The Science of Ice Cream Making

Last weekend was a busy one for my husband and I. We ran a half marathon in Staten Island and took my niece to an Aquarium in Connecticut. As such, there was little time for making ice cream (blasphemous, I know). I had originally wanted to make a flavor in honor of the Staten Island Half, but I could not think of anything that screamed Staten Island. If anybody has any suggestions for a Staten Island flavor, I would be happy to hear them.

For this week, I decided to go in a different direction. I made two ice creams flavor to make up for having no ice cream last week. The first flavor I made is not exactly an ice cream, but a sorbet (close enough). 

I made lemon sorbet (this was a special request from my husband, who wanted something fruity). The lemon sorbet came out quite well, I thought. It reminded me of the Italian ices I used to have as a kid, but better.

Lemon Sorbet:

Ingredients:

3 cups granulated sugar

3 cups water

2 1/4 cups lemon juice

Directions:

Bring the sugar and water to boil in a pot over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. When cool, add the lemon juice. Churn in ice cream maker and freeze over night before serving.

The other ice cream flavor I made was Coffee Butter Almond Ice Cream. I had high hopes for this ice cream, but alas, it did not come out so well. I ended up throwing the batch away.

One thing I have noticed since embarking on this project is that although many of the flavors come out quite well, I have struggled with the consistency or texture of my ice cream. When scooped into a bowl, my homemade ice cream tends to melt very fast. I have followed all the usual guidelines, always freezing my ice cream churner for at least 24 hours in advance and allowing the batter to sit in the fridge for 24 hours before churning it. Nonetheless, the ice cream seems to turn soupy very quickly. 

I did some research online and found that most commercial ice creams that are bought in a store contain what are called "stabilizers" that prevent the ice cream from crystallizing and help make the ice cream firmer. The water in milk and the fat in cream tend to separate (something I have noticed with my ice creams when I allow them to sit in the fridge). The stabilizers prevent this separation from taking place and make for a more solid ice cream. In other words, stabilizers are like a bonding agent or glue for food. As you may have guessed, stabilizers are not natural. Many of the stabilizers used in commercial ice creams include: guar gum, carrageenan, xanthan gum and locust bean gum. There are debates as to how harmful these stabilizers are. Some claim not at all and others claim they are toxic. It all depends on the research you want to believe. I am not well versed enough in science and the ingredients in stabilizers to know which side is right in this debate. My personal bias though is that real food, even unhealthy real food, is always better than fake food, especially fake unhealthy food. As such, I would like to avoid using commercial stabilizers in my ice cream. I did do some research into natural stabilizers, however, and found that egg yolks are often used as stabilizers. In the chocolate ice cream recipe I made and loved, I used a lot of egg yolks. I also thought the texture of this ice cream was the most ice cream like. As such, I will be using recipes with a lot of egg yolks in them from now on.

The other thing I found out in my research is that sugar, like alcohol, does not freeze. Sugar, however, does dissolve. This is the reason that many ice cream recipes call for dissolving the sugar in milk over heat before making the ice cream. I strongly recommend doing this and perhaps heating the sugar and milk for a couple extra moments to make sure the sugar has really dissolved. Good luck!

Until next time, keep calm and get your ice cream eating on.