Can I freeze ice cream base before creaming it?

Question

I recently acquired an ice cream maker, and successfully used it to make sone chocolate and coffee ice cream. The ice cream maker is actively cooled, but I doubt it makes a different.

Most ice cream recipes call for preparing some sort of mix of egg yolks, sugar, milk and cream - sometimes cooking it, sometimes not. To this base you then add the flavor, which can be almost anything.

My idea is the following:

• prep ahead a high quantity of base, 8 to 12 yolks worth
• freeze the base as it is, in 1 or 2 yolks portion
• when I want ice cream, fully thaw a portion, add flavor, then cream it in the ice cream maker

It seems to me that this process should theoretically work, as the big crystals that form during the first freeze are then fully melted before the creaming process starts, but I am wondering if there is some additional unwanted effect. As an example, freezing vegetables destroys the plant cells, so you can freeze vegetables to make a soup, but you cannot freeze celery and then expect it to be crunchy, as the texture is irreversibly affected.

Answer 1

The "batter" is typically called a "base" or "ice cream base." There is no problem freezing the base for storage purposes, thawing (in the refrigerator so as to stay out of the danger zone, but also to keep the base as cold as possible), then processing in your ice cream maker. There is no cell structure to worry about, like you point out with vegetables. Remember, a cold base freezes more quickly and produces smaller ice crystals creating a more creamy product.

Answer 2

There should be no problem with your approach from a safety perspective as long as the base doesn't spent too long in the danger zone. From a consistency standpoint you are fine as long as you use a stabilizer like guar gum. Pure cream and egg custards may not take kindly to an extra freeze-thaw cycle.

The issue you may get is getting your flavors mixed in a cold base. Chocolate will solidify at that temperature, so if you are adding chocolate you'll either have to re-heat the base to mix it in, or add some oil to the chocolate once it is melted to keep it from solidifying. Coffee, mint extract and other liquid flavorings should mix in fine, as should Nutella, although you'll need to use a stick blender to get it incorporated. Real mint ice cream needs the mint leaves to be steeped in a hot base to extract the flavor.

Re-heating the base shouldn't be a problem, just make sure you build in the time to chill it again. For me going through the steps to re-heat and cool the base again would defeat the purpose of what you are trying to achieve, so it would be best to stick to flavorings you can mix in cold.