Achamore
Well-Known Member
Ok, since there is some interest in our efforts in making ice cream, I thought I'd share some of the things my wife and I have learnt in the past 8 months.
All of this centres around our plans to create a small but commercial scale of production, using the milk from Emma's farm. She milks roughly 60 cows, and at the moment the farm gate milk price is appalling, less than half the cost of production, so we faced having to abandon dairy farming, or else add value to the milk. For the past 8 months we've been making small batches, since the end of March we've been using a terrific small batch freezer from Italy.
This machine takes between 1.5 litres and 2.5 litres at a time, and turns your mix into ice cream in about 7 minutes. It produces a smooth, very finely textured ice cream. Usually at this point we are making batches of mix that use 5 litres of milk. Here's our recipe for Vanilla ice cream:
5 litres of whole fresh milk, straight from the farm
750 ml Double Cream (currently straight from the supermarket..)
8 fresh egg yolks
100 ml vegetable glycerine
110 grams butter
Blend the above liquid mix thoroughly with an electric hand blender. The egg yolks are the emulsifier, so it is vital that the blending is thorough at the first stage, i.e., prior to it being pasteurised. Oh, and before you ask, the vegetable glycerine is there to improve the scoop-ability of the ice cream. With Chocolate ice cream you have to up the veg glycerine somewhat, as the cocoa butter turns rock hard when frozen. Tricks of the trade!
Then mix together:
800 gram sugar
19 grams of an equal mix of three gum powders.
The 3 gum powders are Guar Gum, Locust Bean Gum, and Xanthum Gum. So there is just over 6 grams of each of the 3 different gum powders. It is essential to blend the sugar and the gum powders fully before adding them to the liquid mix, as otherwise the gum powders will glom together (technical term that) and form little ugly lumps.
Add the sugar / gums mix to the liquid mix, and then once more blend thoroughly with the hand blender for a couple of minutes. The gums will thicken the mix, and at this point the hand blender will be working pretty hard. Our 800 watt blender heats up after about 5 minutes of such use, so we have 2 on hand and alternate, if we are doing 2 of the 5 litre batches at once, which is what we are normally doing.
Then heat the resulting mix to at least 75˚ C though we normally heat to 80˚ C, but all the while be sure to keep whisking the mix vigorously, to avoid burning in the bottom of the pot. (We have an Aga, which is perfect for this purpose. We have 2 big 18 litre stainless steel pots with good thick bottoms, which are almost as wide as the heating plates of the Aga. We move the pots between the hotter plate and the cooler hot plate, to avoid one pot getting too hot.)
Once the mix is up to 75˚ C then place the pot in a sink full of cold water, and whisk the mix every few minutes to assist the cooling process. Given that the mix is a perfect breeding ground for all manner of bacteria when it is between 10˚ C and 60˚ C this cooling process needs to be relatively fast. We normally get the temperature of the mix below 50˚ C within 30 minutes.
Once it is below 50˚C we then add 45 ml of top quality Vanilla Extract to the mix, and then blend it once more.
We then run the mix in 3 batches through the batch freezer. It emerges at about -6˚C and so it is important to then get the tubs into the freezer as swiftly as possible, to avoid large ice crystals forming. Our freezers are at -18˚C but also we have one at -25˚C if we need to store any ice cream for a longer period.
About the Gum Powders. I would have liked to have avoided their use, even though they are largely natural ingredients and from what I have read pretty darned harmless. But the professional advice I was given said that you must have these. I chose initially to ignore that advice, this being my proclivity. But we then made 2 small batches back in March, identical to each other except for the gums which were put into just one batch. We then left them in the coldest freezer for a month. When we then compared the two, it was astonishing: the batch made without the gums had turned icy, while the one with the gums had remained essentially the way it had been on the day it was produced, lovely and creamy and smooth.
The gum powders act as stabilisers, and prevent the water and fat molecules from migrating apart during their time in the freezer. If you make ice cream that is intended to be eaten within a few days, then none of these gums are needed. But if like us you want to produce ice cream that will be sold through shops in the region, then the gums are necessary.
Regarding egg yolks. Most big commercial ice cream companies these days do not use egg yolk, as they can achieve the emulsification more easily by adding "Mono & Di-glycerides". Apart from sounding yukky to my mind, these are sometimes derived from animal fats, and so a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian would want to avoid an ice cream made with Mono & Di-glycerides (E471). I'm just kind of old fashioned I suppose, and prefer the idea of egg yolks helping out in the mix, compared with these substances with the ugly names..!
