Xperiments in Ice-Milk
I've been googling various ice cream recipes, and I thought I'd try out a few low-fat but dairy ones.
Experiment #17 (done last weekend): cookies+cream ice cream with gelatine + splenda
Recipe: 1 can (375 ml) low-fat evaporated milk, 1 tsp gelatine dissolved in 100ml boiling water, 150ml skim milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla paste, 6 tbsp Splenda granular, chocolate-ripple biscuits; mix ingredients except biscuits; crush biscuits inside a bag; pour mix into ice-cream machine, keep an eye on it, pour about 4 tbsp of crushed biscuits into machine when the mix starts solidifying; fold in the remainder of the crushed biscuits when the ice-cream is done.
Note that this recipe is not compliant with my diet.
Result: hmmm. Texture is reasonably creamy. Freshly-added biscuits are too crunchy for my taste. The bits of the mixture at the edge of the bowl, which didn't mix in with the first lot of biscuits, tastes too strongly of evaporated milk. The part of the mixture that did mix with the biscuits is a very pale brown, and tastes mildly of biscuit.
Lessons: (a) possibly a good base mixture, so long as one adds a stronger flavour to it to overcome the evaporated-milk taste (b) would it be worth trying to soften the biscuits beforehand?
Experiment #18a: vanilla ice cream with skim dairy + honey
Recipe: I used the second recipe on this page, then divided it into half, because the recipe said "makes 3-4 litres" and I thought that would be too much for my ice-cream machine to take. As it is, I might as well not have divided it, because half-size wasn't quite enough to make a good batch. Oh well.
1 can (375ml) low-fat evaporated milk, 1 cup no-fat yoghurt, 6 tbsp skim milk powder, 2tbsp honey; divided in half, added 1 tsp vanilla paste to one half
(This recipe is not compliant with my diet either.)
Result: good. Texture, nice and creamy; taste is a mild vanilla yoghurt flavour. The yoghurt balances the evaporated milk, and the evaporated milk balances the yoghurt. No, it isn't going to taste as good as vanilla-bean ice cream made with real cream, but it's a good base to go with something else.
Lessons: (a) use the whole recipe if one is making vanilla or flavoured with other essence or a powdered flavour (b) try it with low-cal sweetener instead of honey.
Experiment #18b: canteloupe, cinnamon & honey ice cream
Recipe: to the other half of the recipe above, add 1/4 canteloupe (pureed), 3 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp honey; when half way through, pour in crushed cinnamon hard candy and butterscotch hard candy
Result: pretty good. The texture was nice, the flavour was mildly cinnamon, though it varied a bit. The crushed candy seemed to have vanished, I guess I put it in too soon, I should have put it in at the end.
Lessons: (a) cinnamon overpowers other flavours (b) crushed candy dissolves if added too soon, which is a pity, because I was aiming for a sort of cinnamon hokey-pokey effect.
Experiment #17 (done last weekend): cookies+cream ice cream with gelatine + splenda
Recipe: 1 can (375 ml) low-fat evaporated milk, 1 tsp gelatine dissolved in 100ml boiling water, 150ml skim milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla paste, 6 tbsp Splenda granular, chocolate-ripple biscuits; mix ingredients except biscuits; crush biscuits inside a bag; pour mix into ice-cream machine, keep an eye on it, pour about 4 tbsp of crushed biscuits into machine when the mix starts solidifying; fold in the remainder of the crushed biscuits when the ice-cream is done.
Note that this recipe is not compliant with my diet.
Result: hmmm. Texture is reasonably creamy. Freshly-added biscuits are too crunchy for my taste. The bits of the mixture at the edge of the bowl, which didn't mix in with the first lot of biscuits, tastes too strongly of evaporated milk. The part of the mixture that did mix with the biscuits is a very pale brown, and tastes mildly of biscuit.
Lessons: (a) possibly a good base mixture, so long as one adds a stronger flavour to it to overcome the evaporated-milk taste (b) would it be worth trying to soften the biscuits beforehand?
Experiment #18a: vanilla ice cream with skim dairy + honey
Recipe: I used the second recipe on this page, then divided it into half, because the recipe said "makes 3-4 litres" and I thought that would be too much for my ice-cream machine to take. As it is, I might as well not have divided it, because half-size wasn't quite enough to make a good batch. Oh well.
1 can (375ml) low-fat evaporated milk, 1 cup no-fat yoghurt, 6 tbsp skim milk powder, 2tbsp honey; divided in half, added 1 tsp vanilla paste to one half
(This recipe is not compliant with my diet either.)
Result: good. Texture, nice and creamy; taste is a mild vanilla yoghurt flavour. The yoghurt balances the evaporated milk, and the evaporated milk balances the yoghurt. No, it isn't going to taste as good as vanilla-bean ice cream made with real cream, but it's a good base to go with something else.
Lessons: (a) use the whole recipe if one is making vanilla or flavoured with other essence or a powdered flavour (b) try it with low-cal sweetener instead of honey.
Experiment #18b: canteloupe, cinnamon & honey ice cream
Recipe: to the other half of the recipe above, add 1/4 canteloupe (pureed), 3 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp honey; when half way through, pour in crushed cinnamon hard candy and butterscotch hard candy
Result: pretty good. The texture was nice, the flavour was mildly cinnamon, though it varied a bit. The crushed candy seemed to have vanished, I guess I put it in too soon, I should have put it in at the end.
Lessons: (a) cinnamon overpowers other flavours (b) crushed candy dissolves if added too soon, which is a pity, because I was aiming for a sort of cinnamon hokey-pokey effect.