Making Ice Cream

August 23, 2016 - Radio Kitchen - Making Ice Cream

Although I do try to watch what I eat and then eat as healthy as I can, I find that at times during the summer I can't resist a big bowl of ice cream.  So it is with great, if slightly guilty, interest that I try to learn about making ice cream at home.  And Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School, has been studying this.

                                    Ice Cream, Sorbet and Granita

                                      Chefs Amy von Lange & Jerry Pellegrino

Ice Cream can be divided into two main types; the American version, which is sometimes called Philadelphia-style, and the French version. The simple difference between the two is French Ice Cream has eggs in it and the American versions do not.

American Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan set over medium heat and warm the mixture just long enough to dissolve the sugar completely.
2. Place the mixture in a metal bowl set in an ice bath and stir occasionally until cold.
3. Transfer the cold mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instruction.
4. Remove the ice cream from the machine and store in the freezer.

French Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 6 large egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 ¾ cups heavy cream
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• ½ teaspoon salt

1. In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and sugar until pale yellow and silky.
2. In a saucepan set over medium heat, warm the milk, cream and sugar until just steaming.
3. Whisk the warm milk mixture into the eggs SLOWLY, gradually raising the temperature of the eggs to avoid scrambling them.
4. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium low heat with constant stirring until the mixture thickens.
5. Pass it through a fine mesh sieve into a metal bowl set in an ice bath and stir occasionally until cold.
6. Transfer the cold mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instruction.
7. Remove the ice cream from the machine, place it in a sealable container and store in the freezer.

Sorbet is made from a mixture of water, sugar, fruit juice or fruit purée, and sometimes some other fun and exotic ingredients. Ideally, your recipe would have a ratio of 65% sugar to 35% water. Unless you’re going to take the time to do some measuring and calculating, you might want to just follow this simple recipe below.

Basic Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients:

The Simple Syrup – making this allow you to not have to cook the fruits or other ingredients to make sorbets.

• 2 cups (500ml) sugar
• 1 1/3 cups (300ml) water

1. Place the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the sugar dissolves fully.
2. Pour into a metal bowl set in an ice bath and stir occasionally until cold.
3. Store the syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

For the Sorbet 

1. Mix the syrup with an equal volume of either fruit, fruit purée or fruit juice and, depending on the ripeness of the fruit, some lemon juice for balance.
2. Pour into a metal bowl set in an ice bath and stir occasionally until cold.
3. Transfer the cold mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instruction.
4. Remove the sorbet from the machine and store in the freezer.

Granita - in Italian also granita siciliana is a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavorings. Originally from Sicily, it is available all over Italy in somewhat different forms. It is made very simply in a shallow pan in the freezer.

1. Follow the instruction for making sorbet, but instead of making it in an ice cream maker, pour mixture into 13x9x2-inch nonstick metal baking pan.
2. Freeze until icy around edges, about 25 minutes.
3. Using fork, stir icy portions into middle of pan. Freeze until mixture is frozen, stirring edges into center every 20 to 30 minutes, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Using fork, scrape granita into flaky crystals.
5. Cover tightly and freeze.