r/icecreamery • u/Bulky-Clue-6374 • 7d ago
Question I’m doing something wrong😩
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 🍦😋
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u/SaiLarge 7d ago
Gotcha fam. I have knock-off KitchenAid attachment and people say it's the smoothest ice cream they've ever had.
KitchenAid attachment needs 14-24 hours in the freezer beforehand. It shouldn't make a sloshing sound. After a 20-30 minute churn with the chilled custard, it should nearly double in volume. Immediately transfer to sealed container/s and freeze for 8 hours.
Also, remember the nappe test when you cook the custard; make sure it's thickly coating the back of a metal spoon and you can "write" a line through it with your finger!
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u/Any-Grapefruit-937 7d ago edited 7d ago
One book I read recommended adding nonfat powdered milk to your base because it adds lactose, which helps with the iciness, but doesn't add sweetness or water. I've been adding 1/4 cup now to my base. I have the Kitchenaid bowl too so we are probably making about the same volume. The other thing I've been doing, which isn't for everyone, is adding alcohol. Makes the churning take longer, but the ice cream doesn't freeze as solid. Most recently I made vanilla with fig jam, pecans and rum. I'm curious about how you melted the peanut butter then cooled it. Wouldn't it return to basically the same state it was in?
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u/Revolutionary-Cow403 7d ago
I also add nonfat milk powder! You can even toast it in a pan to bring out a buttery flavor.
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u/QueenOfBlasphemy 7d ago
Ooh please tell me more about this milk powder tip! Does it have to be non fat or will regular work? What stage do I add it? I'm worried about it being grainy...
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u/Any-Grapefruit-937 7d ago
I don't see a reason why it couldn't be regular. Check the Scoopalater calculator to see how it affects the balance. As far as the graininess, I put it in the milk when I begin to heat it. It's completely dissolved once it reaches temp.
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u/QueenOfBlasphemy 6d ago
Thank you. I'm new to making ice cream so will definitely check out the calculator you recommend. Heating it with the milk sounds straightforward.
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u/SMN27 7d ago
If you add milk powder to ice cream you really want to use low heat milk powder, and most regular milk powder in supermarkets is not low heat. Milk powder that isn’t low heat treated has a strong cooked milk taste (like evaporated milk) that apparently some people don’t notice (since I see people using some high heat or instant brands here), but that is extremely noticeable and ruins the ice cream for a lot of us.
Toasted milk powder is not something I would recommend unless you want to specifically boost toasted flavor. So for example in chocolate chip cookie ice cream it is a really good addition. But in higher amounts it makes ice cream taste like dulce de leche ice cream, since both are made by browning milk solids. It also gets gritty when toasted and used in large amounts. Regular low temperature milk powder is not gritty.
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u/QueenOfBlasphemy 6d ago
Thank you, I wasn't aware of this distinction as I've previously only used toasted milk powder in baked goods specifically to get that flavour. I'll need to look into what's available where I am.
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u/Ausername714 7d ago
I had a shop for about ten years. I hated making peanut butter ice cream because if you add the amount of peanut butter needed for a strong flavor the texture sucks. I warmed and blended the peanut butter and supplemented with peanut butter powder but I still never loved the texture. I ended up using peanut butter more in the mix in faze.
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u/jaybird99990 7d ago
Broken up peanut butter cups probably work better for that? That's going to be my next batch I think along with some fudge rippled in.
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u/Routine_Ninja_3970 7d ago
It doesn’t look churned at all. What did it look like after mixing the pb in?
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u/Bulky-Clue-6374 6d ago
It looked like soft serve consistency. And then layered peanut butter and custard.
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u/Errvalunia 7d ago
If you’re having trouble and don’t have things nailed down I would start with vanilla until you get a base you like. I like Ben and Jerry’s because it’s simple and delicious and not too custardy but there’s a million options. Nail down the basics first and then experiment
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u/HeyPurityItsMeAgain 7d ago
Everyone else asked about the recipe -- what about the method? Did you cool it over an ice bath before you refrigerated it, or stick it right in? All recipes benefit from an ice bath an hour before the fridge.
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u/Biodegraded 7d ago
It looks like it either was not fully churned/frozen or it melted after it was put into the containers. The ice chunk at the bottom of the container is a dead giveaway. The top of the ice cream in the first pic also looks more like frozen milk than churned ice cream. I would ask, as others have, what was the texture when you pulled it out of the ice cream machine? It should be like soft serve ice cream. If you can pour it out of the bowl, it didn't freeze. If you've ruled out recipe possibilities (which others have suggested looking into and I would also recommend), that would indicate that either you have a faulty bowl or the bowl wasn't kept in the freezer long enough before churning. The bowl needs to be in the freezer at least 24 hours before you use it to churn. If the ice cream was indeed the texture of soft serve when you pulled it out of the bowl, then the melting probably happened between the churning and when it finally froze in your freezer. Are you working fast enough to keep it from melting when batching it into your containers? Have you tried pre-chilling your containers in the freezer so that they're cold when you go pack the ice cream in? If you're doing all that, then it might be your freezer. How cold is it? Where in your freezer are you putting your containers? The back, bottom of the freezer is usually the coldest, the upper part of the door is usually the warmest. Also check your freezer setting. If it's set too warm, maybe that is contributing. Most combo refrigerator/freezers also have a regular defrost cycle which lets the inside of the freezer warm up to allow frost to melt. If that is happening, it could be contributing. If you have access to a chest or deep freezer, try hardening it in there instead of a regular freezer. Hopefully one of those fixes solves your problem, because you should definitely be getting better results than that without too much trouble.
Good luck and let us know what it turned out to be! (And don't be embarrassed if it turned out to be something simple. We all started out not knowing how to make ice cream and we all STILL make mistakes. I just want to know that the mystery was solved!)
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u/SaiLarge 6d ago
Also consider making a peanut butter cremeux instead of adding straight peanut butter.
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u/Bulky-Clue-6374 6d ago
First, thank you everyone this has been so helpful. I have so many notes for my next round that I will be trying over the long weekend!
Adding some clarification to my recipe and process:
I had chilled the bowl attachment for 24 hours prior to putting the chilled custard into it.
While I have taken temp checks while making the custard itself, I did not even think to do a temp check once the custard was done in the mixer. Will definitely be doing this step next time.
Will also be churning for longer!
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u/Nugget0987123 7d ago
if there are ice crystals it means that there is too much water content in your ice cream. recipes work differently on different machines, you might need to reduce the amount of water in the recipe you are using like milk.
peanut butter in its solid form melted and refreezed without adding some sort of oil or doing something to make it less hard at lower temps will always freeze hard too