Making homemade ice cream is a lost art, but this doesn’t mean that nobody does it anymore. In fact, making your own ice cream is a great activity for families with small kids. As with most homemade foods, the recipe has to be followed to the letter; otherwise, it just won’t turn out the way that you think it will. It isn’t that homemade ice cream is difficult to make because it isn’t. But it does have to be made exactly as the instructions tell you to make it or you’ll be disappointed in the end.
Problems with Homemade Ice Cream
When you read the directions to make your homemade ice cream, you have to follow the directions to a T. When it says to freeze the freezer bowl before using it, make sure that it stays in the freezer for a full 24 hours before you use it. If it says to transfer the ice cream from the bowl into the freezer as soon as it’s spun, make sure that you do just that. Regardless of what the instructions tell you to do, do it exactly as it is required of you. One of the problems many people have when making homemade ice cream is ice cream that comes out grainy or gritty, but this common problem can be taken care of with just a few simple tips on your part.
If you’re making homemade ice cream and it comes out grainy, here are a few reasons why and what you can do about it:
- When ice cream melts and then is refrozen, it can cause a grainy texture. This is because when ice cream melts and you try to refreeze it, the small ice crystals turn into larger ones, giving the ice cream a very grainy or gritty texture. To stop this from happening, simply store the ice cream in smaller containers so there is less of a chance of the ice cream that isn’t eaten having time to melt and be refrozen.
- You aren’t dissolving the sugar completely. While this is sometimes difficult to do, it’s an important task. You could even try warming the sugar in water that isn’t too hot and stirring it the entire time until every bit of sugar is dissolved. Make sure that there is no sugar at the bottom that isn’t dissolved. When you use this method, you may also have to chill it a little longer; instead of two to three hours, it may have to be chilled four to eight hours.
- Keep in mind that the quicker ice cream is made, the creamier it is going to be. For this reason, you should follow each step of the ice cream-making process but don’t move onto something else in between steps. In other words, move from step to step without stopping to start on another household task. Complete each step, then move onto the next one. The faster the ice cream is made, the smaller the ice crystals are, and the creamier your ice cream will therefore be. This isn’t to say that you need to rush through the process, but you should complete the process without getting distracted by something or someone else.
You Can Do This!
Just as with anything else in the kitchen, getting homemade ice cream to come out just right is a skill that takes practice if you want to perfect it. 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. There could be other reasons, of course, but these are the two most likely culprits when your ice cream comes out grainy.