Recipe: The Perfect Ice Cream (No Ice Cream Maker Required Technique)

Berserkers,

The weather has finally hit 30 degrees C here in Ontario, Canada and it’s time for my personal obsession with fresh homemade ice cream. This summer’s ice cream making has hit a major milestone, however. I have developed a technique that turns out perfect ice cream that does not require the use of a mechanical ice cream maker. That’s right, no dedicated freezing machine needed, no more freezing bowl accessories taking up valuable space in your freezer. The only mechanical device you’ll need is a Kitchen-Aid or hand mixer. For anyone who thinks they’re stuck with store-bought expensive ice cream and/or needs to spend hundreds at William-Sonoma for a dedicated ice cream machine, I promise this will change everything and may even encourage those who would never consider making their own frozen treats to reconsider when you see how easy it is.

THE PERFECT ICE CREAM (NO ICE CREAM MAKER REQUIRED)

TECHNIQUE SUMMARY:

• Whip your cream to stiff peaks and set aside in fridge until needed
• Thicken your liquid milk base with cornstarch and set aside; no need to wait for it to cool
• Make a Zabaglione style whipped egg and sugar custard base over boiling water in order to gently cook it and trap air into it
• Add the hot milk mixture and put the hot custard base back into your mixer and whip at high speed until it’s cool to the touch
• Add in your flavorings
• Turn mixer down to lowest speed and add the stiffly whipped cream to fold in gently
• Pour mixture into prepped container and freeze overnight

WHY IT WORKS

The air trapped in both the custard base and the cream prevents any large crystals from forming while the mixture freezes. You’ve essentially already done two of the three job an ice cream making machine does (whip air into mixture, break up ice crystals, freeze).

INGREDIENTS

CREAM BASE

• 2 cups 35% full fat whipping cream (standard container size)

ZABAGLIONE/COOKED CUSTARD BASE

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar

LIQUID MILK/FLAVORING BASE

• 1 cup liquid milk of your choice + 1 TBSP cornstarch + 1 cup mashed/pureéd fruit; OR 2 cups milk + 2 TBSP cornstarch (see additional tips below) + flavorings
• 1 tsp vanilla (see additional tips below for a Vanilla Ice Cream)

OPTIONAL

• 1 to 2 cups add-ins of your choice (cookie crumbs, marshmallows, nuts, dried fruit, etc. See additional tips below)

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

• Stand mixer with heatproof metal bowl and balloon whisk attachment is ideal; otherwise use a hand mixer with a metal bowl
• Large pot of boiling water
• Freezer-proof container
• Spatulas, measuring cups and spoons as needed
• Hand whisk (you will need this separately for the Zabaglione)

DIRECTIONS

1. Make the cream base. Simply whip 2 cups of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop out with a spatula into a separate bowl or measuring cup and put into the fridge. You won’t need this until the end.

2. Make the liquid base. Mix the liquid milk of your choice (cow, goat, coconut, almond, etc.) and the cornstarch together until dissolved, heat over the stove until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pudding. Set aside while you go to the third step. This does not have to be cooled down as you will take care of that in Step 4.

Note that your proportion of total liquid/flavorings is 2 cups – exactly the same amount as the whipping cream. So if you are using a cup of puréed fruit or chocolate, use only 1 cup milk and 1 TB starch. If you are flavoring with extracts or spirits (mint, vanilla, rum, etc.) then use a full 2 cups milk and 2 TB starch. Whatever you do the proportional volume must be the same as the cream in the end: 2 cups.

Do not cook the fruit in with the liquid base. If you are using a fruit that must be cooked, like pumpkin for example, cook it separately and purée it.

3. Make the Zabaglione custard base. In the same metal bowl you whipped the cream in (don’t even bother to waste your time to clean it, this is unnecessary), whip the sugar and eggs until thick and yellow. Move the bowl over your pot of boiling water and whisk with the hand whisk.

