"...but until this current round of posts, it was all ice cream, ice cream, we all churn our own ice cream."
That, Sir, is a LIE! A falsehood, a misrepresentation of the facts! To be sure, the contents of some of my posts were about ice cream, but certainly not all; other topics were mentioned. This is how you tumble down the slippery slope towards fake news.
But to preserve Uncle Ken's integrity, I provide the following to retroactively render his statement true, in at least one instance. Enjoy.
-----
There were only ten recipes with my machine, Mr. Beagles, and except for the berry and sorbet mixtures they all specify heating the mixture and then cooling it before churning in the machine. I looked at the recipe booklet for the Cuisinart machine and most recipes use a cold mixture, so you might as well continue to use what works for you.
If you use egg yolk (for the added fat, protein, and lecithin for a better emulsion) you will have to cook the mixture. All chocolate recipes I've seen require heating of the dairy mix. You either melt the unsweetened squares or need a heated mix for good mixing of cocoa powder. The powder mixes very poorly in a cold liquid mix; I've read that heating allows the proteins to unfold allowing better incorporation, which makes sense to me. Funny, though, I've never had problems adding cocoa powder to an unheated cake batter. The chemistry and physics of the process continue to fascinate me.
I was wondering why my mix didn't expand as much as Mr. Beagles' and a fine site on molecular gastronomy revealed the reason: the mixing chamber was too cold. Although storage of ice cream requires very low temperatures (-35F or lower is best) the churning process itself should be done around 22F, give or take. The overly cold temperature of my container prevented the proper amount of air to be incorporated into the mix; another lesson learned. Also, the mix should have been pre-chilled, around 40F, for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight) to allow all the little bits of the mix to settle into a state of happy emulsified suspension. The process is called aging, a term I never associated with ice cream.
The site also includes production methods using dry ice, liquid nitrogen, and a wacky machine that shaves a solid mass of frozen mix into a smooth, creamy blend. If you want to learn about the history, science, and production of ice cream in easily understood layman's terms (mostly) you can go here: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/ice-cream-class/making-ice-cream-steps/
Oh, the machine I have is the highest rated cheap machine I found on Amazon, made by Aicok. Well built, clean design, not too noisy, and easy to clean. The cover and motor snap in place with a reassuring *click* and there are handy tabs to remove the mixing container. When I went to move it, there were recesses in the bottom exactly where they should be to make it easy to pick up, no fumbling around. A well thought out product, if it lasts and doesn't break. Time will tell. My only beef is that there is about 3/32" on the bottom of the container that the paddle doesn't quite reach so the mix is frozen rock solid and difficult to remove; got to let it melt before I can scrape it out and consume.
No comments:
Post a Comment