Whipped ice cream
The easiest ice cream recipe I know. So easy and so adaptable. It requires no machines, I recommend a stand mixer for ease. However I have made this many times using a whisk and takes little time at all.
At its simplest form it is just three ingredients. Egg whites, sugar and cream.
It was the recipe at the Moorcock for milk ice cream we used double cream for all the ice creams there, however single is fine too.
It is basically a parfait or semi fredo, but I would argue that the ice cream you buy from the supermarket for the most part isn’t churned. Without a high end gelato machine or a pacojet, I would say the texture isn’t that noticeable from a classic made ice cream recipe churned in most other machines, if anything its a touch more fluffy and chewy, which personally I enjoy.
The last thing in its defence as an ice cream is this blog is for home cooking, and this recipe is a great and very adaptable recipe for those of you reading this from your mobile phone or laptop.
A little note on why ice cream is soft and creamy.
To stop a liquid from being a block of ice it needs two thing sugar and air. Sugar acts as an antifreeze. Frozen on its own in liquid it settles into a slush, kind of like a syrupy ice.
If you freeze cream (which is made up of milk and whey filled with tiny balloons filled with butter and water) the water inside the balloon becomes a sharp icicle which bursts the cell wall and releases fat, this makes an ice of butter and milk. Imagine eating ice cold butter and water, its like that, but frozen, the butter coats your tongue which is an unpleasing feeling and then you cannot taste anything else as your tastebuds cheeks and the roof of your mouth are coated in cold butter.
Freezing cream and sugar stops the butter cells from bursting keeping a silky texture, by using double cream the increased butterfat makes the frozen ice cream more chewy, however the mouthfeel no more fatty.
Whipped cream is slightly aerated but not aerated enough to make a pleasing ice cream. By simply whipping cream and sugar the frozen cream will still be a bit icy and dense.
Frozen air helps to keep the water in the cream held together by a delicate network of water, fat, sugar. Water and fat are not very good friends. In cream they are naturally emulsified (bound together), but can become unstable after freezing, ie melting on your tongue.
A simple solution to binding fat and water together is protein which is why mayonnaise stays silky. An easily available source of protein is egg whites, also famously useful for aerating as meringues.
Which brings together the holy trinity for this very simple ice cream.
There are many variations which I will add as time goes on, the addition on egg yolks for a much richer ice cream, how to add fruits via jams or purees. How to infuse spices, vanilla or teas, powders like malt or cocoa, or adding biscuits or soaked fried fruit, other dairy can be added in place of the cream or a part of it such as yoghurt or sour cream, different sugar can replace a part of the sugar such as honey or golden syrups.
As with any simple recipe the devil is in the details. The recipe is very simple and fast to make but a few points to keep in mind are how to add the sugar to the meringue, how much to whip the meringue and how much to whip the cream, and how to mix the cream and meringue.
So essentially every step, once you understand why, it will make your ice cream making experience easier and the final product much more luxurious.
Details on meringues.
To make a meringue rise as high as possible it needs to be as light as possible, if you add your sugar at the start it will make it dense and unable to become as fluffy.
You are better of adding the sugar in stages starting after the meringue had reached a light peak (has become completely white and started becoming fluffy). At this stage add about a quarter of the sugar, and continue whipping allowing time for the sugar to dissolve into the eggs then add another quarter continue until all is incorporated, the earlier you add the sugar the denser the meringue will become, so leaving the sugar out until the later stages is ideal.
However the more sugar in the meringue the more stable it will be. Once a meringue looses its structure it is a down hill slope, so if you push the meringue too far and still need to incorporate and dissolve sugar into the whites it will become less able to support itself and lose its creamy mouthfeel.
If this puts fear into you about meringues, don’t worry it will still be fantastic, this is just details. Every time you make this you will understand more and perfection will follow. A pretty good way to tell if the meringue is ready is if it is leaving a thick trail with you can shape with a spoon, or do as Gordon Ramsey does and turn it upside down over someones head, you will know pretty quickly if it is ready to mix with the cream or not.
If you are using an electric mixer it is possible to over whip the meringue, it will go from being silky and smooth to having a cracked slightly watery appearance. If it no longer looks smooth, stop whisking.
Other points about meringue, egg whites are made up of long networks of protein chains which bond together, if something get in-between those protein bonds it will drastically effect the strength of the network which holds them together, the worst thing being fat. Fat exists in egg yolks, which is why your whites must be clean. It also exists on your hands, if you are going to seperate your whites with your hands, wash them well (obviously).
Cream also contains a lot of fat, if you only have one bowl big enough to whisk the whites and then the cream, whisk your whites first. Cream whips because of its fat globules (an ugly word that is really fun to say), fat globules are not affected by proteins so can be whipped in the same bowl once the meringue is removed.
The main thing is to use clean equipment, bowls, whisks, for many reasons, as well as for fluffy tight meringues.
Details on whipped cream
Cream is made up of milk protein and butter fat globules floating in whey. Each fat globule is coated in a thin cell wall, which keeps the fat suspended in the cream. every time you agitate the cream the cell wall burst and the butter fat is released into the cream mix.
Fat is not water soluble (think of a salad dressing, the fat separates from the vinegar).
Solid cold fats bond together and become solid, which is why the cream thickens, as the cream thickens it can hold air, which gives its delicate lightness.
Cream which is completely whipped becomes butter and milk (buttermilk). Deciding when to stop whipping the cream is the detail which matters for this recipe.
You are far better to under whip your cream if you are not sure. There should be so much air in the meringue it will make up for it. As long as the cream has started to thicken a bit it will hold up really well.
If your cream has started to show large bubbles or look like it is becoming lumpy it is starting to over whip. If it is just starting to show signs it may be okay. If it is not looking smooth anymore it will be better to start over.
Details on folding aerated ingredients
In an ideal world both of your whipped ingredients (meringue and cream) will be at their furthest point or aeration, because they are at their structural limits excess agitation will lead to collapse.
Basically you want to mix them as quickly and thoroughly as you can, as gently as possible.
This is best done in a large round bottomed bowl with a large rubber spatular.
The kitchen phrase is to fold the ingredients together.
Basically you want place the two mixes onto of each other, then get the spatular underneath the two mixtures and lift and turn the bottom mix to place it on top of the top one. Repeating this moment turning the bowl as you do. Try and keep the mixing as even though the whole bowl, until the two mixes have incorporated into one. Some of the air will be knocked out of the mixture, it is inevitable. The mix should still be light and fluffy. If done correctly you will have a soft creamy meringue mousse, read for the freezer.
Moorcock Milk Ice cream
500g cream
175g sugar sugar
165g egg whites
1. Whip cream to soft peak
2. Whisk egg whites to firm peak, add sugar incrementally
3. Gently fold whites into cream
4. Freeze for 6 hours
milk and citrus curd ripple ice cream
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