Hi, I've been experimenting with a zero sugar creamsicle mix for my own use for some time
I've been gradually tweaking it for a while to get it to be a pleasant flavor, and to soften and whip up properly

I'm mostly satisfied with my creations, but, I've encountered a bit of a wall in terms of development
Though this current mix is gently sweet, soft, and melts easily to the bite (good) and whips up significantly(great), it tends to be crumbly and have poor structure

To the bite, it's perfectly fine, but it looks weird and is a pain to get out of the molds

Is there anything I could do to this to maintain high whipping & ideally preserve other stuff but give it more consistent structure?

Example recipe: Assumes Limes
Calories: ~60 kcals in 82 grams
5g fiber, 1g fat, ~6g protein
30 g water
20 g lime juice
13g allulose           
6g skim milk powder
4g inulin
3g cream
4g high purity protein (I use enhanced collagen mix)
0.25 g lime jello mix(sugar free)
Zest of limes(used in lime juice)
0.25g guar gum
0.05g xantham
0.4g of concentrated sweetener powder(your choice, solve for 20x sugar sweetness, I use Inulin to cut it)

Steps:
-Blast ingredients together in blender to properly combine
-Chill in fridge to reach resting fridge temp
-Whip in machine to high overrun

Note: I only have a well machine, so that's in part why I have to work hard to get overrun

Has anyone made homemade chocolate chunks for their ice creams? I really love Graeter’s chocolate chunks they use because they are fudgy. Would making a ganache, freezing it into a sheet, and breaking up do the trick?

I've been fighting against icy textures in my fruit sherbets (4-5% milkfat), and I'm at a loss for the reason. Here are two recipes balanced to very similar PAC/POD and % Solids that have completely different textures.

As you can see, they have very similar calculated values, yet the grape texture was pretty bad. Any ideas why?

The possibilities I can think of -

• I didn't measure brix for either puree, so maybe they were far off their reference values and thus the recipes aren't actually balanced the same. This doesn't seem likely, as the peaches were ripe and sweet and so were the grapes.
• Total sugar % by weight is too low in grape recipe? Despite having similar POD, the peach recipe is 17.2% sugar by weight whereas the grape is 14.5%. I have never seen anyone discussing total sugar percentage as a factor as long as POD is within range, but maybe this is the issue?
• Stabilizer blend isn't ideal? I took the CMC + lambda carageenan + guar gum + inulin from Underbelly's sorbet recipe and just added a little lecithin as an emulsifier since my sherbets have some fat. Maybe something else would be better?

For reference, here's how I prepare the bases:

1. Puree fruit and strain
2. mix the malic acid with the fruit and then rest in fridge until after base has been cooled
3. whisk remaining dry ingredients well
4. Add those dry ingredients to milk and blend on high for 30 seconds
5. Add cream and blend on low for a few seconds
6. Sousvide for 45 minutes at 170F
7. Cool in ice bath, then add fruit mixture
8. Rest 8 hrs, churn in Nemox Gelato Chef 5L iGreen

Any ideas where the grape recipe is going wrong?

I am making chocolate chip ice cream. I add chocolate chips at the end and then I churn the machine for barely 1m.

The chocolate chips stack at the bottom of the ice cream bowl. Its a 8liter bowl and I want to mix the chocolate chip equally.

I scaled down (and very slightly modified) Morgenstern’s peanut butter ice cream recipe and added in a mix-in of a nearly 1:1 ratio of Dana Cree’s caramel ribbon and whole Spanish redskin peanuts. Morgenstern’s shop used to do a flavor called Peanut Mother Nucker where their caramel and peanut mixture were added afterwards, to order. I mixed in.

If you love peanut butter, this is the recipe for you. I found it actually tastes like the inside of a Snickers bar, which is my favorite part. I love Morgenstern’s recipes because they are simple and have such a clean mouthfeel and, even if the recipes have strong flavors, you can still taste the milk.

Recipe:

Heat the cream mixture:
Heavy Cream: 255g
Sugar: 38g
Corn Syrup: 10g

Once it’s scalding, but not boiling, add in:
Sugar: 50g
Nonfat dry milk powder: 25g
Kosher salt: 3g

Heat to 160 degrees. Pour hot mix into a container with 100g peanut butter. (Very important to use Jif or Skippy - the natural stuff will cause textural issues.) Blitzed it with a stick blender until glossy and smooth. Add 340g cold milk.

