Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my homemade ice cream not creamy enough? ›

If you have ever made ice cream, you already know what goes into it, ingredients such as milk, cream, and sugar. But there is one main ingredient that you may not have thought about, probably because you can't see it—air.

In a small plastic bag, add ½ cup heavy cream, ½ cup milk, 2 tablespoons fine sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. In another larger bag, add 2 to 3 cups ice and ¼ cup salt, then place the smaller bag inside and seal it. Shake the big bag for about 6 to 8 minutes, and presto! Instant ice cream.

When it comes to great ice cream, cold temperatures and speed are your friends: the faster you bring your base from liquid to solid, the creamier it'll be. In a 2-quart unit, a typical batch of ice cream will take between 18 and 25 minutes to churn.

Adding thickening agents, such as egg yolks, cornstarch, gelatin, tapioca starch, or even Junket tablets, enhances the texture and elevates the overall ice cream experience. Remember, making homemade ice cream is as much an art as it is a science.

Butterfat also adds texture insurance against iciness, especially handy if your base has watery elements like fruit purée. Paradoxically, more butterfat also translates to a lighter, fluffier ice cream, which is why super dense gelato relies more heavily on milk than cream.

Fat. A great ice cream owes its smooth, creamy mouthfeel to fat, which helps keep ice crystals small. As Bauer explains, fat is also extraordinarily effective at carrying flavors, so when ice cream melts in your mouth, you are hit with the taste of your ingredients.

Freeze your ice cream mixture in a plastic container in the freezer. Cover with a layer of cling film. 3. Mix the ice cream every hour or so until completely frozen in order to aerate the mixture and minimise ice crystals forming.

Just the right amount of sugar—or a combination of different types of sugars—keeps the ice cream scoop-able. Fat is responsible for helping to create the rich, creamy, and smooth texture that we love. Some artisan ice cream makers use very high percentages of fat.

Conventional ice cream purchased at the grocery store may contain chemical additives that homemade ice cream does not. These additives are used to prolong the shelf life of store-bought ice cream and enhance the color and flavor.

How to make ice cream in 10 minutes? ›

Step 1In a small resealable plastic bag, combine half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla. Push out excess air and seal. Step 2Into a large resealable plastic bag, combine ice and salt. Place small bag inside the bigger bag and shake vigorously, 7 to 10 minutes, until ice cream has hardened.

Most home ice cream recipes call for simple table sugar, which is chemically known as sucrose. But in pro kitchens you have more options. Liquid sugars like invert sugar, corn syrup, honey, and glucose syrup all add body, creaminess, and stability to ice cream, and a little goes a long way.

Drizzle your homemade ice cream with chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, or fruit sauce. Pair the vanilla ice cream with a fruit crisp or cobbler. For an impressive presentation, consider serving your ice cream in a store-bought or homemade waffle cone.

Eggs leverage the fat already present in the ice cream base (the butterfat in cream and milk) and make it work even further for a creamier texture. But wait, there's more! Egg yolks also improve the stability of an ice cream, reducing its tendency to melt before you can get it from freezer to cone to mouth.

The Ice Cream Consistency Is Too Soft or Runny

If your product was originally good texture, and is now soft it is likely that the product has been sitting in the freezing cylinder too long- this happens with all products and all soft serve freezer manufacturers.

If you are churning your ice cream and it is not thickening, make sure that the canister is cold. Try adding some more ice and rock salt to it. Next time, put the canister into the freezer the day before you start making ice cream. This will ensure that it is cold enough.

As the mixture of ice cream ingredients is cooled down, small clusters of water molecules assemble to form tiny ice crystals. The size of the ice crystals is responsible for the mouth feel of the ice cream – the smaller the crystals, the smoother the feel.