Ice cream is one of the eternal favorites, and the tastiest way to cool off on a hot summer day. If you love ice cream, but you try to resist buying the kinds available in stores because of concerns about high sugar intake and harmful additives, you should make your own ice cream right at home.
If you invest in the necessary utensils, you can blend the ingredients for the ice cream fast, and the result will be tasty and much healthier. You may have had less than satisfactory results making ice cream at home, and most of the problems were probably related to texture. Sometimes the ice cream freezes and is full of large chunks of ice instead of being creamy and smooth, or it may not harden, the mixture may not become homogeneous and the list goes on. There are some tricks you need to know to make perfect ice cream, whether you use a machine or make it manually.
The cream should be whipped or mixed well
First of all, in order to get a fine, smooth texture, you should whip or mix the ingredients very carefully. If you have an ice cream machine, it is very easy to obtain the desired texture; if you do not, you will have to use a mixer. Mixing at high speed helps air bubbles enter in the composition, and the formation of ice crystals as a result.
The cream should not be stored in the freezer
Regardless of the ingredients used to prepare the ice cream, the mixture should never be placed in the freezer right away. Instead, leave it in the fridge overnight or for a few hours, especially if the ice cream recipe was prepared by cooking the ingredients. The incorporating air bubbles help the crystallization of the fat, and the texture of the ice cream will turn out similar to that of professionally made ice cream. If you use an ice cream machine, once you remove the cream from the fridge and place it in the freezer, your ice cream will be ready in only 15-20 minutes.
Sugar influences freezing
It is important to know that sugar changes the freezing ability of water. Therefore, if you add sugar or other sweeteners to your ice cream recipe, keep in mind that the water will no longer freeze at 0 degrees Celsius, but at a lower temperature, depending on the amount of sugar added. Honey has the same effect on the process of freezing water.
Watch out for proteins
Ice cream recipes are based on proteins obtained from either milk or eggs, which radically influence the formation of ice crystals. On the one hand, proteins are made up from large molecules that prevent the formation of ice crystals, and on the other hand they contribute to the formation of a layer of gelatin that retains a lot of water and, again, prevents crystallization. To avoid these problems, use milk powder instead of liquid milk.
If you add alcohol…
If you add alcohol to your ice cream recipe, you have to take into account a very important aspect: there is a risk that your mixture of ingredients will not freeze at all. Alcohol generally freezes at temperatures as low as -100 degrees Celsius. However, if you sprinkle the cream with just a few drops of alcohol, the cream will freeze without problems, and can still enjoy the taste you wish.