Food innovation at its finest
What makes a good ice cream?
Colorful, creamy, and tempting: Whether ice cream is seen as a luxury product or a fun dessert with child focused flavors, a summer without the right ice cream is unthinkable. But what are some of the common ingredients that contribute to producing the perfect ice cream?
First of all, you need fats to give body to the ice cream. Fats also provide its smooth and creamy texture. Non-fat milk solids help control the total protein content, affect the emulsification of fat, and improve the texture. With emulsifiers you can combine substances that tend to separate from each. They also affect overrun, meltdown, texture, mouthfeel, and ease of extrusion. Stabilizers, which inhibit the formation of large ice crystals, also provide resistance to ice cream’s melting process. To add sweetness and improve texture and body, you need sweeteners. Another advantage of sweeteners is their contribution to lowering the freezing point. With the right flavoring you can create specialty tastes and enhance acceptability. Flavoring can be either natural or artificial. Air is also needed to combine substances that tend to separate from each.
But have you ever heard of Ricovis 82? This ingredient in particular is a must for ice cream applications. It provides an optimal stabilization system for all types of ice cream and can be used as a:
- Texturizer, providing smooth and homogenous meltdown
- Viscosity builder, aiding in increasing the viscosity of the ice cream mix
- Protein stabilizer, inhibiting the precipitation of casein by binding with the casein globules
Click here to find out more about the effects of the ingredients.
Advantages of Ricovis 82
- Reduces ice crystal formation and improves melting resistance
- Imparts non-curdy, clean meltdown, and prevents whey separation
- Imparts desirable consistency and mouthfeel
- An economical ingredient
- Plant-based (derived from red seaweeds)
Differences between hard-pack ice cream and soft-serve ice cream
There are benefits to serving both styles of ice cream, but there is a particular difference when it comes to preparing hard-pack ice cream versus soft-serve ice cream. While hard-pack ice cream is made using simple milk, soft-serve ice cream needs a nondairy creamer, skimmed milk, and butter milk to create the perfect texture. The amount of Ricovis 82 added differs by about 0.1 – 0.2 percent of the total ingredients: While hard-pack ice cream contains 0.5 – 0.7 percent Ricovis 82, the equivalent is 0.3 – 0.6 percent in the soft-serve variant. hard-pack ice cream can also be topped with extra ingredients like fruit, chocolate, nuts, and other delicacies.
Here is a short overview of how the process of ice cream making differs between the two types:
Process for hard-pack ice cream
1. Weigh out the ingredients
2. Prepare Premix 1 by blending sugar, stabilizer, and milk
3. Prepare Premix 2 by dissolving glucose and butter in lukewarm water
4. Blend Premix 1 into Premix 2 with rapid agitation
5. Pasteurize in a hot water bath at 70°C for 30 min with occasional stirring
6. Homogenize
7. Cool in a water bath until the solution reaches 15.5°C
8. Measure ice cream viscosity (before aging) at 15.5°C using the appropriate spindle
9. Age the solution overnight at 4°C
10. Measure ice cream viscosity (after aging) at 4°C using the appropriate spindle
11. Feed the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker, where it forms a thick and creamy texture
12. Collect ice cream in a clean container and store in freezer
Process for soft-serve ice cream
1. Weighing of ingredients
2. Mixing of dry ingredients
3. Addition of water
4. Mixing of ingredients
5. Pouring of mix into the machine
6. Freezing/churning in the machine
7. Dispensing of product
8. Finished product
Starting to feel like an ice cream right now? Click here for the full recipes for both ice cream variants.
Any questions? Please contact me!
Ralf Kettner
Technical Sales Manager - BU Life Science
Tel.: +49 40 300 501 8203
E-Mail: r.kettner[at]tergroup.com