Note that this will start to stiffen quickly due to the high sugar and low egg content, so as soon as you feel this happening, slowly pour in the thickened hot milk mixture. Now continue whisking and cooking until everything is incorporated, thick, fully cooked, and the air bubbles are fully visible as you whisk the mixture. When the mixture no longer thickens you’re done.

Note that as long as no direct heat is applied to the mixture in the bowl, there is virtually no chance you will burn, curdle or otherwise ruin this step. So make sure you don’t boil your water away. Don’t worry, you likely won’t be cooking for that long anyway.

4. Move the still hot bowl immediately to the mixer and immediately start whipping it up at the highest speed. The residual heat will continue to cook it while even more air gets whipped into the thick custard. As you continue mixing, the constant influx of rapid velocity air will cool down the mixture which will thicken even more as it cools down. Keep mixing until the metal bowl is completely cool to the touch on the outside. Expect anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

5. Add the vanilla extract now to the cooled mixture. IF you are using fruit as a flavoring, add the cup of puréed fruit once the entire mixture is cooled down. Fold it in gently at low to medium speed until fully incorporated. If you are using extracts or spirits to flavor instead, add them now but make sure the mixture is cooled down.

6. Take the whipped cream out of the fridge. Gently fold it into the mixture at the lowest speed possible on your mixer by scooping it in a bit at a time with your spatula. Once the whipped cream is fully incorporated, the mixture will be doubled in volume and quite airy with the consistency of a mousse.

7. Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof container. Make sure it’s enough to hold all of the mixture. If you have any add-ins, now is the time to gently fold them into your mixture.

8. Put the container in the freezer and patiently freeze it overnight.

And here’s a look below and earlier above at a couple of finished products. The first pick is of the Banana Ice Cream I just made before posting this. The second is of the Neapolitan (strawberry, vanilla, chocolate) Ice Cream I made last weekend. Enjoy the pics and I’ll be back to talk some science and recipe variations below.

So how exactly does this voodoo magic work and make it possible to have perfect ice cream without an actual ice cream maker? To understand this, you have to understand how ice cream is actually made.

Ice, paradoxically, is actually the enemy of ice cream. Anyone can cook up a custard base, mix it with an equal amount of whipping cream, and throw it in the freezer. What you’ll end up with is a very creamy, very large block of ice. If you threw this into popsicle molds, BTW, you’d end up with some nice homemade creamsicles. But they’d still be ice and not ice cream.

An ice cream maker does three jobs at once to turn custard into ice cream. It freezes the mixture solid with cold; it whips a little bit of air into the mixture which gets trapped and lightens the mixture; and most importantly, it breaks up any ice crystals that form with the constant churning action, preventing one large block of ice from forming. All three of these are necessary to get ice cream.

With the recipe and technique I’ve posted above, you’re already doing two of those steps. Unlike with an ice cream maker, a LOT of air has been trapped into the mixture even before freezing. So much, in fact, that it has the effect of preventing large ice crystals from forming in the mixture and coming together to form one big block of ice. Your freezer does the third and final step in freezing the mixture solid.

I wish I could take credit for this idea but the fact is that the Italians beat me to this technique already ages ago. Only they call it semifreddo, literally semi-frozen. The difference is that a semifreddo only contains the Zabaglione base and whipped cream. No other liquid is added. However, because there is much less liquid that can be formed into ice crystals, the texture of a semifreddo is soft and airy and comes across as more of just a mousse that has been frozen with little supporting structure and weight as opposed to what we here in North America know as ice cream.

And that’s your Alton Brown-esque science lesson for the day. On to some recipes and useful tips.

RECIPES:

• Banana Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch only. Fold in 1 cup of ripe mashed banana to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. Freeze.

• Strawberry Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch only. Fold in 1 cup of puréed strawberries to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. Freeze.

• Raspberry Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch only. Fold in 1 cup of puréed STRAINED raspberries (to remove the seeds) to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. Freeze.

• Blueberry Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch only. Fold in 1 cup of puréed blueberries to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. Freeze.

• Peach Cobbler Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch only. Fold in 1 cup of puréed fresh peaches to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. After pouring into your freezer proof container, fold in 1 cup crushed graham crackers. Freeze.