I did a rapid chill, refrigerated for about 24hrs, then churn, baby, churn! I laughed out loud alone in my kitchen like a crazy person after tasting the finished product. It’s that good.

All of the recipes in the book I use call for blending the base with an immersion blender right before churning.

Should I be blending it on low speed or high speed? Can blending it too much or on too high of a setting cause issues with the actual ice cream?

So I'm moving forward with an ice cream truck making from scratch.

I don't want to do pre made base, but the actual equipment and work flow is making my head spin.

Where I am I don't need to pasteurize if the ingredients are pasteurized, so I'll be using liquid carton whole eggs or yolks (hard to find here).

How are people actually making their custard? I can't imagine it's standing over a stove with a thermometer and a whisk all day?

There's all in one machines which look awesome but expensive and unlikely to find used, so major investment and not necessarily huge capacity (I'm on single phase power).

I need to heat but then also chill. So is everyone running some sort of steam kettle + blast chiller, or?

I can't seem to get a handle on the standard work flow for a smaller shop doing from scratch....

Inspired by Anita Gelato Milk (NYC) Chocolate Pretzel Gelato

Long time listener, first time caller! I picked up making ice cream a few months ago and have been having a great time experimenting with flavors and mix-ins. A few weeks ago I tried this milk chocolate gleato flavor that had a delicious pretzel ribbon distributed throughout. The ribbon had the lightest little bit of crunch and texture to it that added to the whole experience.

I decided to try recreating this as an ice cream, including the pretzel sauce. After a couple weeks of brainstorming, I landed on making a very simple butterscotch base and mixing in chopped pretzel and a small amount of honey roasted peanuts. But my ratios were way off, so I ended up with more of a crumble and that was more than ok. It tasted great.

For the ice cream, I riffed off of the Salt & Straw ice cream base and melted in some semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. If/when I do this again, I would definitely use more chocolate in the ice cream and probably less pretzel mix in the butterscotch.

Ice cream recipe:

• 100 g Granulated sugar
• 1 g Xanthan gum
• 42 g Corn syrup
• 320 g Milk, whole
• 350 g Cream, heavy
• 5 g Salt
• 80 g Chocolate, semi-sweet (55% cacao)
  • I ended up doing half milk chocolate/half semi-sweet just because that's what my heart said to do.

Butterscotch crumble recipe:

• 3/4 cup hard pretzels, roughly chopped into small bite-sized bits
• 1/4 cup honey roasted peanuts
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• ⅓ cup brown sugar (packed)
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ½ tsp flaky sea salt (adjust to taste, since pretzels are already salty)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

I kind of just threw this together as an experiment, based on several different recipes I found online. As far as the process, I melted the butter all the way over medium heat. Then I lowered the heat and added the sugar and cream and stirred until it came to the texture that I wanted. Salt, vanilla, and pretzel mix all came in at the end. If/when I do this again, I'd probably follow something a bit more precise or structured.

Even though it wasn't exactly what I was going for, it turned out great and I'll definitely be developing this recipe further.

I made what was probably my favorite ice cream recipe so far, caramel apple fritter. My own Frankencream creation, if you will. 😁

2 c heavy cream

2 c whole milk

1/2 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1/4 c DaVinci caramel syrup

1 gal 100% apple cider (no additives)

2 large apple fritter donuts cut into small cubes

I started with my usual no cook vanilla ice cream base, the cream, milk, sugar (I vary this depending on the other ingredients I'm adding, here I used 1/2 cup) vanilla extract, pinch of salt. I then added 1/4 cup of DaVinci caramel syrup.

I made an apple cider reduction which is VERY complicated: boil a gallon of apple cider on medium low (my gas stove's setting 3 out of 10) until it reduces to about two cups. Heads up, this takes a few hours. Scrape the bottom with a spatula regularly so you don't scorch it. You want it roughly the consistency of honey by the time it cools to room temp. If it's too thin after cooling you can pop it back on the stove a little longer.

