Ice Cream / Gelato maker review

We mentioned some time back that we'll do a review on ice-cream makers, mainly because during our hunt for one we realised there was a lack of reviews from the region. Most of our extensive research online pointed us to UK or US sites and on top of that we also browsed a couple of retail shops before we lined up our options. So we hope this comprehensive review we had done will be helpful to you.

Our initial research pointed us to 2 basic types of home ice-cream makers - one with built-in compressor and one without. The ones without compressor will require pre-freezing of the freezer bowl before churning the custard mixture which meant that without spare bowls, you could only make 1 batch per day. Some e.g.s are the Cuisinart Ice 20 and Ice 30. On the other hand, ice-cream makers with built-in compressor will allow you to churn the custard mixture quite immediately without much downtime of chilling the bowl. But of course compressor models come at a much higher price tag but as we are experimenting with the recipes, we need the efficiency afforded by the compressor makers.

After much scouting around, we only found 4 models available in Singapore: Taurus Ice 1518, Delonghi Gelataio GM6000, Lello Musso 4080 and Cuisinart ICE 100. For those who have been following our blog, you would already know the winner and here's why...

Actually, we would really liked to have the Lello Musso however, it was beyond our budget plus it will take months for it to be shipped to Singapore. The fight was then between the Delonghi and the Cuisinart, with both getting good reviews on the texture, we decided on the sturdier option (can't afford to buy too many spare blades!).

So far the Cuisinart ICE 100 has served us well even though we were slightly worried that it would sound like a jet engine, it turned out to be pleasantly quieter than a blender. Most importantly it produces nice, creamy texture of gelato at times where we got the ingredient proportions right. As ultimately the machine is really just one part of the equation.

As we endeavour to become better ice-cream chefs, we would definitely love to get the opportunity to experiment and review other ice-cream makers in the future. Sponsors are more than welcomed! ;-)

Vanilla Bean Gelato

It's another chillin day for the team! Or rather preparation work already started last night, and today the mixture goes into the machine to churn.

Taking reference from the recipe book which came with the Cuisinart Ice-100, and with some tweaking of the sugar proportion we gave the vanilla bean gelato another try. And today we will feature our step-by-step process of making 1 quart gelato, starting with our ingredients:

After that's done, we kept the mixture in the fridge overnight. The books usually recommend chilling for at least 4 hours, but overnight for best results before churning in the machine. What we did as a last step was to remove the vanilla pod, add the vanilla extract and stir well into the mixture. Set the machine at 40 minutes, we check it at 30 minutes mark to make sure it's solidifying well. From the past few batches experience, usually it can be scooped out before 45 minutes as any longer you will find some mixture hardening up on the sides and that'll be hard to scrap out.

2 hours after our vanilla bean gelato sat in the freezer, it turned out to be slightly icy. Guess the chillin team will have to hit more research to improve our formula. Hopefully our persistence will soon find us the perfect vanilla gelato recipe! 

Lemon sherbet & the fruit grater

Lemon is one of those all time favourite flavors, refreshing and you kinda never get sick of it. It's also the flavor the partner tried to make during the ice-cream making class but that turned out weird cos too much lemon paste was used. Bleargh.

So while we are still experimenting with vanilla at the moment, we also constantly keep an eye out on lemon sherbet recipes as well. And we noticed that most recipes require real lemons + something called 'zest' which you are supposed to scrap from the lemon skin. But neither your normal fruit peeler nor cheese grater type will work cos one will produce strips that are too thick, and the other will give you tiny specks that get stuck in the grater holes.

The professional thingy that does the job is called a microplane grater and it looks like this...

But the closest we could find in the department store is this atas branded WMF one...take note it's supposed to have bigger grater holes.

However this thing has a hefty price tag of 25$ so meaning we shall continue our hunt for a more value buy or hope there's a sale soon. Well, lemon sherbet will have to wait for a while.

Our Ice Cream making tools

The most exciting hours of the day is usually when we get home and start our ice-cream making, yes we do have our day jobs...and precisely cos we still slog for the corporates from 9-6 (when we are lucky with no OT), hence our custard is usually made during unearthly hours of the night or over the weekend. Then we'll leave the mixture in the fridge overnight and churn it the next day / evening.

Tonight is one of those times where chillin is not happening so I thought we'll blog about our kitchen equipment instead. 

