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THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
Get ready to elevate your homemade ice cream! This comprehensive guide will walk you through the easy process of incorporating egg yolks with xanthan gum. After reading it, you’ll be able to add egg yolks to any of my xanthan gum ice cream recipes. The process is straightforward, and you can choose how many egg yolks you’d like to use.
And please do ask us your questions. We questions.
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You can add from one to six; it is up to you to decide how many. I use six, the maximum, before the eggy flavour becomes overpowering. You can use egg yolks from whole eggs or cartons. In any case, do not worry about the eggs being pasteurised because by cooking the egg yolks with the milk, we cook the custard to a safe temperature.
You can apply this method of adding egg yolks to any of our xanthan gum ice cream recipes you like.
In the video, we use as an example our simple Ice Cream made with xanthan gum, which uses only four ingredients, and this is what we will use here too:
• 415 g heavy cream, 35% fat
• 590 g milk, whole
• 200 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (1.5 g)
If you have questions on how to apply it in other recipes, let us know in the comments.
Determine how many egg yolks you will use and weigh them. Consider a maximum of 10% in ice cream mixture weight. All my ice cream recipes produce a 1200 g ice cream mixture, which is up to 120 g of egg yolks (this is approx. 6 egg yolks from large eggs).
Example: I used a maximum of 6 eggs, which weighed 100 g.
Replace the equivalent amount of heavy cream with the egg yolks (in weight) to determine the quantities of the ingredients you will use. Only the heavy cream changes, all the other ingredients remain the same.
For example, the egg yolks weigh 100 g, and the recipe’s heavy cream is 410 g. So, we replace 100 g of the heavy cream with the egg yolks. The final quantities are 310 g heavy cream and 100 g egg yolks. All the other ingredients remain the same.
Heat all the milk with the sugar, until the milk is hot and very steamy (this is 75°C / 167°F if you have a thermometer, but no need to be precise).
Thicken ½ of the warm milk with the heavy cream: Pour half of the milk into the blender jug, then with the blender on, sprinkle the xanthan gum over the surface, avoiding the sides of the cap.
For example, the 590 g of milk and the 200 g of sugar give a total of 790 g. Half of the heated milk & sugar mixture (395 g; no need to be precise) will be thickened with the xanthan gum and the remaining with the egg yolks
Thicken remaining warm milk with the egg yolks:Pour the rest of the milk into the egg yolks, whisking them constantly, then return to the heat and warm, stirring constantly with the rubber spatula and scraping the bottom of the saucepan, so it doesn’t catch, until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon / 82°C / 180°F.
Note: thickening works well with an approximate ratio of 1 part egg yolks and 4 parts milk-sugar mixture. This means that for 100 g egg yolks, a good quantity of milk mixture to thicken is 400 g. If the quantities vary significantly, e.g. you use 1-2 egg yolks, you should not expect the milk to thicken when making the custard; instead, monitor the temperature with a thermometer.
Troubleshooting: if the recipe has much less milk than this, try to maintain the ratio of 1 part egg yolks to 4 parts milk-sugar mixture, and blend the xanthan gum with another warm ingredient.
Pour thickened milk into the heavy cream: When the custard is ready, immediately pour it through a fine-mesh sieve into the heavy cream. Scrape in all the xanthan gum mixture from the blender and stir thoroughly to combine.
In our example, the heavy cream used is 310 g. Have it ready into a heatproof, with a fine-mesh strained set on the top.
A tablespoon of good quality vanilla extract is recommended in any ice cream flavour, to add one extra layer of flavour and counter any egginess. Add it to the ice cream mixture and stir to combine.
After refrigerating overnight, the ice cream mixture is ready for churning. Stir the chilled mixture thoroughly, then proceed with churning as usual. If you taste the ice cream right after churning, you might be able to spot some egg flavour. Do not worry, though . It will disappear during the next step.
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:
(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: 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.