ICE CREAM
The magic of ice cream is a combination of ingredients that work together to prevent the liquid cream from freezing to a rock-hard mass. As you might know, if you freeze plain cream it will become really solid. However, as discovered ages ago, adding some sugar to the cream will make it half-solid even when putting it into a bucket of ice and salt (very cold ice!). In addition, if we stir the cream while we freeze it, the texture of it will become much finer, and the big water crystals will not form. These principles are the core of making ice cream. The story of ice cream is quite old, and we know that Alexander the Great of Macedonia was eating some sort of ice cream (fruits in honey), although the real form of ice cream as we know it today hasn't developed until much later. Anyway, the popularity of ice cream cannot be missed, and the mass production of this simple delicacy is an ongoing phenomenon, and the good part is that we can make ice cream at home if we just acquire an ice cream machine.
The procedure of ice cream making is quite simple, and if we master the basics we can start experimenting with flavors, so we can eventually create our own personal favorites.
Step one: prepare the ice cream mix. Basic mixture contains cream (fresh!), milk and sugar. Usually, equal volumes of milk and heavy cream are best, and give about 20% fat. We also need around 15% of sugar. In all that would mean that for one liter/quart of ice cream we need roughly 1 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 1 1/2 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of sugar, plus some flavoring ingredients. This mix will give a nice smooth texture to the ice cream. If you are scared of by the fat content, you can always partially replace the heavy cream with powdered milk (bring it up to the correct volume though). Sugar can also be replaced with some syrups. Now, the mix is heated up so the milk is scalded, as it will give a better texture to the ice cream (and also pasteurize the milk if needed). Some people like to put egg yolks in their ice creams, and the mix is cooked until it thickens so it can coat the back of a spoon (see Creme Anglaise). Once the mixture has chilled, it can then be frozen in an ice cream machine. What's that? It's simply a small, effective quick freezer that has a rotor blade that will stir the ice cream during the freezing procedure. This is to eliminate big water crystals from forming and destroying the ice cream texture, as well as to incorporate some air into the ice cream. The goal is to reach a smooth consistency with small ice crystals. When the freezing has gone so far that the stirring is no longer possible, the ice cream has to set down and freeze even more! During this process, the water crystals grow even bigger, but the growth is (or, should be) so quick that the crystals become evenly sized. This will give the ice cream a nice texture, as most of the water will be laying in-between the now concentrated proteins and sugar and flavoring ingredients, all dispersed within a network of air pockets. Superb!
To serve ice cream, let it thaw to about 20 F/-8 C. That's when the ice cream is quite soft and doesn't freeze your palate and tongue when eaten.