As mentioned, we were kinda kitchen aliens so even buying equipment was a learning process for us but we did try to make use of what we already have in M's kitchen just so to save $ and space.

Starting with the very important measuring cups...

Most recipes use 'cups' as a measurement for milk, cream and sugar so make sure to get one with the right markings. We found this big one in the house which is useful for measuring milk and cream.

However as we scaled down the proportions in some batches, we realised that we do need a smaller denomination otherwise our 'agaration' will not be the most accurate. So we bought this smaller one that allows us to get down to 1/8 cup. Good for sugar and cream in smaller quantities! 

Another measuring tool needed will be the measuring spoons, one that starts from 1/8 teaspoon is ideal and will be used mostly for getting the right amount of flavors for e.g. vanilla essence.

Then we have the egg separator, because we only use egg yolks in making ice cream hence we bought this not trusting that we would have the skill to separate the yolk and the whites 'manually'. Proven to be a good buy but sometimes smaller egg yolks will slip through and we just gotta scoop it up w/o breaking the yolk.

The thermometer is a must-have because we need it for measuring the temperature when the milk is cooking and also when the yolks are mixed in, to ensure we hit 82 degree celsius where the bacteria in the yolk will be fully killed. We did regret not getting one that is instant (cos we didn't know kitchen thermometers were so advanced), anyway we are making do with this for now.

Next is the saucepan and the ladle which we use to cook the custard. Using a wooden ladle is recommended so you can tell when the custard is ready when you see the back of the ladle being coated with the mixture. But so far M's plastic ladle works fine.

Lastly we had some lock-lock containers ready as well for ice cream storage. Shallow containers are said to be better cos it enables faster freezing.

That's all our stash for now till we discover anything better =) 

We'll also be blogging on our ice-cream machine soon and our evaluation process before we decided to buy the Cuisinart ICE-100. Stay tuned.

Round 2 chillin'

After batch 1 was left in the freezer for one night, the next day we saw this...

We suspect the inconsistency in color was either due to insufficient stirring when we mixed the egg yolks with the milk or we got the heating temperature off. In any case we have to move on from our not-so-ideal attempt and make new gelato, and also because our milk and cream have fast-approaching expiry dates!

FYI, whipping cream expires in 5 days once it's opened.

Batch 2 Formula
Reduced Cream to Milk ratio from 1 : 3 to 1 : 5
Reduced Sugar to Full mixture ratio from 1 : 4 to 1 : 7

We made 2 versions of the above, one using skimmed milk + vanilla essence and the other with full cream milk + real vanilla beans.

Here's the outcome..this is the one with skimmed milk + vanilla essence

Here's the one with full cream milk + vanilla bean

Generally both turned out with good texture, but of cos the full cream milk version was creamier. As for the sweetness, even though we reduced sugar quite drastically we find this batch much more palatable. Conclusion is the original recipe catered to people with vastly different tastes or the writer really wanted a sugar high. For the batch with vanilla bean, we couldn't make much difference taste-wise but personally I find the vanilla bean gelato looked better in terms of presentation.

While scooping out the gelato from the machine, action has got to be fast because it melts really quickly. So it will look like the below...

We promptly tucked them into the freezer for further chillin.

As we were very busy fumbling about the steps and referring to recipes as we made the gelato, that explains the lack of photos during the process. But we will be featuring more on our equipment, ingredients and the steps in our next couple of posts once we get a hang of the steps for sure! And we'll be working on testing out other proportions and flavors, and share more tips and learning as we go along.

Till the next chillin, folks =)

The chillin' begins...

Our journey to create the perfect scoop of gelato began simply with late night cravings for the dessert and one basic ice cream making workshop. With no other cooking or baking experience whatsoever...we did some research, invested in some ingredients and a home ice cream maker and there goes.
With much enthusiasm, we made our first batch following a book recipe using eggs, full cream milk, cream, sugar and vanilla essence. The pictures below show our vanilla gelato looking creamily innocent but the fact is it turned out overwhelmingly sweet. Even though I swear we followed the exact proportions in the recipe!

Unable to get past eating a few spoonfuls, we retired our first batch into the freezer. Feeling slightly cheated by the recipe, we decided most constructively to keep a detailed record of our attempts so we can fine tune and improve from there.
So stay tuned for more gelato!