Ice cream is such a wonderful spontaneous treat, it's hard to say "no" when heading home from a special family event. Then, more and more events are "special", and next thing you know, it's a habit. I can make it healthier, but most recipes have you prepping the "mix" the day before, and then there's the ice to deal with, or the canister-thing to manage in the freezer. To really be what I need, it must compete with the convenience of an ice cream shop.
The requirements for pulling this off:
- No cooking, so the mix doesn't need chilling.
- Flavor and texture that can compete with Baskin Robbins.
- Spontaneous; zero to ice cream in about an hour.
I've held this recipe back for a while though. Firstly because it seemed too amazing to just give away. Got over that; there's no way I'm quitting my day job and opening an ice cream parlor.
Secondly, because it has raw egg yolks in it. That doesn't really bother me or my family, but if I share it with other people, that's different. Now that I've worked out how to pasteurize eggs, there are no more excuses!
Jump to the Main Recipe, or the Add-Ins version version if you want to throw in bits of things.
Find links to my kitchen gadgets and unusual ingredients here.
First order of business: Improve the freezing process.
I did have an interesting adventure with using dry ice and a KitchenAid mixer. Learned two things: First, don't use an enameled mixer beater/paddle, because the temperature can cause the enamel to chip off. Second, dry ice will essentially carbonate your ice cream. Sounds interesting, but it also adds a flavor that I find unwelcome. Plus, dry ice is NOT something you can keep stocked in the pantry, so honestly, a fail from the start.Searching Amazon, I found this baby: Cuisinart ICE-100 Compressor Ice Cream and Gelato Maker. No fuss, no ice, no things in the freezer, just plug it in, and turn it on; ice cream in 45-60 min! While that solved part of the "quick and spontaneous" side of the equation, that's an expensive gadget. Even at a 50% discount off retail (which is usually available online) that's around $200-250. Next step: create an ice cream that's worth the investment, to justify buying one. Until then, I used an ice cream maker with the bowl that goes in the freezer.
Second step: Achieve superior, nearly-instant ice cream mix.
I had at this point already tried a lot of different recipes, including old family recipes, Alton Brown's, and a variety of others. Generally, the simple cream/milk/sugar recipes leave a greasy coating on the roof of the mouth. Custard recipes are great, but must be carefully cooked and cooled fully. That greasy coating, though; turns out an emulsifier would fix that. I chose egg yolks and instant clearjel. And grittiness from sugar? Powder the sugar in a powerful blender. How to make up for not steeping a whole vanilla bean in the cream for flavor and vanilla bean specks? Vanilla bean paste! Everything came together!
Pasteurized Eggs.
I looked for but didn't find pasteurized eggs at my local grocery. But it turns out they are easily made with a sous vide cooker (just search on that if you need to, and go ahead and get one; you want one, whether you know it yet or not), or there are other methods online. I am counting pasteurized eggs as an ingredient, though, so keep some available. Waiting to do that first will certainly blow my timeline for spontaneity.If you compare it to my Eggnog Recipe, you'll see it is essentially the same; yes, my Eggnog is not-frozen ice cream mix flavored like eggnog. I posted that raw-egg recipe because I figure people should expect raw eggs in Eggnog. But ice cream is different.
Bringing it together.
It took a while to work it all out, but as the kids would say, "Mom, you've ruined Baskin Robbins!" Now they actually like mine better. :) That doesn't prevent the occasional splurge on a McFlurry, Blizzard, Chick-fil-A shake, or waffle cone, but we all know home-made is better.The splurge is more often at home now. And yes, to us, the fancy ice cream maker was worth the investment. For the 4th of July, we made four different flavors!
Just to mix it up, I've added a few flavor variations that we came up with. Choose one, and use those flavors only. Or invent your own. Also, there's an option for those lovely flakey chocolate chips like Baskin Robins does. I found that trick on Serious Eats, hazzah!
In the "Neapolitan" shown here, the chocolate and strawberry will be shown in separate posts. They were both made ahead and allowed to freeze for more than a day. The vanilla was only in the freezer for about three hours after churning, and is noticeably softer.
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| Neapolitan Style |
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(down to Ad-Ins version)
Same-Day Ice Cream Dex#
Yield: 4 cups of mix, 993 g, to fill a 1 1/2 quart ice cream m-aker.Really creamy, wonderful texture, even after sitting in the freezer. If you want to add up to .6 cups (about 5 fl oz) of "stuff", make the Add-Ins version.
