The days are significantly longer again, the sun ensures pleasant temperatures. What could be better than licking delicious ice cream in the sun. Would you like to try the cold refreshment at home? With these tips from a professional, the creamy-fruity treat can also be made at home.
Children’s ice cream preference hasn’t changed much for years: in addition to vanilla and chocolate, they like it fruity: mango, lemon, strawberry.
“But taste changes over the years. Adults are more willing to experiment, sometimes like to choose salty caramel ice cream,” says Ralf Sander, ice cream parlor owner in Berlin and author of the Stiftung Warentest guide “Eis! Gelato! Sorbet! Everything homemade” in an interview to the question of how to make ice cream yourself.
Question: You are most often asked whether there is also sugar-free ice cream. what is your answer?
Ralf Sander: Sugar has two main properties. On the one hand, it sweetens the product and enhances the taste. On the other hand, it has an influence on the freezing point, which then drops well below 0 degrees. For example, if you put straight strawberries in the freezer, after half a day they are rock hard, neither sweet nor creamy. By mixing and adding different types of sugar, especially dextrose, the ice cream becomes more fine-pored, creamier and ready to serve at minus 16 degrees due to microcrystals and micro-compounds.
Question: Many think that only an ice cream machine makes the ice cream really creamy. When is it worth buying for private use?
Sander: You have to be a big ice cream fan for the purchase to be worthwhile. Otherwise the device ends up as a dust collector like the Feuerzangenbowle. If you are thinking about a purchase, you should invest at least 200 euros. Other factors also play a role in the creaminess, such as the correct mixture of the ice cream mix.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can also achieve great results with a high-performance blender. You can easily try this with banana ice cream. To do this, place medium-sized pieces of ripe, peeled bananas in a freezer bag or freezer box and freeze overnight. Then puree the frozen bananas pure without added sugar or with agave syrup, honey, milk and cream and eat immediately. The mix must not be refrozen, otherwise the consistency will change.
Yoghurt blueberry popsicles are wonderfully creamy even without an ice cream maker. For seven to eight popsicles, first mix 50 g of sugar and 20 g of dextrose. 125 g fresh blueberries are washed with 350 g yoghurt, preferably with 3.5 percent fat, in the blender. Slowly add the sugar while blending. The mass is then injected with the piping bag into silicone molds for popsicles. This fills in every corner, preventing air pockets. Then insert a wooden stick, smooth it out with a spatula and let it harden overnight in the freezer.
Question: What can you do wrong when making ice cream at home?
Sander: If you take the popsicles out of the freezer too early, the surface won’t be smooth. So it’s best to freeze it overnight. Blueberries should always be drained well after washing, preferably in a sieve. Because when more water freezes without sugar, it makes the ice cream hard, less sweet, and less creamy.
In addition, the quality of the ingredients is the be-all and end-all. If you mix everything together that the pantry has to offer, you can thoroughly spoil a delicious ice cream taste. For example, with old nuts that come from two summers ago.
Mistakes can also be made when freezing, for example when the ice lands next to fish for hardening or storage. Because ice cream easily takes on the smell and taste of other foods. It should therefore end up in its own compartment. But not near the door, which is constantly being opened and closed. Because the more temperature differences there are, the more ice crystals are formed – and they are felt as unpleasant on the tongue.