Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test
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A few days ago one of my friends read this blog and asked me if all I did all day was eat ice cream and watch Star Wars. Man, wouldn’t that be the life? Sadly, while this isn’t how I spend most of my time, I decided to write a new post that will not help me with his perception of my free time. Welcome to my homemade vanilla ice cream taste test.
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After learning (er…being tolerant) of my love of ice cream, my girlfriend decided to get me an ice cream maker for Christmas (Cuisinart ICE-30BC). Since I had little knowledge of the ice cream making process I decided to brush up on the basics and make a few batches to determine what my go to base flavor will be. I learned quite a lot in the process and ended up experimenting with four different variations on the basic vanilla flavor. Since I am also mildly lactose intolerant (very unfortunate) I also experimented with creating a base that minimizes lactose content while maintain flavor and texture.
The Lineup
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For this little experiment I made a pint of four slightly different recipes. Three are variations of the basic French style vanilla custard while the fourth is a Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream. All batches where frozen for at least 12 hours.
Ice creams from left to right (calories are per 1/2 cup):
French custard (238 calories)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla powder
pinch of salt
French custard made with lactose free whole milk. (239 calories)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup lactose free whole milk (Lactaid brand)
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla powder
pinch of salt
Philadelphia style ice cream. (237 calories)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla powder
pinch of salt
Light French custard with only 33 percent of heavy cream, and lactose free whole milk. (179 calories)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup lactose free whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla powder
pinch of salt
The Judges
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I convinced(no arm twisting needed) Rachel and her friends Angela and Josh to be my lab rats…eh… judges for this experiment. They did not know the differences between the batches beforehand and while I contemplated hiding the bowls so they couldn’t see the color differences, I decided it wasn’t necessary.
The Results
French Vanilla
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This was the first batch I made. I made some slight modifications to David Lebovitz’s French custard recipe. I decided to use vanilla powder after realizing how expensive vanilla beans were. Sure, I could have used vanilla extract but I was curious how well the powder would perform. Thankfully it performed very well. This batch was ranked first by three of the four tasters.
Ranking: 1.25
My Rank: 1
I found the this batch to be very rich, thick and creamy. The flavor was what I would expect from high quality vanilla.
Rachel’s Rank: 1
Liked the vanilla flavor and noted the batch’s creaminess.
Angela’s Rank: 2
Creamy “heaven”. noted the vanilla flavor and suggested it would be good with fruit.
Josh’s Rank: 1
Thick, solid like extra custard. Strong vanilla with a good balance of sweet and smooth.
French Vanilla (lactose free milk)
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This was my second batch. I was interested to see if there would be a discernable difference when I substituted whole milk for lactose free whole milk. Whole milk has a lactose content of about 5% while heavy cream has roughly 3%. This means that this batch has only about 38% of the lactose content of batch A. That could go a long way for someone who is lactose intolerant. I should also note that the lactose in lactose free milk is broken down into two different sugars(galactose and glucose). I wondered if this batch would come out a little sweeter. While the comments from our judges were a little inconsistent, they all had a lot of difficulty noticing any difference between this batch and batch A. I suspect that if I had allowed people to give ties, this would have tied with batch A.
Ranking: 2.25
My Rank: 2
Basically the same as the regular French vanilla. I really couldn’t tell a difference. It was just as smooth and creamy. The only reason this got a 2 was because it was a variation on the original and I told everyone to rank each batch 1 to 4. This one is really a tie.
Rachel’s Rank: 2
Rachel thought this was denser and smoother than batch A, but had difficulty telling the two apart.
Angela’s Rank: 3
Thought it might be less rich than batch A but also wanted to indulge in an entire bowl. Noted that the texture was pretty much the same as A.
Josh’s Rank: 2
Seemed a little lighter and less dense than batch A. Perhaps a little more “buttery” than A with a little less vanilla flavor.
Philadelphia Style Vanilla
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This was my third batch and I suspected at least one person would pick this as a favorite. While I tend to prefer custard based ice creams, there is something to be said for the extra flavor you get when you remove eggs from the recipe. The flavor was just a little more intense, a little sweeter than the custard based batches. It’s a recipe that I think would work well for fruit based ice creams. This batch turned out very well, but I would still take the extra creaminess and thickness of a custard based ice cream over it.
Ranking: 2.75
My Rank: 3
This batch was noticeably thinner than batches A and B. It was fluffier but still fairly creamy. I thought I could feel the slightly larger ice crystals on my tongue but that could be my imagination. It also melted slightly faster than A and B. I thought it was also sweeter.
Rachel’s Rank: 4
Rachel thought this lighter as well but didn’t think the vanilla was as strong.
Angela’s Rank: 1
Thought it was softer than A and B, also thought the texture was also icier than A and B.
Josh’s Rank: 3
Thought it was the lightest so far. Thought I might have used egg whites.
French Vanilla (33% less heavy cream and lactose free milk)
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Eh, I wish I took a better photo of this batch. This guy kinda got shafted. It was a late addition and spent the least amount of time in the freezer. I initially thought this was the cause of its lighter texture but after checking 8 hours later it still had a light texture. This is still a respectable batch but it is closer to the kind of vanilla ice cream you buy in the big tubs and not the premium stuff. I was curious about making a batch without as much cream to see what the overall effect would be.
Ranking: 3.75
My Rank: 4
This batch was not as thick as A or B. It’s texture was similar to C but the flavor was closer to A and B. It definitely felt like lighter ice cream. Not too bad though.
Rachel’s Rank: 3
Thought the flavor was a bit subtle.
Angela’s Rank: 4
Thought it was icy much like C, but thought it seemed more “intense”
Josh’s Rank: 4
Thought it was lighter and comparable to C. Thought the flavor wasn’t as strong as C. “Maybe low fat”. Not as rich.
Calories
A quick note on how I calculated the calories for each batch. I added up the calories of all the ingredients and factored in the suspected overrun of my machine.
What is overrun?
Overrun is a term used in the ice cream industry to measure how much air is churned into a batch of ice cream. Ice cream needs some air to create its creamy texture and without it you would have a block of custard. Most premium brands have an overrun of around 25%. The lesser brands (Edy’s, Breyer’s…etc) have an overrun above 50% with some approaching 100%. Based on the texture and thickness of my batches I estimated the overrun to be close to that of the premium brands. This was confirmed by Cook’s Illustrated. They list my machine at 24% overrun. So for example, my first batch had a total of 1253 calories. Multiply that by 0.76 (which is 1 - 0.24) and you get 952. Since the batch is a pint, divide by 4 to get a half cup(the standard serving size in the industry). So my French vanilla has 238 calories per serving which compares favorably to Haagen Das’s Vanilla which has 250 calories.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it. My first ice cream taste test. Unsurprisingly, picking the best ice cream is a very subjective thing. Rachel, Josh and I liked the French style custards while Angela like the Philadelphia style. We all agreed that adding eggs to your ice cream gives it a richer, thicker texture. We also agreed that minimizing the amount of heavy cream gives your ice cream a less luxurious profile. We were all impressed with how well the batches turned out. Rachel commented that if I had packed the first two batches into a Ben & Jerry’s or Haagen Daz container, she would not have been able to tell the difference. I was also happy that there was no discernable difference between lactose free whole milk and regular whole milk. Because of that, I think batch B will probably be my go to batch.
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