese 1ℓ ice cream maker I'll be targeting the quantities for here). For the "serving" phase, a long/narrow "scoop tub" and a scoop with a spherical inner bowl will make it easier and get a better result. Nevertheless none of these extras are strictly necessary.

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks
• 300㎖ carton of light cream
  
• ½ cup milk (125㎖ or 130g)
  
• ⅓ cup sugar (63g)
  
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste, or vanilla essence or nothing)
• ¼ tsp salt (1.5g)
  

Technique

Mix

You basically want to get all the ingredients mixed evenly together at the start. You could dump everything into a food processor or into the saucepan and use an immersion blender. If you're using a whisk (alternatively fork or spoon), you're probably best off starting in a round bowl and firstly beating the egg yolks until they lighten, then in stages adding the sugar, salt, vanilla, cream and milk (mixing between additions).

Cook it

This is where it gets a bit tricky (especially if you don't have a thermometer). You can just freeze the mixture without cooking it, but you'll get a thicker, more stable result if you cook it (plus a reduction in the slight risk of food poisoning depending on the treatment and handling of your eggs). Nevertheless, you want to "under" rather than "over" cook your mixture. You want to get the mixture (a type of custard) up to about 75°C (167°F). This is around the temperature that the egg yolks thicken. You don't want to go much higher or the yolks start to set and coagulate (Around 85°C/185°F), forming "sweetened scrambled eggs". If you don't have a thermometer, you could see if the mixture coats the back of a metal spoon and a clean line can be drawn through it with your finger. If you see any signs of boiling or a skin forming on the surface, you've probably gone too far and you need to take it off the heat and cool it down (stir it, blow on it and/or lay the saucepan in a shallow tray of cold tap water). Even if your custard gets a little bit "grainy", you can strain it before freezing and it should be OK.

Freeze

You want the part where it actually hits the freezing point to be fairly quick, but right now you've probably got some pretty hot custard. You want to let it cool to near room temperature (and then maybe a bit further in the fridge) before you consider sticking it in the freezer. If you see any skin forming during this time, plunge it underneath the surface with a spoon and mix it around a bit. When you're ready to freeze it, stir it through a few times to mix-up any setting and pass it through a fine mesh sieve if you have one (This will collect any milk-skin, yolk or errant bits of white that set in the cooking phase). Pour the custard into your ice cream maker (if you have one) or the widest/flattest pan or tray that will fit in your freezer. Freezing a shallow/wide pool of custard means it will freeze quickly, which will mean smaller ice crystals forming (smoother ice cream) and there's less time for any settling/separation of the liquid to occur. Once it's set a bit more than soft-serve, but before it's fully hard, you could transfer it to the ice cream tub of your choice (preferably already in the freezer as well).

Serve

You could just gouge it out with a spoon, but dragging the spoon across the surface of the ice cream to form curls (a bit like the French quenelle process) gives a more even and presentable result. This is where a "scoop tub" and spherical scoop come in handy as they make this process much easier and can result in consistent even balls of ice cream. Then you just have to put them into cones, chilled bowls, a demitasse with a shot of espresso over the top (affogato), or however you like to serve.

Flavour variations

Note that some of the specifications of the recipe above are reasonably exact (Like cooking temperatures), but some are pretty flexible. For example, I've used just 2 egg yolks in the past (and you could probably get away with only one), however this makes the resultant custard thinner, quicker to freeze or melt and it freezes harder than with three yolks.

I've compared a lot of recipes and some in this volume use 1/2 cup of sugar, some have 300㎖ milk along with the cream. Generally you can adjust these to taste, but note that when warm, the custard will taste a lot sweeter than when frozen. Also note that the smaller quantities in the ingredients list, the more accurate you need to be (e.g. an extra 150㎖ of milk won't make a massive difference, but one tablespoon of salt is going to be unpleasantly eye-opening)

The darkest dark chocolate

This is essentially Max Falkowitz's excellent recipe, but with the quantities toned down for a one litre ice cream maker.

Extra ingredients

• 28g cocoa nibs (You might find these in health food shops)
• Cut sugar to ¼ cup (53g)
• 14g of cocoa powder (I use the darker, Dutch process stuff like Droste, Blooker or Van Houten)
• 50g of dark chocolate (60% - 70% is my preference), chopped (More or less isn't so critical with this one).

Process change

The "mixing" part starts with simmering the cocoa nibs in just the milk/cream alone, then cover and leave it it to cool and steep for an hour. When ready to proceed, whisk or sieve the cocoa, sugar and salt together into a separate mixing bowl to eliminate any clumps. Then add the yolks and mix/whisk together. Finally strain the milk/cream into the yolk mixture, squeezing-out and discarding the nibs as you go.

Now proceed with the "cooking" phase of the main recipe above and when you're just taken it off the heat, add in the chopped chocolate and whisk/stir until it's fully melted and combined. The rest of the main recipe can now be followed to cover the "freezing" phase.

Variations on "Plain Vanilla"

These are pretty simple. Start with the basic vanilla recipe and then add-in an extra flavouring component. Depending on how viscous or "clumpy" the additives are, you may need to whisk the mixture, use an immersion blender or pass it through a sieve.

• Pistachio: After cooking, add in about 100g of pistachio paste (A Sicilian delicacy that's quite costly)
• Peanut butter: About 20g of peanut butter (or PB2 peanut butter powder)
• Butterscotch: Use soft brown sugar instead of white sugar, increase the salt to ½g and add about 10g of toasted milk powder (A trick I stole from Francisco Migoya - who toasts his milk powder in a pressure cooker for consistent results).
• Eggnog: 1 tbsp of bourbon (or sweet rum or brandy) and ¼tsp each of ground cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Alternatively put a cinnamon quill in at the start of cooking and fish it out once the mixture has cooled.
• Rum and Raisin. I haven't tried this, but it's a really simple (this is the least "sciency" recipe here). Basically stir some rum-soaked raisins into the "plain vanilla" base before freezing. You probably want about half a cup of raisins or sultanas (or whatever dried fruit you prefer), give them a rough chop if they're a bit large. Compact these into a bowl or cup and soak with sweet or dark rum (or brandy, or armagnac or whatever flavourful spirit you want) to just cover the fruit. You want to make sure it's all wet, but not swimming in booze. Finally give it a couple of laps in the microwave to warm up the rum/fruit combo too (not boiling hot - just warmed through). Soak them for about half an hour and pour-off any liquid before adding the fruit to the ice cream (Alcohol will inhibit freezing too much).

Food science extras

Locust bean (carob) gum

This can be a bit divisive as some people see it as "adding chemicals" to your food. However this gum is an entirely natural substance coming from the coating of carob beans. It's similar to adding flour to a gravy to thicken it.

You do, however need to be fairly precise. For the recipe quantities here, you only need about ½g of locust bean gum powder (So you will benefit from an accurate gram scale).

The powder is highly hydrophilic (water absorbing) too and can form a clumping skin when added to cold liquids. You can ease this by mixing it into your sugar or other dry ingredients before adding both into liquids together.

While just adding it into the custard will work fine, The gum works best if fully hydrated at 90°C (194°F) for about 5 minutes. This is noticeably much higher than the temperatures you want to have egg yolks at, so if you're going to do this, you'd want to use just the milk before letting it cool and adding into the other ingredients and proceeding with cooking those until the yolk begins to thicken.

The effect of the gum in the ice cream is not only to thicken it. It forms a weak gel at low temperatures, which inhibits the formation and melting of ice crystals. The ice cream is thicker and more viscous without becoming too hard. It will remain this way for longer, without melting into a liquid too.