Adapting the Vanilla Ice Cream Base?

Hey All,

It's getting to be ice cream season and I'm gearing up to make a few batches to have on hand for guests. I've made creme anglaise a bunch of times the traditional way (having worked my way through David Lebowitz's wonderful "A Perfect Scoop"), but haven't yet using the low temp method illustrated in the recipe here. Looking at it, I had a few questions.

1) Given that the base is blended, would it be worth attempting to deaerate by pulling a vacuum on the base?

2) Are there particular stabilizers (or combinations thereof) that folks here prefer? Mainly looking to thicken and inhibit ice crystals if I'm pulling a container in and out of my freezer and not get in the way of flavor.

3) I'd like to incorporate other flavors like banana into the mix. I'm thinking of adding some of the pressure-caramelized banana puree from MCaH and some banana puree from the custard recipe here. Not sure if I should cook the custard before or after adding these or if there are any adjustments I should look to make due to the pectin, sugar, ph, etc. of the fruit mixes. Thoughts?

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Sumit__65166

@Reuben i made poached banana ice cream from thomas keller's recipe in my sous vide, and it worked out pretty well. i used the left over banana for banana custard.

http://distilleryimage4.s3.amazonaws.com/333229bcaf1c11e2bccd22000ae91234_7.jpg

Chris_Young_80640

@Reuben — A few thoughts based on my experience:

(1) Degassing doesn't make a difference if you're going to churn the ice cream. We tried numerous experiments at The Fat Duck and didn't find a difference.

(2) Lots of stabilizers. A common blend is a blend of xanthan, locust bean gum (or guar gum), and iota carrageenan. Note, you need to use this blend as a combination, they work in concert, and the xanthan or locust bean gum on their own will actually destabilize the ice cream. I've used a 1:1:1 blend at a total addition level of 0.1 to 0.2 % to the weight of the ice cream. If you can use gelatin, it's a really good stabilizer at 0.1%

(3) Banana is very interesting. You can simply sweeten the puree to about 26 °Brix and then just churn it and get a great texture. The higher level of starch in the banana makes it stable for churning. I haven't tried this with a pressure-roasted puree, but I would imagine it would still work pretty well (unless you convert too much of the starch to glucose and short-chained dextrins).

merridith

@Chris, I have something I bought from Kalustyan's (here in NYC where they sell many modernist ingredients to many of the local chefs) called Sorbet Stabilizer. It is made from gelatin, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, guar gum, whey protein concentrate. The instructions say to use 0.2-0.6g per 1000g of base.

(1) How do you think this needs to be mixed in to the base - should I heat some of the liquid and blend it in with an immersion blender?

(2) Does the sorbet base need to have glucose in it or will just plain sugar/simple syrup suffice?

(3) Do you think I could use this in an ice cream base in place of the egg yolks?

Thanks for your help!

Chris_Young_80640

@Merridith — It's a little difficult to say for sure. If the gums are pre-hydrated, then you can just blend them into the cold base and use right away. If the instructions don't call for a heating step, I'd go with that. But if they assume you'll be pasteurizing, you'll need a cooking step to hydrate the gums. Do you have a link to the brand of stabilizer?

Sugar syrup is fine. Glucose is generally used in sorbets because it lowers the freezing point faster (making the sorbet softer and easier to scoop) and glucose is also about half as sweet as sugar.

Based on what's in this, I don't love it as an ice cream base. Because of the locust bean gum and guar gum, I would really like to see some carrageenan in the mix to help stabilize the emulsion.

merridith

Thanks @Chris. Such good information - I appreciate your input as these are difficult things to figure out for me.

There is no branding on the Kalustyan's ingredients. They do not make their own incredients but instead re-package things in smaller quantities. I suspect this one is the brand called Cuisine-Tech, Cremodian 64 - as it seems to have the same make-up but I could not be certain. Cremodian says that it is "standardized with Dextrose."

So for the egg substitute in the ice cream, I have Iota and Kappa carrageenans on hand so I will take this advice, though I am not sure which of them I should use - or both? Should I also add a little Xanthan? Or Gelatin? What would be the proportions/percentage to experiment with?

Chris_Young_80640

Some typical ice cream stabilizer approaches:

Locust bean gum or guar gum: 0.15% to 0.2% relative to the weight of the base

PLUS

kappa-carrageenan at 0.01% to 0.015% relative to the weight of the base

200 bloom gelatin at 0.15% to 0.25%

merridith

I used the sorbet stabilizer and made some fresh pineapple sorbet: 500g of puree, 300g of 50/50 simple syrup, 2.5 g of malic acid and 0.3g of the stabilzer. It came out absoultely perfect. Even after a night in the freezer it scooped out beautifully and did not fall apart in the spoon like non-stabilized sorbet does.

I added the malic acid in place of the usual lime or lemon juice because I not only wanted to make it nice and tart, but I think this very effectively intensifies the flavor. I understand that it also lowers the pH. @Chris, can you explain what effect lowering pH has on the process? Thanks.

ren_74229

Hi Chris...Thanks for the pinpoint info on your favorite stabilizer mixes. Do you have any specific references to help me better understand why those particular mixes work so well and what the components contribute as individuals and in synergy?

cba31415

@Chris

You mention that xanthan or LBG alone will destabilize the ice cream. Would you mind elaborating on this? I've heard of the synergist effects that occur with that mix, but not of the destabilization that you mention.

Chris_Young_80640

If you add locust bean gum to cream (say, 0.5%) and then let the cream sit, you'll discover it causes the cream to separate over a day or two (you can speed this up with a centrifuge, a trick we show in Modernist Cuisine). IIRC, the reason is that the LBG displaces casein proteins from the surface of the fat globules, which causes them to start to coalesce into big globs of pure dairy fat. But LBG and xanthan gum together, or guar gum and xanthan together have a really great synergistic effect for thickening and gelling with a nice mouthfeel. It turns out that if you add kappa carrageenan to the mixture, then you avoid the problem.

I'll see if I can get my friend Cesar Vega to chime in on this. He has a PhD in ice cream science and has done a lot of work on stabilizing and destabilizing dairy emulsions.

Chad_Draizin_41926

I find that low viscosity guar gum alone at low dosage gives me reduced ice crystals and a very natural texture. No elmer's glue stickiness as in other stabilizers I've used.

Meredith, what is the sorbet stabilizer that you mentioned?

merridith

I am pretty sure it is Cuisine Tech's Cremodian 64, but it did not have a label as I bought it at Kalustyans in NYC and they do not ID their suppliers. See my comments above about it.

cba31415

Thanks for that, Chris. I'd be very interested in what he has to say.