I was curious if anyone has made a good coffee ice cream before and has any advice or tips from their experience? Also, has anyone eaten a really good coffee ice cream before? Is speciality coffee ice cream a thing that anyone has tried? The reason I ask is that I picked up a cheap ice cream maker with a compressor a month or so ago and coffee is next on my list of ice creams to try.

@"EddieMoonshine"#p73098 I used to make a lot of ice cream. There are basically two methods. You make a 'custard' then freeze it or you do the American method where you do not cook. I accept there are others like Gellato of course. Personally, I preferred the 'custard' route where you combined cream and sugar with other bits and pieces, cooking it on the stove at a certain temperature for a certain time (I forget now). You can then input any flavourings you wish. I used a Gaggia machine which chilled as it churned rather than the type of machine which requires you to freeze the bowl. This recipe is something along the lines of what I used to do: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-vanilla-ice-cream

I made a nice tiramisu ice cream on the weekend which could easily be adjusted. It was cream, sweetened condensed milk and mascarpone, add an espresso shot or two and it should be pretty nice

I have made the 'cheats' ice cream using the condensed milk and double cream recipe and all have turned out very nice and smooth. Some of the flavours I have done are Mint-choc-chip (using broken up mint Aero and a few drops of green food colouring for aesthetics), vanilla, chocolate, chocolate orange, mixed berry, oh and one of our favourites… Baileys. Never tried coffee flavour, but now you have mentioned it, I will give it a go. I am guessing it will need a bit of experimentation as to how much espresso one puts in for strength of flavour. Although thinking about it, once the mixture is made, and you have added your coffee, just give it a taste before freezing and if it is not 'coffee' enough, bung a bit more in. Careful though, because as with everything when adding flavourings or seasoning, err on the side of 'less is more', because it is always easier to add than to take away. Now I can't say they compare to the proper egg custard made type ice cream as dfk41 mentions, but then I do not have an ice cream maker and the condensed milk method doesn't need one. If you do find a good recipe, let us know.

Has anyone invested in a Ninja Creami? I was watching a non paid review of one and was very impressed with it. They took 8 soft bananas and mashed them up then froze it in one of the supplied containers. 24 hours later it is clipped onto the Creami, select the relevant program and the machine sends cutting blades through the frozen mass and a couple of minutes later, pure banana ice cream. Obviously it does various sorts of delicacies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0K48ZQES7U&ab_channel=BarryLewis

@"Pompeyexile"#p73103 I think I did one espresso in around 1kg of ice cream (300ml cream, 250g mascarpone, 397ml condensed milk) and it worked as a subtle tiramisu flavour. For a decent coffee flavour i'd think at least three shots of espresso to start cutting through all the fat and sugar

Coffee Ice Cream

EddieMoonshine

Dusk I was thinking steeping the coffee in the milk to prevent any water being needed to extract the coffee. The sweetness can be played with by using alternatives to the sugar such as dextrose but I don’t really know what I’m doing when it comes to all these different stabilisers and substitutes yet. I just received a tub of ice cream stabiliser but I’m yet to try it.

I was hoping someone had already fallen down both the coffee and ice cream rabbit holes 😂🐰

EddieMoonshine

dfk41 I’ve seen a few videos on this now. Apparently it was some patented tech used in the professional restaurant industry and the patent expired so ninja had a crack. It’s clever really as it’s an inverted blender that gets rid of the ice crystal problem by blending through them, hence the creamy part lol.

I’ve seen that video which was pretty good and seemed genuine but I’m not sure how he thought the blade was going to start blending from the bottom 😂. I believe you can set it to blend the top half then you can save the bottom for another time which is when you would use that bottom blending function.

Pompeyexile

This got me looking out of curiosity, and I didn’t know the better (and of course more expensive) home ice cream makers have compressors in them, so no need to freeze the bowl overnight. Cuisinart claim to be able to make silky smooth ice cream in 40 minutes! Mind you, they’ll never beat a Mr Whippy! Or is that just my childhood bias creeping in?

dfk41

Pompeyexile I had a Gaggia ice cream maker with compressor. Simply make your custard then stick it in and a short time later ice cream. I could not be bothered with all the faff of freezing bowls etc etc….I miss mine but the recipe I used to follow was very indulgent!

EddieMoonshine

Pompeyexile from what I’ve seen, lello musso 4080 is the gold standard for home ice cream makers but you’re looking at about £700 for one of those. The one I got was on offer for £58 including delivery and it’s been well worth it. I think it’s even slightly cheaper on Amazon now with black Friday week. When this one eventually dies, which can’t be that far away if they sell it at £58 and make a profit then I’d definitely just get the musso one. It’s one of those buy now but it’ll last for 10+ years types of purchases. Obviously it helps that I love ice cream though 😂

There’s an ice cream channel on you tube that I’ve been watching called polar ice creamery and he’s easy to watch. He goes into stabilisers and other ingredients that give different mouth feels and textures. I think Mr whippy would have a high air content which they call over run. I’m still learning yet though.

Pompeyexile

EddieMoonshine The one I got was on offer for £58 including delivery and it’s been well worth it.

I’ve just had a look on Amazon and still £799. Are you sure yours was not £580 and not £58 because if it was only £58 that is the bargain of the century!

EddieMoonshine

Pompeyexile it’s made by a German company called spring lane and it’s their basic model called Eni. I’m going to hold off until the new year for the coffee ice cream now and seen a brown butter and pecan ice cream on that you tube channel that I really want to try first. Also got to make another batch of chocolate ice cream. Had a recipe called devils chocolate which was the best chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten.

Pompeyexile

Sorry, after your sentence about Musso and then segwaying into the one you had, I thought you had bought the Musso for £58.

Ooh, just seen the Spring Lane you have on Amazon for £53.94 and free delivery in their Black Friday deals… very tempted.

EddieMoonshine

Pompeyexile a musso for that price would be a pretty awesome black Friday deal, I’d buy two 😂

harperellington

Can I make coffee ice cream at home, if yes then how?

EddieMoonshine

harperellington you’re going to need an ice cream machine for anything worthwhile. The ones where you have to freeze the bowl a day or so before are the cheapest but a lot of messing about.

As for a coffee recipe, I’m not sure yet sorry. The recipes I’ve seen don’t really convince me yet as they are mostly whole beans cooked in sugar to make a coffee flavoured sugar syrup. I may be way off but it seems silly to use whole beans and not ground ones. Also, I would have thought steeping coffee in milk would be a better extraction than putting them in boiling sugar. I’m still new to it though so will be experimenting in the new year.

dfk41

EddieMoonshine Just treat the coffee as a flavouring you would add. Therefore use espresso. In a relatively small quantity it will not darken the ice cream too much. Remember, all you want is a hint. Personally, I dislike coffee in anything but milk!

EddieMoonshine

dfk41 yeah, this seems to be a popular option but I want a coffee flavour that smacks you in the face and gets people talking. I love the variety and range of flavours that I get from my pour over coffees and really want to try and get those characteristics into an ice cream.

I think this coming January is closing to be coffee experimentation month 🍨👨‍🔬

dfk41

EddieMoonshine In that case, all you can do is settle on a recipe, make it and if it is not strong enough for your liking, increase the amount of espresso. After all, you have an unlimited source!