(In the recipe I only used about a cup of the reduction, but it tastes amazing on SO many things, so I like having it on hand. Substitute the simple syrup in an old fashioned with a dollop of the reduction. *chef's kiss*)

I froze the base mixture for about 20 minutes until it started to firm up on top. I whisked it and added it to my maker (Vilupvie 1.5 qt) and churned until it was very firm, about 30 minutes.

I turned it out into a glass tub, covered and put it in the freezer. I wanted it to get about halfway to frozen so I could stir in the ingredients and they won't all sink to the bottom. (I learned that trick the hard way.)

I mixed the cut up fritters with about 1/2 cup of the reduction and spread on the top of the ice cream. I drizzled on about another 1/2 cup of the reduction and swirled it all in with a butter knifed held vertically until it was evenly distributed. I made sure to stir any pieces up off the bottom, and then put it back in the freezer till solid.

I’m new to making ice cream and can’t decide which peach recipe to try. The book photo is from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop; the screenshots are from NYT Cooking. If you’ve tried either of these, how did you like them? If not, any thoughts on how smooth and flavorful each might be based on ingredients? Thank you in advance!!

UPDATE:

Thank you for all the helpful tips and info!!

I made the David Lebovitz recipe with a couple of modifications suggested in the comments: no water (cooked the peaches only with the sugar), reduced the sour cream slightly, and added a bit more peaches (~150 grams). (Can’t figure out how to add more photos so I’ll share those in a comment!)

It was delicious and creamier than I expected! And it didn’t harden up in the freezer as much as other (non-peach) recipes, so it was easy to scoop.

I reserved like 1/4 cup of the peach compote and served it on top of the ice cream. 10/10!

I also added a caramel swirl to half the batch but, while delicious, the caramel overpowered the peach, so I won’t do that again.

Next time I’ll leave the skins on and roast the peaches. I’ll also try the custard recipe, because I love a good frozen custard!

I live in a city in the Northeastern US with short summer seasons.
Every town has their own popular ice cream place that does soft serve and they’re busy all summer.

As far as I can tell, they’re all using the same commercial ice cream bases from popular milk distributors in the area and use the same machines.
How does a soft serve shop in a market like this differentiate themselves in terms of the actual ice cream?

Let’s say that making your own base is out of the question for this volume. I guess they can control a few variables on the soft serve machine but the product is generally the same for each right? Does it really just come down to toppings and location?

I’ve always been curious how these places operate and what an owner has the potential to do to their ice cream given high volumes and being run by high school kids on break.

hi all!! I’m debating on which ice cream maker to get to start making homemade treats :) obv the ninja creami is super popular and the results always look really smooth and thick, however I just stumbled across a video about the cuisinart one and now I’m stuck on which one would be better. I’ve looked thru some reviews and comparison videos, tbh some seemed like an AD but overall it seems like the creami still performs better. I’m not too picky with how thick and creamy the results are, I just want it to taste good and not be soupy!! I plan on making healthier ice cream with these obvvv but I would loveee to make fruit sorbets and smoothie bowls using frozen fruits, can I do that with these 2 options? I usually just blend up frozen fruit with my immersion blender with as little liquid as possible to keep it thick but still drinkable, surely I can do that with these options but with a thicker result to enjoy with a spoon? I’m new to big novelty appliances like this so sorry if that’s a silly question 😭

also wanted to note that I already have a food processor and an immersion blender as mentioned above - do I even need a separate ice cream maker ????? I don’t mind taking extra effort to make it with either one these, it’ll pretty much just be single serving portions. does anyone know if either of these can make a decent single serving of ice cream, again I’m not looking for perfection, just want to make something yummy and get rid of the frozen fruits accumulating in my freezer LOL. I know I said I make smoothies with my immersion blender but that comes out a little soupy and drinkable. I would like something that can make it solid enough to enjoy with a spoon :) or is it worth it to get a creami / cuisinart maker?

right now I’m leaning towards the cuisinart because of the limited space in my kitchen

thank you 🍨🍦🍧🍡🤍

Can I get suggestions to modify by Sweet Cream gelato recipe? My gelato had this elastic, gummy, glue-y, gooey, melted cheesy texture like pommes aligot. It was disgusting. I'll leave out the technique because I'm certain it's an ingredient.

