Grandma's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my homemade ice cream not creamy enough? ›

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.

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.

Egg Yolks: The most traditional thickening agent, egg yolks contain natural proteins and fats that contribute to a rich and luxurious texture in custard-based ice creams. Cornstarch: Often used in non-custard ice creams, cornstarch mixed with milk helps thicken the base and create a smooth mouthfeel.

Add extra egg yolks for a richer, thicker texture.

Egg yolks not only help make the ice cream thicker, but they also help reduce the amount of ice crystals that often form during freezing. Keep in mind that adding egg yolks to ice cream will change the flavor somewhat. The ice cream will taste more like custard.

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.

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.

Eggs add rich flavor and color, prevent ice crystallization and help create smooth and creamy ice cream. But adding raw or undercooked eggs can cause a Salmonella infection and it's usually the ingredient responsible for a foodborne illness outbreak associated with homemade ice cream.

Eggs leverage the fat already present in the ice cream base (the butterfat in cream and milk) and make it work even further for a creamier texture. But wait, there's more! Egg yolks also improve the stability of an ice cream, reducing its tendency to melt before you can get it from freezer to cone to mouth.

How do you make homemade ice cream taste better? ›

"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.

Similarly, too little sugar in ice cream can make it rock hard. Because sugar lowers the freezing point of the water in ice cream, the right amount will keep your ice cream from freezing completely – which is to say, leaves it scoopable instead of turning it into a brick of ice.

In a small plastic bag, add ½ cup heavy cream, ½ cup milk, 2 tablespoons fine sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. In another larger bag, add 2 to 3 cups ice and ¼ cup salt, then place the smaller bag inside and seal it. Shake the big bag for about 6 to 8 minutes, and presto! Instant ice cream.

Constant churning helps keep the crystals moving as they chill, so they have less time to attach to one another. Heated Protein in eggs plays a major role. Heat causes proteins to coagulate into a thick gel which traps water. Heating an ice cream mix containing egg yolks to 70C improves body and texture.

As the ice cream mixture is cooled down, some of the water freezes and forms ice crystals. The concentration of sugar increases in the rest of the water, lowering the freezing point of the sugar-water solution – just like the salt in the example above. As a result, the ice cream stays soft.

Like everyone else has already pointed out, it could be multiple things: Not enough fat, i.e. if you use milk in your recipe, you used too much milk and not enough cream. The more milk you use the more icy texture you get. Especially if you use skim milk.

As the mixture of ice cream ingredients is cooled down, small clusters of water molecules assemble to form tiny ice crystals. The size of the ice crystals is responsible for the mouth feel of the ice cream – the smaller the crystals, the smoother the feel.