Homemade ice cream texture gritty, sandy?
Made my own ice cream today using one of the Cuisnart ice cream machines. Followed the recipe down to a T and after trying out the ice cream it had this disgusting sandy, gritty texture to it.
Recipe:
1½ cups whole milk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
pinch table salt
3 cups heavy cream
1½ tablespoons pure vanilla extractIn a medium bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed or whisk to combine the milk, sugar and salt until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.
Turn the Cuisinart® Ice Cream Maker on; pour the mixture into the frozen freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 30 to 35 minutes. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.
Did I do something wrong?
Best Answer
It sounds very much like you didn't manage to completely dissolve the sugar. It's also possible to get a bad texture from ice crystals in your ice cream, but I don't think you'd describe it as gritty or sandy, just icy.
It can be rather difficult to dissolve that much sugar in liquid, especially if it's cold straight from the fridge. You might want to try heating it gently and stirring, and being careful to go until there's no undissolved sugar hiding at the bottom. That does make the chilling take a bit longer, probably more like 4-8 hours or overnight, not just 1-2 hours. But in my experience heating to dissolve is pretty much standard in ice cream recipes, presumably because it's about the only way to do it easily.
Note that if you do heat it, using only part of the liquid (say one cup out of a total of three cups) is probably best. That way there's still plenty of liquid for it to dissolve quickly, but you aren't heating it all, so you can add in two more cups of cold liquid and cool it back off so it'll be chilled enough to freeze sooner.
Pictures about "Homemade ice cream texture gritty, sandy?"
Quick Answer about "Homemade ice cream texture gritty, sandy?"
Lactose, like any sugar, lowers the freezing point of ice-cream mixtures. That means more of the mixture stays liquid at freezer temperature and the ice cream will be softer. But beware, if there's too much of these products, lactose crystals will form and you'll end up with a sandy-textured ice cream.Why does my homemade ice cream taste gritty?
Making homemade ice cream isn't that difficult, but if you want it to come out right, a little practice never hurt. If your ice cream comes out grainy or gritty, it is usually because you have let it melt and then tried to refreeze it, or you didn't completely dissolve the sugar crystals during that particular step.How do you fix gritty ice cream?
Soften the ice cream slightly, then put it through a food processor to see if you can make it less gritty, then re-freeze. (or possibly don't re-freeze, if it has a soft-serve like consistency) Soften the ice cream slightly, then mix in other ingredients to add texture to the ice cream to try to hide the grittiness.Why is my ice cream crumbly?
It can be caused by low amounts of solids in your recipe, not enough (or the wrong type of) stabilizers, or excessive freezing time in the ice cream machine.Homemade Ice Cream - 3 Ways! - HGTV Handmade
More answers regarding homemade ice cream texture gritty, sandy?
Answer 2
This sounds like the sandiness/grittiness that you sometimes find in commercially produced ice cream. Some people think it's ice crystals, but it's not because they don't melt on your tongue (If you can locate a real big particle, you can tell). Some people think it's sugar (you know, sucrose?) crystals, but they aren't sweet.
I've heard various explanations for what causes this "sandiness", like melting and re-freezing, or too long storage. Personally I don't know.
But according to University of Calif at Davis "Sandiness in Ice Cream" http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/dfoods10_new.htm '....it soon became apparent that hard, gritty particles developed in this ice cream that seemed as though there was sand in the product; thus "sandy" became the term to describe the defect. Lactose crystals were suggested as the causative agent in 1920, and definitely proven to be the cause in 1921. Since that time many investigators have contributed to our knowledge on the subject, but even today we have no adequate explanation as to why certain ice creams became sandy while others do not.'
So it's not much of an answer because I can't tell you why, but it was too long for a comment.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Alexander Mils, David Disponett, Julias Torten und Törtchen, Jess Bailey Designs