Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making ice cream very creamy? ›

As you churn ice cream, individual water molecules turn into ice-crystal seeds — which is what makes cream freeze. The higher the fat content, the more time you have to churn before these ice crystals congregate, resulting in creamier final texture.

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.

The cream cheese helps create an ice cream with a denser, smoother texture. As explained by TASTE, cream cheese acts as a stabilizer in ice cream, preventing water from seeping out of the milk and cream as well as preventing the formation of ice crystals that detract from ice cream's creaminess.

"You can also try diced pineapple tossed in li hing mui powder, which will add sweet, salty, and sour flavors to a simple bowl of vanilla ice cream." In addition to dried fruits, try tossing in chopped nuts, crushed cookies, bite-sized candies, or even bacon bits.

Eggs are used in ice cream to add a rich flavor and color, in- hibit ice crystallization, and also to help stabilize or emulsify the fat and liquid so the resulting product is smooth and creamy. Commercial manufacturers use pasteurized eggs, stabilizers, and other ingredients to produce a safe and acceptable product.

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.

Sugar, corn syrup or honey, as well as gelatin and commercial stabilizers, can all keep your ice cream at a softer consistency. Ice cream also stays softer when you store it in a shallow container, rather than a deep tub, and cover the surface of the ice cream with plastic wrap to keep ice crystals from forming.

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.

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.

Sweet castoreum has been used in vanilla flavourings for 200 years – but it has a horrifying source. The substance mostly comes from a beaver's castor sacs, which are located between the pelvis and the base of the tail, The Sun reports.

Which milk is best for ice cream? ›

But the likely answer—according to this test at least—is that premium milk is better for ice cream not because it's fresher, but because it's fattier. If you're wondering, this doesn't mean that more fat = better all of the time. Too much fat can dull an ice cream's flavor and leave a waxy feeling on the tongue.

Fruit, such as strawberries or citrus fruits, go deliciously well with vanilla, as do nuts such as almonds. Dairy products, such as cream and yoghurt, create a creamy backdrop for the vanilla flavours.

The 4 Simple Ingredients in Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

This vanilla ice cream recipe calls for just four ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Because this recipe is all about the vanilla , you'll want to use the best pure vanilla extract you can find, and steer clear of imitation vanilla.

Ice cream's creaminess depends on the size of the ice crystals that form during freezing-the smaller the crystals, the creamier the texture. Rapid chilling and constant churning encourage the water in the ice cream mixture to form lots of minuscule “seed” crystals; this process is known as propagation.

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.

At its core ice cream is a successful emulsion of fat into water, sugar, and ice with air mixed into the batch. An emulsion is a mixture of two substances that typically separate (like oil and water). But, instead mix together to form the consistent creamy base used for ice cream. It's Science!

Thoroughly Chill the Custard

Some experts even recommend "aging" the mixture overnight in the refrigerator, which will enable the mixture to be aerated as much as possible in the maker, yielding the creamiest, smoothest ice cream.