All of this centres around our plans to create a small but commercial scale of production, using the milk from Emma's farm. She milks roughly 60 cows, and at the moment the farm gate milk price is appalling, less than half the cost of production, so we faced having to abandon dairy farming, or else add value to the milk. For the past 8 months we've been making small batches, since the end of March we've been using a terrific small batch freezer from Italy.
This machine takes between 1.5 litres and 2.5 litres at a time, and turns your mix into ice cream in about 7 minutes. It produces a smooth, very finely textured ice cream. Usually at this point we are making batches of mix that use 5 litres of milk. Here's our recipe for Vanilla ice cream:
5 litres of whole fresh milk, straight from the farm
750 ml Double Cream (currently straight from the supermarket..)
8 fresh egg yolks
100 ml vegetable glycerine
110 grams butter
Blend the above liquid mix thoroughly with an electric hand blender. The egg yolks are the emulsifier, so it is vital that the blending is thorough at the first stage, i.e., prior to it being pasteurised. Oh, and before you ask, the vegetable glycerine is there to improve the scoop-ability of the ice cream. With Chocolate ice cream you have to up the veg glycerine somewhat, as the cocoa butter turns rock hard when frozen. Tricks of the trade!
Then mix together:
800 gram sugar
19 grams of an equal mix of three gum powders.
The 3 gum powders are Guar Gum, Locust Bean Gum, and Xanthum Gum. So there is just over 6 grams of each of the 3 different gum powders. It is essential to blend the sugar and the gum powders fully before adding them to the liquid mix, as otherwise the gum powders will glom together (technical term that) and form little ugly lumps.
Add the sugar / gums mix to the liquid mix, and then once more blend thoroughly with the hand blender for a couple of minutes. The gums will thicken the mix, and at this point the hand blender will be working pretty hard. Our 800 watt blender heats up after about 5 minutes of such use, so we have 2 on hand and alternate, if we are doing 2 of the 5 litre batches at once, which is what we are normally doing.
Then heat the resulting mix to at least 75˚ C though we normally heat to 80˚ C, but all the while be sure to keep whisking the mix vigorously, to avoid burning in the bottom of the pot. (We have an Aga, which is perfect for this purpose. We have 2 big 18 litre stainless steel pots with good thick bottoms, which are almost as wide as the heating plates of the Aga. We move the pots between the hotter plate and the cooler hot plate, to avoid one pot getting too hot.)
Once the mix is up to 75˚ C then place the pot in a sink full of cold water, and whisk the mix every few minutes to assist the cooling process. Given that the mix is a perfect breeding ground for all manner of bacteria when it is between 10˚ C and 60˚ C this cooling process needs to be relatively fast. We normally get the temperature of the mix below 50˚ C within 30 minutes.
Once it is below 50˚C we then add 45 ml of top quality Vanilla Extract to the mix, and then blend it once more.
We then run the mix in 3 batches through the batch freezer. It emerges at about -6˚C and so it is important to then get the tubs into the freezer as swiftly as possible, to avoid large ice crystals forming. Our freezers are at -18˚C but also we have one at -25˚C if we need to store any ice cream for a longer period.
About the Gum Powders. I would have liked to have avoided their use, even though they are largely natural ingredients and from what I have read pretty darned harmless. But the professional advice I was given said that you must have these. I chose initially to ignore that advice, this being my proclivity. But we then made 2 small batches back in March, identical to each other except for the gums which were put into just one batch. We then left them in the coldest freezer for a month. When we then compared the two, it was astonishing: the batch made without the gums had turned icy, while the one with the gums had remained essentially the way it had been on the day it was produced, lovely and creamy and smooth.
The gum powders act as stabilisers, and prevent the water and fat molecules from migrating apart during their time in the freezer. If you make ice cream that is intended to be eaten within a few days, then none of these gums are needed. But if like us you want to produce ice cream that will be sold through shops in the region, then the gums are necessary.
Regarding egg yolks. Most big commercial ice cream companies these days do not use egg yolk, as they can achieve the emulsification more easily by adding "Mono & Di-glycerides". Apart from sounding yukky to my mind, these are sometimes derived from animal fats, and so a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian would want to avoid an ice cream made with Mono & Di-glycerides (E471). I'm just kind of old fashioned I suppose, and prefer the idea of egg yolks helping out in the mix, compared with these substances with the ugly names..!
Thanks for sharing your endevours.
