So, Megan got a Kitchen Aid mixer last year for Christmas. This year she got the ice cream maker insert for her mixer. Thus, Megan is in need of a good ice cream recipe which is where yours truly comes in. I got my Kitchen Aid insert back in the Summer and have been working on perfecting my ice cream making. There are actually two important parts to the recipe: the formula and the process (Formula + Process = Product). So let’s get down to brass tacks and discuss the important elements of the recipe.
The first critical element is the cream itself. Here the ice cream formulator has a good deal of discretion. The ultimate formulation uses all heavy cream which makes the richest ice cream since it contains about 30% butterfat. If you were to use all light cream the butterfat content would be about 18%. The recipe calls for three cups of cream. Thus you can mix different types of cream together and get different butterfat levels and degrees of richness.
Just for fun, next time you are in the grocery store check out the fat content of the various types of commercial ice cream. Once you have done that, look at the product descriptions on the cartons. Many will declaim their “rich and creamy taste” despite having absurdly low fat content. You will find absolutely no correlation between the claims on the label with the fat content. The only way to produce a “rich and creamy taste” with low fat content is with chemical additives to modify the organoleptic properties of the ice cream. Which is why you have decided to make your own ice cream in the first place: you’re tired of being hosed.
The next critical element is the addition of egg yolk. So why did I add egg yolk? They reduce the prominence of ice crystals in the ice cream during storage. There is a fair amount of water in heavy cream. The water wants to separate from the fat and crystallize out. The commercial ice cream makers circumvent this problem by adding natural or semi-synthetic gums to the ice creams. Examples of these are guar gum or cellulose gum. These gums also help product the “rich and creamy taste” we talked about earlier.
We are not adding gums to our ice cream; however we do want to minimize the size and number of ice crystals in our ice cream. This is where egg yolks come in. Egg yolks contain lecithin which is a natural emulsifier. (Egg yolks are the heart of mayonnaise which emulsify the oil and water together) Thus I am using the lecithin to emulsify the fat and the water in the cream in the recipe. When you buy cream from the grocery store and pour it out it appears to be a uniform mixture. This is because it has been homogenized. Homogenization is an ultra high pressure and shear mixing process which breaks up the fat into microdroplets which easily disperse in the water phase of the cream so that it appears to be uniform. We are going to add our egg yolks to our cream in a blender and mix to create a real emulsion.
We are then going to heat our egg and cream emulsion in order to make the egg yolks safe for consumption. This is going to require the use of thermometer. I use a digital instant read meat thermometer. This is important because you don’t want to overheat the egg yolks. If you do, you will cause them to solidify and separate out. In other words, you can “scramble” the eggs if you overheat them in the milk mixture. So keep stirring and watch your thermometer.
Now, on to the vanilla bean which we will use to flavor our ice cream. When you purchase whole vanilla beans from the grocery store they come folded up in a bottle. A whole vanilla bean is about 6 inches long or so. For this recipe you cut the bean in half and use that. I also slice the bean in half lengthwise. This exposes more of the interior of the bean during the heating step and I believe enhances flavor release. This also allows more of the tiny brown bits inside the bean to get loose during heating providing the authentic specks indicative of real vanilla. What if you don’t have any real vanilla beans at hand and you need to make ice cream. In that case you use vanilla extract. I don’t have a firm suggestion as to how much extract to use. I would start with 2 teaspoons and go from there. The vanilla beans make a very intensely flavored ice cream base, so 2 teaspoons is not too much. Be careful not to draw conclusions on the flavor of your ice cream based upon tasting the ice cream base itself. The frozen product tastes much different than the liquid. You will also note the use of a pinch of salt in the formula. The salt taste does not come through and acts as a flavor enhancer in the recipe.
Ok, I think I have covered all of the theoretical basics so on to the recipe and process.
| Amount | Ingredient |
| 3 cups | Heavy Cream |
| 2 | Egg Yolks |
| ½ | Vanilla Bean |
| 2/3 cups | Sugar |
| Pinch | Kosher Salt |
Directions
1. Put the cream and egg yolks in a blender.
2. Blend the cream and egg yolks together at a medium speed for 15 seconds.
3. Put the sugar and the vanilla bean which has been sliced in half in a sauce pan.
4. Add the cream egg mixture to the sauce pan with stirring.
5. Heat the mixture in the sauce pan with continuous stirring over medium heat until a thermometer registers 175 F.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pass the ice cream base through a sieve.
7. Put the ice cream base in the refrigerator and chill it completely.
8. When the ice cream base has been chilled, set up the Kitchen Aid mixer insert and turn on the mixer.
9. Add the chilled ice cream base to the Kitchen Aid insert and mix for 17 ½ minutes.
10. Stop the mixer and transfer the ice cream to a plastic container and freeze overnight.
11. Enjoy eating your excellent homemade ice cream.
