Question about ice cream texture

Today I made a simple vanilla ice cream: 2 c. cream, 1 c. whole milk, 3/4 c. sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Near the end of churn I threw in 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips, 1/2 c. sweetened coconut flakes, and 1/2 c. toasted sliced almonds. Let it rest in the freezer for 5-6 hours.

It has certainly firmed though it's by no means hard. The texture is kinda strange. It leaves a film on the spoon that takes a couple tries to lick off. Jim says it seems almost grainy.

Did I use too much cream? Or am I just completely unaccustomed to ice cream that doesn't have a custard base?

Also: Jim thinks I should use bigger chips and more of them, but I gotta say that 1.5 c. of stuff looked like a lot (and did cause the churn to nearly overflow).


Still learning,

Jeff

We always use custard for that very reason.

My wild guess would be too much cream. It sounds as though maybe the dairy fat level is a little high, leading to a "fat film" on the spoon. That's just a guess, though.

I've made a couple of non-custard ice creams (notably a strawberry version) that were not noticeably different in texture from custard-based ice creams.

The Ben and Jerry's sweet cream base #2 uses 2 cups heavy cream, 2/3 cup half and half, and 3/4 cup sugar, and I've had the same thing happen. Not always, so it must be something with the emulsive properties of eggless ice cream. The delicious Philly-style Anden's ice cream (available at Whole Foods) is similarly rich, and though it's stabilized with soy lecithin (among other things) I've had a quart that clung to the spoon unattractively as you describe.

Walt

Over the years making ice cream is something I've fooled around with and without a custard base it does have a different texture. Straight vanilla needs a custard base IMHO to really be good.

OK, I got home from work and was able to consult my ice cream oracle, the book Ices, by Liddell and Weir. According to them, you've made a version of Philadelphia ice cream. This is ice cream that contains no eggs and is uncooked. A true Philadelphia ice cream will also have no milk and will have visible specks of black vanilla bean. This is all supposedly due to the many dairies surrounding Philadelphia in the mid-1800's as well as that city's access to vanilla. They mention that Philadelphia-style ice cream is often a bit grainy due to the lack of emulsification provided by eggs. They have a recipe for "Easy No-Cook Philadelphia Vanilla Ice Cream. It uses 1 1/2 cups of milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of whipping cream, and a vanilla bean. I haven't made that one but based on that I would continue to guess that the spoon-coating in yours was due to the dairy fat in the cream.

Thank you, everyone, for your replies.

Thank you, Mike, for consulting (and owning!) an authoritative book on the subject. I guess, if I knew what I was doing, I would have expected what I got. One more question... Does it offer any recipe that is still 'no eggs' but gives a different texture or style?

My wife gets credit for finding the book. It was published in England but she found it on some website or other.

They have a number of no-custard ice cream recipes. The strawberry one that I've made contains 1 lb. of fresh strawberries, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. You puree the berries with the sugar and vinegar and then let that sit for a couple of hours. Then mix with the cream and freeze. It really comes out nicely and is a great way to use strawberries that aren't quite perfect enough to just eat.

Hmm. I just came across one of their recipes for "English Toffee Ice Cream". It calls for 10 1/2 oz. of crushed toffees, 1 cup of milk, and 2 cups of heavy cream - the same ratio of milk and cream that you had in your recipe, Jeff. Wonder if it would come out with a similar texture??

And then there's their Pistachio Ice Cream recipe which is nothing but pistachios, heavy cream, and vanilla-flavored sugar! That ought to be even more fatty than the version you made.

I'm starting to think that extensive test kitchen work may be needed to figure this out....

Interesting finds, Mike. I wonder whether some physical effort towards emulsification (e.g., beating) of the cream/milk mixture first would help?

In the strawberry recipe, can you taste the balsamic in the final result?

Jeff -

The balsamic vinegar doesn't come through strongly in that recipe. It mostly adds depth and richness (which is what makes it a good use for less than perfect strawberries).

hi jeff

what you have done is no icecrem if the cream would have been whipped and there would have no milk it could have past as a "parfait"

if you have no icecream-freezer (freezing with constant turning) you can try next time to freeze you're recepie in icecubes-container - and to blend those when frozen - maybe you cold use a foodprocesser

maybe safe some of the cream and ad it (cold-but liquid) to the ice-cubes before processing

at the end add chocolate coconut and almond as you prefer

if you don't use eggs for a reason, you cold thicken and (helping the lipide- and waterbase holding together) with carob-gum (dict.cc translation for johannisbrotkernmehl) witch is a cold-thickener

what you have done is no icecrem

Yes, it is.

if you have no icecream-freezer (freezing with constant turning)...

What makes you think I don't? As a matter of fact I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker and that is what I used.

Please check your facts before just barging into a conversation.

carob-gum

Thanks for the idea. I don't really want to play Mad Scientist, though. I may just go back to custard base.

Well, it's 4 days later and we both think the ice cream has gotten a little bit better. Does ice cream improve with a bit of sitting around?

Don't know about improvement with aging, but I did run across this NY Times article on Philly-style ice cream. They indicate that a 65/35 ratio of cream to milk is ideal, which is basically what you used, Jeff. I guess my excess cream hypothesis is not standing up.

Thanks, Mike. Great article. Encouraging!

Today I made a pumpkin ice cream on a custard base: 2 c. half-and-half, 1 c. whole milk, 2 egg yolks, 2/3 c. brown sugar, 15 oz canned pumpkin goo, spices. Jim says it isn't sweet enough. I'll let you know tomorrow(?) about the texture.

OK, so the pumpkin ice cream is going to be melted, sweetened and re-churned.

Meanwhile, I made some chocolate ice cream, on a custard base: 2 c. cream, 2 c. whole milk, 2 yolks, 1/2 c. sugar, 5 oz chocolate 54%, 1 tbsp vanilla. Threw in some mini-chips at the end of churn. This one worked very nicely! I'm going to toast some almonds and coconut to throw on top at serving.

I've never tried melting and re-churning an ice cream. I'll be interested in hearing how it works out.

I mixed 1/4 c. whole milk with 2/3 c. brown sugar until it was syrupy, then blended it into the melted pumpkin ice cream, then re-churned it. Spilled a tbsp of Jack into it at the end.

The goo took up a lot of room in the churn -- it had not gone completely flat when it melted -- but it seems to have churned OK. It's in the freezer now.

Tried the re-churned pumpkin. It's rather harder than the others were. I was prepared for a slight chewiness, due to the vegetable matter, but there are also a lot of fine ice crystals and that makes it feel gritty. Sigh.

Thanks for reporting back on that, Jeff. I guess it didn't work out too well, but it was worth a shot.