This ice cream will expand and fluff up during churning. It is ready when it looks smooth and fluffy, with the consistency of soft-serve ice cream. The total churning time depends on your ice cream maker and could be anywhere from 30-70 minutes.
To evaluate if it is ready, lift a spoonful; it should be thick enough to stand on the spoon, but it will still be soft like soft-serve ice cream. If it looks watery or starts to melt the moment you spoon it, leave it to churn for longer.
In any case, if you feel doubts about the consistency, leave it to churn for ten minutes more. But beware: at this stage, do not expect it to be like store-bought carton ice cream; for now, it should be more like soft-serve ice cream.
It will firm up and become like store-bought ice cream only after it sets in the freezer.
So, stop the ice cream maker when thick and creamy, as described above. If you leave to churn it for much longer, it will start turning grainy.
Warning: some ice cream makers are programmed to stop after a specific time, which doesn’t make sense because the ice cream may need to churn for more to reach its fullest potential. So, if you notice that your ice cream maker stops on its own and upon checking the ice cream, you find that it is sloppy instead of fluffy, try to turn the machine on again and leave it to churn until it reaches the desired texture.
2 Responses
Hi there!
When I found your website I was so excited because I received an ice cream machine for Christmas from my husband & wanted to try learn how to make the best ice cream.
I just found that your recipes are not clear when it comes to making the custard- do I use only half the milk or all of it? Help, please!! Just some clarity on the tempering process would help because my custard curdled….twice!!
Thank you!!
Hello! I am sorry you had trouble during the process.
You warm all of the milk with the sugar, then slowly pour roughly half of the how milk over the egg yolks, while whisking them.
If there is trouble with the egg yolks curdling during the tempering process, do try this: instead of using all the heavy cream to melt the chocolate, use only 2/3 to melt the chocolate (around 200 g; 7 oz). Reserve the rest COLD-from-the-fridge heavy cream to mix with the egg yolks at the beginning of step 2. The cold heavy cream will keep the egg yolks protected when you pour in the warm milk.
Hope this helps! Any questions and comments are welcome!