I’ve been making ice cream for a few years now. Perfect Scoop has some of the best flavor recommendations, but there’s much science not covered about how to tweak the ice cream base itself to improve its texture, mouthfeel and characteristics.
For example, most of the bases follow a pattern of egg yolks + a fairly high fat %. In my experience, this leads to an ice cream that freezes up firm in storage, spends too little time churning (< 15 mins) and has too high a fat %, which dulls some flavors.
I saw immense improvements to flavor and texture after researching things on my own.
Dropping the fat % leads to iciness, but there is where a little science comes in. Using skim milk powder + increasing the milk : cream ratio drops the fat % while simultaneously improving texture.
Replacing some of the sugar with alternate sugars drops the freezing point, improves the texture and reduces perceived sweetness at the same time, allowing the ice creams to be scooped straight from the freezer.
Knowing the why behind ice cream making is largely a matter of balancing these variables in a formula, allowing you to craft new combinations with confidence, knowing that the texture will turn out right.
For a book that covers this, I recommend peeking at “My name is ice cream” by Dana Cree. While I’m not crazy about the recipes themselves, Dana covers the science in a really approachable way, and that new found knowledge can be re-applied to Lebovitz’s excellent flavor ideas. For a less approachable intro, Underbelly covers this info in far more detail.
My favorite flavor so far is a Vietnamese Coffee flavor I developed on my own. It uses freshly pulled espresso and condensed milk, which delivers the most coffee flavor of all methods I’ve attempted.
I’ve been playing around with making vegan ice cream, which has turned out to be a rather tricky endeavor. While the science is the same, it’s tricky to get the right proportion of ingredients to taste right. Coconut milk, cashew milk, cocoa butter… it’s tricky to match up to dairy which is why many vegan shops stick to potent flavors and textures to hide this.