Ingredients
- 36 g (0.18 cup) sugar
- 95 g (0.83 cup) dextrose
- 2 tsp instant ClearJel
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 63 g (0.75 cup) Benefiber
- 338 g (1.39 cup) whole milk
- 58 g (0.18 cup) corn syrup
- 2 large pasteurized egg yolks**
- 350 g (1.46 cup) heavy cream
Vanilla Flavorings
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
Vanilla Cream Flavorings (base for Pralines & Cream)
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 5 drop Bavarian cream flavor*
- 6 drop toffee flavor*
- 2 drops yellow
- 1 drop black (caramel) color
Instructions
- Combine sugar, dextrose, instant clearjel, salt, and Benefiber in the pitcher of a blender and blend until finely powdered.
- Add milk, Karo, egg yolks, and flavorings, and blend until smooth. Add cream and pulse the blender until just combined. Put blender pitcher in the refrigerator, until you're ready to churn.
- Before using, pulse the blender a few times to recombine the ice cream mix, then prepare ice cream using preferred method.
- Eat immediately for soft-serve, or freeze for about 6-8 hours for a firmer texture. I like storing in these containers.
*Flavors/oils measured in drops are the really super-strong candy flavoring kind, from LorAnn. Extracts measured in teaspoons are typically from the grocery store, and are much more dilute.
**For health reasons, it's best not to use raw egg yolks, even those from fresh eggs with uncracked shells. Instead, buy pasteurized eggs, or heat-treat them yourself. There are several ways to do this. I've done it this way:
How to Pasteurize eggs:
Place eggs in 135° sous vide bath for 1 hour 15 min. Chill in ice water (20-30 min). Mark ‘em with a “P”, then into the fridge.(back to top)
(back to Main Recipe)
Same-Day Ice Cream, Add-Ins Version
Yield: slightly less than 4 cups of mix, 993 g, plus add-ins, to fill a 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker.
This recipe leaves just enough room for adding up to .6 cups (about 5 fl oz) of "stuff" (chocolate chips, candy, cookies, etc), without overflowing the pan.
Ingredients, with add-ins
- 32 g (0.16 cup) sugar
- 84 g (0.74 cup) dextrose
- 1.75 tsp Instant ClearJel
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 56 g (0.67 cup) Benefiber
- 300 g (1.24 cup) whole milk
- 52 g (0.16 cup) corn syrup (Karo)
- 2 large pasteurized egg yolks**
- 311 g (1.3 cup) heavy cream
Vanilla Flavorings
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
Vanilla Cream Flavorings (base for Pralines & Cream)
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 5 drop bavarian cream flavor*
- 6 drop toffee flavor*
- 2 drops yellow
- 1 drop black (caramel) color
Mint Flavorings
- 1 tsp (no extra please) vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 37 drops creme de menthe oil*
- 5 drops green color
Add-in: Chocolate Chips
- 100 g (.59 cup) Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips
- 8 g (1.75 tsp) neutral flavored oil, like peanut or refined coconut oil
Instructions
- Combine sugar, dextrose, instant clearjel, salt, and Benefiber in the pitcher of a blender and blend until finely powdered.
- Add milk, Karo, egg yolks, and flavorings, and blend until smooth. Add cream and pulse the blender until just combined. Put blender pitcher in the refrigerator, until you're ready to churn.
- Before using, pulse the blender a few times to recombine the ice cream mix, then prepare ice cream using preferred method.
- While ice cream churns, prepare add-ins: About .6 cups of bits of nuts, candy, cookie crumbs, etc, or for chocolate chips, mix Ghirardelli chocolate and oil, and heat in a microwave just enough to melt and stir together smoothly. Try heating 30 sec, stir, and repeat. Allow to cool some so it doesn’t melt the ice cream as much when adding.
- During final minutes of churning (at 35-40 min when soft-serve-ish), pour in add-ins, or slowly drizzle chocolate into ice cream to form thin, lacy lines, pausing to break up larger chocolate chunks, if needed, taking care not to get anything jammed into the rotating ice cream dasher.
- Eat immediately for soft-serve, or freeze for about 6-8 hours for a firmer texture. I like storing in these containers.
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