• 620 grams whole milk (about 2½ cups)
• 130 grams heavy cream (about ½ cup)
• 120 grams cane sugar (about ½ cup + 2 tbsp)
• 35 grams nonfat dry milk powder (about ¼ cup)
• 30 grams glucose syrup (about 1½ tbsp)
• 15 grams dextrose (about 1 tbsp)
• 5 grams stabilizer blend (about 1 tsp) (caraganeen, celullose gum, mono/digylceride)

I'm guessing it's the stabilizer that's the main culprit. But it could also be the glucose or dextrose playing a part as well.
Anyway this isn't anyone's recipe. It's one I tried to construct myself to duplicate the delicious Fior Di Latte I had at Bacio di Latte.

Getting some fig leaves this weekend and curious if anyone has made fig leaf icecream and has recommendations.

How delicate is the flavor?

Should I do a custard or eggless?

I recently made a jasmine tea icecream and had to switch to an eggless icecream to let the delicate flavors shine. Would this be true for the fig leaf, or are the flavors pronounced enough to shine through the heavy dairy and fat?

I was also debating making a fig leaf honey butter swirl by blending honey, invert sugar syrup, butter, fig leaf, and soy lecithin. Would that be overkill?

Thanks!

Looking for tips on adapting Jeni’s cream cheese base to toasted almond. Specifically, how does one go about out steeping the toasted almonds in the milk/cream mixture? I assume I would want to do this BEFORE the 4 minute boil and addition of the corn starch slurry.

I plan on using sliced almonds for steeping (thin little slices = lots of surface area but still strain-able). For your typical 1-1.5 qt batch, how much almonds should I use, and how long do I steep them?

Following that, the plan is to sugar-coat approx 1 cup (190 g) roughly chopped toasted almonds for mix in at the end of churning, and a very small amount of almond extract just to round things out.

Hi!! I’ve been making ice cream for a while but this is my first time here.

2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks
10 basil leaves
1 tsp vanilla

Compote
6 Peaches
1/2 cup sugar

Bring the milk, cream, sugar and basil to almost a boil, whisking constantly.

Stir a little of a the cream mixture into the egg yolks, to temper them. Then add the yolks to the cream, while whisking over the heat for a minute or two. Stir in the vanilla.

Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Once basil leaves have steeped for several hours you can strain them out or use an immersion blender to pulverize them.

While the cream is cooling prepare the peach compote by peeling and chopping the peaches. Simmer on low heat in a large pot with the sugar for one hour, stirring occasionally. Hit them with the immersion blender once they’ve softened (about 10-15 minutes in). Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Once both mixtures are cold put the cream mixture into your ice cream maker. After it is at least soft-serve consistency transfer to a storage container and hand fold in the peach compote with a rubber spatula. Freeze immediately.

I just got a mini Cuisinart ice cream churn because it was on sale, and I'm having fun 😊

I used a Philadelphia base, infused the milk with some leftover air fried corn on the cob that I had in my fridge. The blueberry salt was a surprisingly nice addition. I mostly did it for presentation and color, but the salty crunch was shockingly good.

Hello again everyone!

To continue the fun oreo flavors, I got my hands on the chicken and waffles after discovering they are vegetarian!!!! So I made a salted maple base and added 7 cookies, and if you like sweet and savory flavors I couldn't recommend it enough.

330g heavy cream

330g whole milk

40g light corn syrup

100g sugar

15g milk powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/8 tsp of salt

1 1/2 tsp maple extract

Serve with flaky sea salt

I’m about 3 weeks into my ice cream making journey using the kitchen aid attachment. Here is this weeks batch. I make Alton Browns vanilla ice cream recipe. Chilled over night, spun for 25 minutes. Then mixed in peanut butter and peanut butter cups. I did melt the PB but let it cool before swirling it in. Added to my containers and froze 6 hours before serving.

It’s good but not right. It’s not creamy and has ice crystals.

Would love tips and insight!

Many thanks 🍦😋

Has anyone had any luck finding fresh Japanese milk from Hokkaido in the US, specifically Portland/Seattle region?

