Ice Creams & Sorbets - Tips

Alcohol in sorbets and sherbets will help keep them less icy. Egg-based ice cream bases will also stay relatively softer in the freezer, but you'll get a richer ice cream. I made a frozen yogurt with whole milk Greek yogurt and it stayed scoopable (but still harder than commercial ice cream); the 2% yogurt was a little harder.

I've been using David's ice cream book The Perfect Scoop and I have to say his recipes have given me the best results in terms of ice cream texture (flavors as well). 1 c. milk to 2 c. cream is a good ratio for me. Too much cream, though, tends to leave a funny coating on my tongue.

It could also just be your freezer, and not so much the ice cream. Sometimes, if I'm in a hurry, I'll defrost my ice cream (in pint containers) for 30 seconds in the microwave. Other times, sticking it in the fridge for 10 minutes gets it softer but not as melted as if I'd left it on the counter.

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from http://www.davidlebovitz.com

Alcohol

Alcohol doesn’t freeze, which you know if you’re anything like me and keep a bottle of Zubróvka vodka chilled and ready in your freezer. You can add up to 3 tablespoons of 40 proof liquor to 1 quart (1 liter) of your frozen dessert mixture prior to churning. I use vodka if I don’t want the taste of the liquor to intrude on the flavor, but will switch to another liquor such as Grand Marnier or Armagnac to enhance the original flavor if it’s compatible.

If my mixture is fruit-based, I prefer to add kirsch, a liquor which enhances the taste of stone fruits, like peaches, plums, nectarines, as well as berries. Generally-speaking, I’ll add enough so the taste isn’t very present, often less than a tablespoon.

For sorbets and sherbets, a glug of Champagne, white wine or rosé is nice with fruit flavors. 1/2 cup (125 ml) can be added per quart (liter) of mixture prior to churning. Or if the recipe calls for cooking the fruit with water, substitute some dry or sweet white wine for a portion of the water; the amount will depend on how much of the wine you want to taste. (Most of the alcohol will cook out but enough will remain to keep your sorbet softer.)

Sugar

Like alcohol, sugar doesn’t freeze which is why you shouldn’t futz around with recipes and just reduce the sugar willy-nilly. Almost all frozen dessert recipes use white granulated sugar, however you can replace some or all of the sugar with another liquid sweetener, namely honey or light corn syrup.

Either one will give the ice cream a smoother, less-icy texture but the drawback is that honey has a taste that may not be compatible with your other flavors and corn syrup has its own detractors. Since I don’t eat many preprocessed foods or drink soda, where most of it lurks, I don’t worry adding some every now and then when called for.

In general, liquid sweeteners are sweeter than granulated sugar so you should use three-quarters for each part of granulated sugar. (ie, use 3/4 cup honey in place of 1 cup of sugar.) You can substitute all, or perhaps, just part for the sugar. Artificial sweeteners, like Splenda, I have no experience with so can’t advise. I suggest researching agave nectar, a natural sweetener, which is said to be suitable for diabetics. (You should check with your doctor if you have health concerns.)

Gelatin

You can soften gelatin in cold water, warm it to melt it, then add it to sorbet or sherbet mixtures prior to churning. 1 teaspoon of powdered gelatin is a general guideline per quart (liter) of mixture, although that can be doubled. Please note that this makes the recipe no longer suitable for vegans, vegetarians or folks who keep kosher.

Fat

Fat doesn’t freeze. If you don’t believe me, put a cup of olive oil or a blob of Crisco in the freezer and see what happens. (Butter will freeze since it’s roughly 18% water.) In many of my recipes, I don’t use boatloads of cream and instead replace it with whole milk with very satisfying results. Same with egg yolks. While it’s lots of fun to watch chefs dump tons of cream into whatever it is they’re making while the crowd cheers them on, it’s not necessarily how I (or most folks) actually cook at home these days.

So you can up the fat in your ice cream by substituting cream for milk or half-and-half in recipes. Even more effective, is that you can also add more egg yolks if making a custard-based ice cream, which will increase the creaminess due to their emulsifying properties. Most of my recipes used 5 or 6 yolks per quart (liter), but you can go up to 10 per quart (liter) if you’d like.

(Note: People also ask me about using non-fat or reduced-fat products. In my recipes, I indicate where low-fat products can be used without sacrificing the results. You could theoretically use non-fat products but your ice cream or frozen yogurt will be grainy and icy and most likely you won’t be thrilled with the results.)

Stabilizers

Some pastry chefs use stabilizers and ant-crystallization agents in their ice creams and sorbets to keep them smooth. Many are pectins and alginates are derived from seaweed or glucose. (There’s a forum on eGullet where these are discussed in depth.) I don’t have any experience using them as I prefer my frozen desserts with less-additives and don’t write recipes using ingredients that many people don’t have access too.

