THE LIKE-A-PRO ICE CREAM

Mastic (Mastiha) Ice Cream
• with xanthan gum •

With Chios mastic drops, milk, cream, sugar, and xanthan gum.

Mastic is an exceptional ingredient of Greek origin; it is the resin of a tree that grows on Chios island, on a specific area called Mastihohoria, where its cultivation has been taking place for centuries. Mastic has a unique flavour similar to none; it is refreshing, with cooling notes and a revitalising tones. It’s a rare experience, one that you should try it at least once if you enjoy exploring different flavours.

Ice Creams made with xanthan gum are our Like-A-Pro ice creams, because which just one extra ingredient -xanthan gum-, you can make an eggless ice cream with a perfect, full-bodied mouthfeel, which churns beautifully, melts uniformly during serving, and keeps well in the freezer for a long time. Just like professionals do!

 

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The ingredients

Do not reduce or replace anything; everything is there for a reason.

To show the ingredients for Mastic Ice Cream with xanthan gum.
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The recipe

Mastic (Mastiha) Ice Cream | with xanthan gum

Ingredients:
Notes:

When making ice cream, prefer to weigh all the ingredients, even the liquid ones. We also recommend – whenever possible – to weigh the liquid ingredients directly into the bowl/pan as you proceed with the recipe instead of transferring them from one bowl to another because this transfer causes a small -but unwanted- loss of quantity.

If you do not have a kitchen scale, follow these guidelines:
• 1 cup (US) = 237 ml | 1 tablespoons = 15 ml

• sugar: measuring sugar in tablespoons is more accurate than measuring it in cups. Use a 15 ml measuring tablespoon (not a regular one); this is 13 gr of sugar. To measure correctly, each time you scoop the sugar, level it with the flat side of a knife.

• milk and heavy cream: thoroughly scrape with a rubber spatula any residues left on the sides and bottom of the cup every time you measure something and empty it.

Note that the quantities in each measuring system (grams, ounces, and cups) in our recipes may not always be accurate conversions; any deviations in conversions you may notice do not affect the outcome.

This recipe makes a 1.2 litre/quart ice cream mixture (before churning), perfect for ice cream makers with a capacity of 1.5 and up to 2 litres/quarts (like Cuisinart ice cream makers).

If you need to scale the ice cream mixture up or down, use this ratio of the ingredients (in weight only):

whole milk 48.8% | heavy cream 33.4% | sugar 16.3% | neutral-flavoured oil 1.22% | mastic drops 0.16% | xanthan gum 0.12% in desired total weight of ice cream mixture

A flexible rubber spatula is good for:
-wiping the bottom of the saucepan when you cook dairy on the stovetop.
-scraping residues from bowls, saucepans etc.

If you do not have one, we strongly encourage you to buy one, preferably a flexible one. 

Instructions
Plan ahead:

The ice cream mixture needs to cool completely and hydrate before churning, so prepare it in advance (approx. 8 hours before) to give it time to chill in the refrigerator. 

If your ice cream maker has a removable freezer bowl, put it in the freezer for the whole time indicated by the manufacturer before churning, usually 24 hours.

Step 1: Make the ice cream mixture

Pour 250 g of the fridge-cold milk (8.8 oz; 250 ml)  into the blender jug and have the blender set up and ready to blend.

Dissolve the mastic drops: Pour the oil (1 tablespoon) into a small saucepan and add the mastic drops. Stir with a rubber spatula over low heat until the mastic drops dissolve, stirring for one minute more to ensure they fully dissolve.

Gradually add the sugar: Add a generous sprinkle of the measured (200 g; 7.1 oz) sugar into the saucepan and stir well with the rubber spatula until it is like wet sand. Add the rest of the sugar and stir to combine.

Add 350 g of the milk: pour over the sugar 350 g (12.3 oz; 350 ml) of the milk and stir to combine. 

Bring to a boil: Warm over medium heat, often stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the milk is hot and steamy. Do not let the milk boil before the sugar dissolves, or it will curdle. 

Increase the heat to high. As soon as the milk comes to a rolling boil (when large bubbles that pop vigorously appear on the surface / approx. 95°C / 203°F / if it starts to overflow), immediately remove it from the heat and

pour the boiling-hot milk into the blender jug with the cold milk.

Turn the blender on (medium speed)Note: By blending that much boiling hot cream with that much fridge-cold milk, the blend instantly reaches approximately 54°C/129°F. This temperature is ideal for efficiently dissolving xanthan gum.

Sprinkle in the xanthan gum: with the blender on, carefully open the cap and slowly sprinkle the xanthan gum (½ teaspoon) over the surface, taking care that it does not stick to the sides of the blender or part of it will remain there, undissolved.

Blend for 2 minutes to fully hydrate the xanthan gum; do not estimate the time; set a timer. Do not expect the blend to thicken; it will thicken as it cools.