• Vanilla Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 2 cups of milk and 2 TB cornstarch. Add 2 TBSP pure vanilla extract to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer.

• Oreo Perfect Ice Cream – Make the vanilla variation above. After pouring into your freezer proof container, fold in 1 cup crushed Oreo cookies. Freeze.

• Mint Oreo Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 2 cups of milk and 2 TB cornstarch. Add 1 TBSP peppermint extract and 1 tsp vanilla extract to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer. After pouring into your freezer proof container, fold in 1 cup crushed Oreo cookies. Freeze.

• Chocolate Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above using 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cocoa. Omit the cornstarch completely, the cocoa will thicken the milk as it cooks. Add 8 oz melted good quality dark chocolate to to the cooled whipped custard mixture in your stand mixer.

• Chocolate Oreo Perfect Ice Cream – do all the steps above for Chocolate Perfect Ice Cream. After pouring into your freezer proof container, fold in 1 cup crushed Oreo cookies.

• Berry Cheesecake Ice Cream – Whip the cream to stiff peaks and then add in 8 oz (1 standard brick package) of cream cheese cut into cubes. Cream together until thoroughly combined and put into the fridge. Use 1 cup of milk and 1 TB cornstarch. Add in 1 cup pureéd berries of your choice (as per the first three recipe variations above) into the cooled whipped mixture, and fold in the whipped cream and cheese mixture last. After pouring into your freezer proof container, fold in 1 cup crushed graham crackers. Freeze.

TIPS

• You always want a proportional volume of 2 cups whipping cream to 2 cups of other liquid and semi-liquid ingredients, not counting the sugar or extracts or spirits you’ll be using. This proportion results in a standard 18% fat ice cream. This is why you don’t need 2 cups of thickened milk if you’re adding 1 cup of pureed fruit.

• Dry add-ins should always be folded in last and their volume should not be counted in the liquid proportion above.

• Always use a separate hand whisk when cooking the Zabaglione style base over the boiling water. You will be tempted to use the mixer balloon whisk to do the job. Don’t. It’s far too easy to accidentally drop it into the hot mixture. You won’t like the mess it makes when you have to fish it out.

• Never add any liquid ingredient containing alcohol to the combined hot custard mix while it is whipping up until it has completely cooled down. The flavonoids trapped by alcoholic maceration in vanilla extract and spirits is extremely volatile and are destroyed by heat. Make sure the bowl is completely cool to the touch before adding any extracts and/or spirits into the mixture for flavoring.

• For an actual Italian semifreddo, simply cut the sugar in half to 1/2 cup, use an additional egg (3 now in total) and omit all liquid and cornstarch. Other than this formula change, proceed in exactly the same manner as outlined in the recipe. You are now combining only Zabaglione and whipped cream. This will result in a less sweet dessert that is much lighter and airier in texture and is far less dense than traditional ice cream.

• Seeing some grain i.e. ice flakes in the ice cream? Most of those will break up as you scoop out the ice cream but if you still don’t approve or like the texture, the solution is simple: Simply take a hand mixer or stick blender to the now frozen ice cream and give it all a whirl until it has the consistency of a thick milkshake. What you’ve done is further broken up the ice flakes into even smaller ice crystals. I just did this with the batch of Banana Perfect Ice Cream I made but did not have to do it with the Strawberry Perfect Ice Cream. All depends on how it comes out and if to your liking. (Sorry, forgot to post this tip yesterday.)

• If you do decide to take this step, you will find it very easy to re-mix/re-blend the now-frozen product because there’s so much air already whipped into the ice cream that there is virtually no resistance. When finished, place it all back in the freezer and let it re-solidify.

Enjoy making your own ice cream this summer and let me know how it all turns out.

I’m gonna try this. Thanks

this is awesome

Thanks guys. See the update to the tips above if you still see ice grain in your finished product. Very easy to fix that with a hand mixer or stick blender as per above. I will post pics tonight of the finished Banana Perfect Ice Cream.