If you do want to experiment with them, stabilizers are available at L’Epicerie and Pastry Chef Central, and those companies can best advise about their use.

Your Machine

Almost all home machines churn at a much lower speed than commercial machines, which are designed to whip lots of air (called ‘overrun’) into the ice cream, as much as legally possible in some cases. Consequently your homemade ice cream will not have as much fluffiness to it like the stuff you buy in the supermarket.

My Cuisinart ICE-50 turns off automatically when the ice cream is done and I find during the last few minutes of churning is when the ice cream reaches its maximum volume and airiness. You may want to churn your ice cream as long as possible to get the maximum amount of air into it as well whatever machine you’re using.

The most powerful and fastest machine I’ve seen for home churning, which replicates a commercial machine, is the pricey KitchenAid Pro Line Frozen Dessert Maker.

Home Freezers

Home freezers are designed to keep things like ice cubes and peas really, really cold. Not necessarily ice cream or sorbets. You can either turn your freezers temperature up, or store your ice cream in the door, which is a bit warmer than the shelves (which is why you shouldn’t store milk in the door of the refrigerator either.)

My personal recommendation is to follow recipes as indicated and if the ice cream or sorbet is too firm, take the frozen mixture out of the freezer 5 to 10 minutes (or longer) prior to scooping and serving. If you’re having a dinner party, mid-way through the meal, transfer the ice cream to the refrigerator and it should be fine by the time it’s ready to serve.

Add ingredients which increase creaminess, such as egg yolks or avocado

A tablespoon of liqueur will go a long way to help texture. Since alcohol doesn’t freeze, it helps keep it smoother and creamier. Add it at the end (i.e., after cooking if you heat your mixture) — I”ve used vodka, grand marnier, brandy, bourbon, rum, according to ice cream flavor.

Use appropriate combinations — so, for heavier ice creams with chocolate or rich fruits like cherries, you could use a kirsch or grand marnier (or triple sec) — flavored liqueurs. For lighter sorbets where the fruit is more delicate, I use vodka (virtually flavorless). Since it’s only a tablespoon for a whole batch of ice cream, you don’t taste alcohol at all.

We only use yogurt and coconut milk to make ice cream. The texture is great when it’s done but after I freeze the leftovers it gets to compact and hard.
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When I used to use coconut milk, the ice cream would freeze really hard. I haven’t tried doing coconut milk ice cream with less quantity, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t give a scoopable rather than soupy texture, just like with cream. It is when you put it in the freezer when it really hardens up (and not in the best way). Make sure to use regular coconut milk with lots of cream.

I use homemade vanilla (made with vodka) in my ice cream and it seems to do the trick of keeping it from freezing too hard. It doesn’t take much alcohol to get that effect.

putting previously frozen ice cream in the fridge for a few hours before serving time yields scoopable, yet still frozen ice cream! I make my ice cream with about half milk and half cream, or make frozen yogurt, and it is really hard out of the freezer, but if I remember to put it in the fridge before I fix dinner, then we have easily serveable ice cream for desser.

Add a bit of sea salt. Salt is a melting agent, so it helps it not too freeze too hard.

Turn down the freezer
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the big problem is that your home freezer is too cold. natural ice creams are a combination of small frozen ice crystals, fat, sugar and water. the sugar and fat lower the freezing point of the water, but it's still a semi-liquid mixture.

When you stick the mixture in the freezer, you lower the freezing point and freeze the whole thing solid. You'll notice that ice cream shops serving freezers' aren't bone chilling cold...there's a reason for that. You can try raising the temp of your freezer. You'll notice if you let the ice cream thaw a little and then mix it up, it'll be a more palatable texture.

Introduce extra overrun (air) by pre-whipping the cream before putting it into the machine. Whip it until soft peaks form, then fold it into the mixture (don't stir!). You can do the same with the egg whites as well. This may give you an undesirable amount of overrun, like the 94% that's in Breyer's, but it will make it almost impossible for crystals to form.

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I've found the biggest difference is the whipped egg whites. If you whip them to fine firm whites and base your ice cream on that then it should be quite scoopable.

The longer you leave it frozen the harder it will get though. 24-48 hours is ok. After a week it solidifies - which is where the higher fat content would help.

One other factor may actually be fiber. I have a recipe for a pineapple sorbet that stays scoopable after freezing completely in the freezer.

The recipe is simple--1 medium fresh pineapple cut up, 1 1/8 cups sugar and 2 Tbsp. lemon juice. All are pureed in a food processor, then put into the ice cream maker (the small 1 1/2 qt. kind). There is no fat, but it stays easy to scoop and eat. My conclusion is that it must be the fiber in the fresh pineapple.