These aren’t the best photos, but I’m fairly new to making ice cream and I’ve noticed mine isn’t churning up light and creamy like I often see others achieve. Instead, it looks slightly grainy once churned.
Does anyone know what might be causing this texture?
For reference, I’m using a Salt & Straw base and a Cuisinart ICE100E.
by allthegrapesrsour
2 Comments
In my own misadventures there have been three types of graininess:
Butter- overchurning can cause this to build up (or not freezing fast enough). Chill everything beforehand and blitz in blender before putting into the icecream maker. Also look at your specific fat content- maybe up the milk or lower cream?
Ice crystals- I had this due to over-chilling the base before the icecream maker. Again a quick blitz can ‘reset’ to break up any early ice. Can also be reduced by increasing the complexity of sugar/salts in your base. Minimising ice crystals is its own whole science.
Proteins- over-cooking the base i.e. reached too high temp. I tend to favour longer at lower temp and frequent stirring rather than trying to ride 75C for just 5 minutes or whatever. If you put in any eggs or egg protein then these can be quite sensitive. Similarly any ingredients that can curdle like vanilla sometimes or other acidic ingredients should be added slow. Another possibility if you are using stabiliser powder is that they weren’t dispersed properly. Can partially solve this by homogenising all dry ingredients before mixing into icecream.
Does the graininess taste / feel like ice? Or fat?