A lot of folks have been asking us how we come up with the recipes for our ice creams, so here’s a quick guide so that you can begin crafting your own ice cream recipes!
To start, you need a base and we already did a ton of testing for ya on our favorite ice cream base here. We love the Philly French style because it has that rich creamy texture without a strong distinct flavor itself, making it the perfect starting point. The Philly French base has pasteurized eggs, sugar, heavy cream, whole milk and salt. From there, we build our flavor.
- Fruit Flavors: start with 9oz fresh or cooked fruit. If you’ve got fruit powders, we like to start between 15-20g.
- Coffee, Tea, Spices & herbs: infuse these flavors by steeping them in the milk and cream. Also consider grinding or crushing for better extraction.
- Decadents flavors: like caramel can be created by cooking the sugar or using different kinds of sugar for your base. One of my favorite flavors, chocolate, is notoriously tricky to incorporate because of it’s fat content (we tested recipes for that here), so you’ll need to consider how to balance the fat of the chocolate with the rest of your recipe.
- Boozy ice creams: enter a whole new world of ice cream by adding in your favorite liquors, like our (mint mojito ice cream), which can lower the freezing point and create a smoother texture. Start with around 1oz of liquor and adjust until you find your ideal booziness and texture.
- Lastly, Mix-ins add exponential options for your ice cream flavors that you can just fold into your ice cream right after churning. Consider how your mix-in will freeze (you can test it before adding it in) and remember that they’ll be in a moist environment once they’re mixed into the ice cream, so crunchy mix-ins should be coated with a layer of protective chocolate or added in only when serving.
When experimenting, we always start with a half recipe and just pick a starting point (like our 9oz of fruit), then make a batch per variable we’re testing. Keep notes and label your containers. Most importantly, taste often: when making the liquid base, right before and after churning, and after a whole day frozen. Flavors often build over time, so allow your base to steep and flavors to marry at least overnight before churning.
We love talking about ice cream, so make sure to share your experiments with us on social or leaving a comment below. Still not sure where to start? Try any one of our ice cream recipes here.
