By Published July 28, 2023.
This is Technique #96 from our 100 Techniques Every Home Cook Can Master.
Each technique is broken into three sections: why it works, key steps, and recipes that use it. Learn these recipe building blocks and you'll be set up for a lifetime of cooking success.
"Super- premium” ice cream and frozen yogurt don’t just offer a cavalcade of flavors. They’re perfectly smooth and creamy while still holding their frozen shape as well.
And that may be the main reason why home ice cream makers languish, taking up freezer or cupboard space: That creaminess eludes us, and we end up with a crumbly, icy consistency.
But smooth ice cream isn’t technically less icy than “icy” ice cream.
Instead, its ice crystals are so small that our tongues can’t detect them. So for premium-style ice cream and fro yo at home, you need a way to create smaller ice crystals.
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Commercial producers freeze their liquid ice-cream bases as quickly as possible, using expensive special equipment.
This speed freezing causes the formation of thousands of tiny seed crystals, which in turn promote the formation of more tiny crystals. With a home machine, it takes far longer to freeze the base, leading to larger ice crystals and an icy consistency.
To obtain smaller ice crystals using home equipment, you need a colder base for starters.
The usual approach is to chill the custard to 40 degrees before churning, but we froze a portion of it and then stirred it into the refrigerated portion, to bring the base down to 30 degrees.
Once in the ice cream maker, this base more quickly reached soft-serve consistency (about 21 degrees, the temperature at which roughly 50 percent of the water has frozen).
An added bonus of this shortened churning time was that less air was beaten into the mix, making for a denser, more velvety texture. Then, instead of freezing the churned ice cream in a tall container, we spread it into a thin layer in a chilled square metal baking pan.
After just an hour, the ice cream was ready to be transferred to an airtight storage container.
For even more smoothness, we also incorporated some invert sugar (a type of sugar that absorbs moisture), as commercial producers do, in the form of corn syrup.
Due to its viscosity, corn syrup prevents water molecules from grouping and freezing into large ice crystals.
And corn syrup doesn’t lower the freezing point of the custard as much as granulated sugar does—a boon for home freezers because the custard will freeze faster and remain firmer at the higher temperatures of home freezers.
Now that you know the science behind the technique, follow these steps to achieve the smoothest and silkiest ice cream at home.
Heat ice cream base ingredients until mixture registers 175 degrees. Whisk yolks and sugar until smooth. Whisk 1 cup heated base into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and registers 180 degrees.
Transfer 1 cup custard to small bowl and remaining custard to large bowl. Chill large bowl in refrigerator until it registers 40 degrees. Freeze small bowl.
Transfer 1 cup custard to small bowl and remaining custard to large bowl. Chill large bowl in refrigerator until it registers 40 degrees. Freeze small bowl.
Scrape frozen custard into chilled custard and stir until fully dissolved; deeply chilled base should register about 30 degrees.
Strain custard through fine-mesh strainer. Churn in ice cream maker until it reaches softserve texture and registers about 21 degrees.
Transfer ice cream to frozen metal baking pan and freeze until firm around edges.
Transfer ice cream to airtight container, press out air pockets, and freeze fully until firm.
Ready to get churning? Use these recipes to learn the fundamentals of ice cream and fro yo making before branching out on your own flavor journey.
Ready to learn another technique? Choose from our list of 100 Techniques Every Home Cook Can Master.