Add the cold heavy cream (410 g; 14.5 oz) and blend, scraping off residues from the sides of the blender if needed. If the blender jug is not large enough to accommodate the heavy cream, you can transfer the blended mixture into a bowl and stir in the heavy cream. Make sure to stir thoroughly.

Step 2: Chill in the fridge overnight.

Strain the ice cream mixture over a fine-mesh sieve and into a bowl.

Chill until completely cold: cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 3 days. Xanthan gum needs 6-8 hours in the refrigerator to fully develop.

Step 3: Churn the ice cream

Check if the ice cream mixture is cold before churning it: below 12ºC / 54ºF / it feels fridge-cold when you place your (clean) finger into it.

Prepare the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 

Stir: give the ice cream mixture a nice, thorough stirring. If it is too thick, give it a quick blitz with an immersion blender.

Churn: with the machine running, pour the ice cream mixture through the canister and into the ice cream makerLeave to churn until fluffed up and creamy; depending on your ice cream maker, this can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes.

This ice cream will expand and fluff up during churning. It is ready when it looks creamy and wavy, 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.

Step 4: Put the ice cream in the freezer to set

Put in the freezer to set: before serving the ice cream or moving it to a container for storing, you have to put it in the freezer to set. To do so, turn off the ice cream maker and: 

· remove the removable freezer bowl (still filled with the ice cream) from the ice cream machine
· remove the paddle, scraping any ice cream attached to it back into the ice cream bowl 
· place it in the freezer, uncovered
Setting time depends on many factors; see notes below for indicative times.

Serve or store: when it sets, you can serve it directly from the removable freezer bowl or transfer it to an airtight container for longer storage.

The time it takes for ice cream to set depends on the type of ice cream maker you are using. Here are the approximate setting times:

– 3-5 hours for removable freezer bowls (these are the bowls that need to be pre-frozen before churning)

– 1-2 hours for aluminum bowls (these are the bowls from compressor ice cream makers)

Please note that these times are approximate and can vary based on different factors. You should check the ice cream occasionally, approximately every 1-2 hours or as needed, while it is in the freezer. The ice cream is ready when it reaches an internal temperature of -11°C / 12°F. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can check if the ice cream has set by inserting a round tip knife into it all the way to the bottom:

– When the ice cream is ready, it should feel firm as you go down, but also soft enough to insert the knife.

– If it’s not ready, it may feel hard on the top and softer as you go down.

– If it’s been in the freezer for too long, it will be too hard to insert the knife and likely too hard to scoop out of the ice cream bowl. In this case, you can find out how to make it scoopable again by clicking on the next section.

If the ice cream stays in the removable freezer bowl for too long, it will become too hard to remove or serve.

To make it scoopable again, leave it in the refrigerator to soften. That can take:

  • anywhere from 4 to 10 hours for removable freezer bowls (these are the ones which need pre-freezing before churning)
  • 1-2 hours for aluminium bowls (these are the bowls from compressor ice cream makers)

(Note: the time given is indicative, time may vary depending on many factors, so do check it occasionally as it sits in the refrigerator.)

When the ice cream is soft enough to scoop (or it has an internal temperature of approx. -11°C /12°F if you have a thermometer), you can transfer it to another container and store it in the freezer or serve it directly from the freezer bowl.

Straight after churning, the ice cream has a soft-serve ice cream consistency and melts immediately upon contact with anything. So it is too messy to serve or transfer to another container.

Putting it in the freezer after churning sets it and brings it to the right consistency: scoopable and easy to serve or transfer to another container to store it.

Storing and serving

Storing: In the freezer for one month, cover it well to protect it from absorbing the freezer’s smells. 

Scooping: Like all artisanal ice cream, this ice cream freezes hard in the long term. You can make it perfectly scoopable again by putting it in the refrigerator for 45-60 minutes until soft or until its internal temperature reads -11°C / 12°F.

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3 Responses

  1. Hi I tried this, following the recipe carefully but it wasn’t great. A bit icy, not a lot of flavour and didn’t have that mastic texture. Looking at other recipes they suggest grinding and blending the mastic, or maybe my mastic was old? Love your other recipes esp moscovado.

    1. Hi! A common misconception about mastic is that it is used for texture. Mastic does not add texture to the ice cream, only flavour. Texture is given to ice cream by adding salep flour or by adding other gums, like xanthan gum. If the texture you are after is stretchy ice cream (which is associated with mastic ice cream because of kaimaki ice cream or dondurma ice cream, which both have mastic flavour and stretchy texture, but their texture comes from the salep or other gum stabilizers, and not from mastic), then you can increase the xanthan gum to one teaspoon. I think this will also fix the iciness you encounter. Icy ice cream means that there is too much free water in the ice cream which turns to ice. If all ingredients and their quantities are used as per the recipe (regular sugar, whole milk, 35% fat heavy cream and xanthan gum) one shouldn’t experience any iciness. But still, if you do, you can try substituting 75 g of the milk with 75 g of heavy cream; this should make all iciness disappear. Hope this helps. And thank you for your feedback! 🙂

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