Spring 2011: Vanilla Ice Cream Base

Making a base for an ice cream allows the ingredients to infuse, naturally binds and thickens the ingredients to more of a creamy texture over night. This formula calls for a lot of things that can be used in large production or catering. Glucose powder, stabilizer, monostearate for example are ingredients that help extend the stability and shelf life of the product.

You can keep a base aging for 2-3 days easily before using it. After that point you run the risk of the ingredients deteriorating so at that point spin it into an ice cream. You can also flavour an ice cream with virtually whatever you want.

This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 847

Formula: yields 2.5 pt

1.129 kg Whole milk

80 g Nonfat milk powder

220 g Sugar

60 g Glucose powder

2 Vanilla beans, each

40 g Inverted sugar

400 g Cream, 35%

60 g Egg yolks, mixed slightly

6 g Stabilizer

5 g Monostearate

Total: 2 kg

MOP: base

Scale ingredients and hold them in separate containers. Have everything close by because temperature is very important when making this base.
Have an ice bath ready at your station.
Mix the stabilizer and monostearate with ten times their combined weight of sugar (100 g sugar, about half of the sugar scaled).
Cool or heat milk to 39° F.
Transfer milk to a stainless steel pot, add powdered milk to the 39° F milk. Whisk to mix.
When milk heats to 77° F, add in all the sugar, glucose powder, and vanilla bean. Whisk slightly.
When this mixture reaches 95° F, add the cream in.
Add a little of the milk (roughly 1 T) to the egg yolks. When it reaches 104° F, add the egg yolks in. Whisk continuously so that the eggs do not scramble.

At 111° F, add the already mixture of monostearate, stabilizer, and sugar. Also add the inverted sugar.
Stir continuously to prevent burning. Bring the mixture to 185° F and continue mixing for another 2 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl and place it over an ice bath to cool the ice cream rapidly to 39° F.
Cover the surface with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at 35°-42° F for at least 4 hours. It can mature under refrigeration for up to a few days in this state.

Make-up:

Place the base in a clean and sanitized ice cream maker.
Turn the machine on and start mixing. You will see that it slows in speed as you mix and cool it. When the ice cream is ready the air bubbles will have disappeared and the movement will have slowed almost to a stop.
The ice cream will be soft when it comes out. Like a frozen yogurt consistency.
Immediately place the ice cream in a deep freeze; deep freeze ice cream at 0° F for a few hours.
Serve ideally at 14° F.

Every time you use the ice cream machine you have to wash and sanitize it. Ice cream carries a lot of bacteria because it is not a cooked product. No matter what flavours you are changing, unless you are making a dairy free item like sorbet, you need to clean the machine after each use.