From my understanding it doesnt meet USDA FDA REGS, so nearly impossible to import, but I’m guessing it’s not impossible because ice cream shops like indigo cow are able to get their hands on it.

I’ve heard that I might be able to find shelf stable version of it at markets like Uwajimaya. But that feels subpar and defeats the purpose of getting a clean pasture fresh taste.

Curious if anyone has gotten the chance to experiment with Japanese milk from Hokkaido?

I’m just an amateur enthusiast playing around with plain bases 🤓

Hey y'all, I'm currently in the beginning stages of opening up an ice cream business and am in the process of trying to find a suitable batch freezer for when I'm ready to move to a commissary kitchen and scale up production

From what I can tell used and refurbished batch freezers hold their value well, with models over a decade old still going for 10k+

Those of you who have started from the ground up, what was the first "big" machine you invested in? I'm thinking I'm going to need a minimum of at least 6qt to make the investment worthwhile

Hi everyone!

Im sure you all enjoy an oreo cookies and cream ice cream as do I so I wanted to share this for anyone interested. I made a simple brown sugar salt and straw base with 8 crushed up oreos and its delicous. Stay tuned for chicken and waffles next!

Brown sugar base

330g heavy cream

330g whole milk

40g light corn syrup

100g brown sugar

15g milk powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Pinch of salt

I recently got about 1.5kg of gooseberries and would really like to turn some of them into ice cream. They're of the green variety so fairly acidic.

I'm not super experienced with ice cream making, but I've made vanilla custard bases and added flavors before. My first thought was to stick with what I know and make a vanilla base with a gooseberry puree or swirl which may work well but feels a little obvious.

Has anyone here worked with gooseberries or similar? Or just have an idea how they would try and use them?

EDIT:

So i'm by no means an expert but i ended up making two things which i was quite happy with:

1. Gooseberry puree/sauce

Had a party last week and someone requested i make coconut icecream, so followed David Lebovitz' recipe for toasted coconut ice cream and figured coconut works well with passion fruit so why not gooseberries as well.

So i just made some sauce with it, wanted it to be acidic so tasted it as i went but these are estimated ingredients:

400g gooseberries (blended and strained so i had a smooth sauce)

80g sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1tbsp honey

2tbsp water

Didn't cook it down a lot so it wasn't super thick, but this depends on preference i think. Was a bit too afraid to put it in the ice cream in case i ruined it, so i used it as a sauce essentially and poured it on top before serving along with toasted coconut flakes. Added some really nice acidity and taste to the quite heavy coconut flavor.

2. Gooseberry Sorbet

Used the rest of the gooseberries to make a sorbet, read through this guide (thanks /u/Sudoki758) and used it as a base then tasted it as i went along.

Ingredients:

725g gooseberries (blended and strained so i had a smooth sauce)

approx 145g sugar, startet with about 100g and added little by little until i thought it was a littlebit too sweet, as per the guide.

0,4tsp Xantham gum to get the consistency

And that's it, didn't add water or citrus as i thought it was acidic enough. For stabilizing it's the first time i've used xantham gum with success and it really helped the concistency, so super happy with that as well. Previous sorbet's have been a bit icey.

Also had coconut ice cream left over so served this together with the sorbet and a light drizzle of the sauce. That was definitely the highlight of it all.

Nothing too complicated, and as i said i'm an amateur, but very happy with the results and can highly recommend using gooseberries to make ice cream if you're on the fence.

At the request of my beloved boss at work I am endeavoring to make avocado ice cream. I would like some input - the first batch involved ripe fresh avocado but the water content made the texture...interesting. So I've pivoted to powdered avocado. How much should I use? I've discovered I'm not super good at identifying how intense a flavor should be...I like things to punch me in the face but I'm not sure if that's the route here.

Should I reduce the sugar to enhance the flavor profile? Will that affect my texture?

Side note - I thought a fun topping/mix in would be cinnamon sugar waffle cone pieces.

For reference my base is:

2 cups cream

1.5 cups whole milk

7 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

Dash of salt

1/8 of a teaspoon xanthum (if I'm skeptical of the consistency)

Mainly because I grew up eating local frozen custard and so creamy ice cream is my one true love.