Letting Go of your Home Ice Cream Recipe! 

I spent 6 years perfecting our recipes. They’re special because of all that hard work.

I understand the intent of this video. What I struggle with is that commercial bases are manufactured in a far away factory using dairy from unknown sources. If you are trying to set yourself apart by using only fresh locally sourced ingredients then the commercial bases are generally a non starter. The costs for commercial bases are also much higher as well given they are being shipped half way across the country. If you can point me in the direction of a commercially made custard base that is manufactured using only local dairy in the Pacific Northwest I’m all ears but I’ve looked and it doesn’t exist. I’m not interested in a commercial base made a month ago in a factory in NJ.

We make our base from scratch in a 60 gallon pasteurizer simply because there are no local dairies in over a 150 mile range and food vendors don't carry it. It's a labor of love and I have done for the last 7 years, but worth the effort. If you are making your own base it has to be pasteurized even if you are using pasteurized milk and cream because each carton is from different sources and bacterial levels. One of the benefits of re-pasteurizing is it breaks the lactose down even more and our customers that have lactose intolerance have no problems with our ice creams and we use 40% heavy cream.

Hey Steve, I know you know the ins and outs of ice cream, I guess the problem I have with mixes is I can’t control the fat content I’m stuck with whatever percentage my local creamery is willing to ship. In your travels do you find many shops that pasteurize there own mix? out of 10 shops how many do that ?

Thanks for the video! Overall, whether the business uses a pre-made commercial base or its own handcrafted recipe, I understand the necessity to know how to scale up your volume accordingly. Although, per the other comments below, I feel having special handcrafted flavors can be a great selling point, especially for an artisanal ice cream shop. I feel the choice to use a commercial pre-made base depends on your target customer, the degree of value emphasized through the ingredient base, and how the business brands itself. For example, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams proudly states how they make their flavors using fresh milk from grass-fed cows and other freshly made mix-ins. If the target customer is the type who wants to know what ingredients are in the ice cream, where they're sourced from, how many ingredients are non-GMO, etc, then that business wouldn't win over that type of customer by using a pre-made commercial base. I actually looked into a pre-made vegan base from a particular supplier, but when I checked the list of ingredients, it was highly processed so I passed on that option. At the end of the day, I think the ice cream business has to think of its unique value proposition. I'm the type of customer that goes for the artisanal, handcrafted ice cream shops that charge $5-$6 a scoop (say Van Leeuwan Ice Cream) versus a Dairy Queen because an artisanal ice cream shop communicates their value through their choice of ingredients and process. Dairy Queen may be cheaper, but the value in the ingredients and process isn't the same as Van Leeuwan or Jeni's, so I'm willing to pay more for that value. But that's just the kind of consumer I am.

So I just started my business, and boy has it been a learning experience adapting my recipes... different machines with different churn speeds, and balancing my original recipe. I'm still using base ingredients- milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean, etc., and have been able to keep the price point there, but trying to get my butterfat content balanced has been a chore. =)

I would NEVER buy a mix that someone else formulated. Most of them are not clean label. They use crap ingredients and are usually too high in sugar. Luckily I found a local dairy 10 min away to make my exact recipe. Best of both worlds.

It would be helpful to get advice on how you can actually scale up a home mix without resorting to completely commercial methods. Something that would work for a small batch business or single scoop shop business. I'm in a location where we do not get premix, and would have to scale up a bit but not to a commercial extent yet.

nice informative video steve. (as always)

Great video. Helps to understand the value to scale up. I have a question regarding using boxes vs plastic buckets. Is there a benefit of one over the other. Cardboard seems easier, less of a mess, and allows you to fit more in your dipping case.

With a good local supplier, then surely an Ice cream recipe can be scaled up to make 4L or 40L or even 400L - 4000L, with the right equipment and ingredients. Or am I missing something?

Im in the process of starting a rolled ice cream shop and i am perfecting my base mix. I think i finally have it correct

I my opinion, there's nothing unique in buying af commercial finish mix, that everybody else is selling. When i buy ice-cream i buy it from places i know is abele to formulate there own recipe, that the experience I want from an ice cream shop.

When I get back to the Philippines, I will be making my own home made ice cream to prepare and practice for when I open my ice cream parlor. ❤

Hi Steve, Hope all is well. I have a quandary, Is it ok or safe to use a packet of soft serve premix to make hard ice cream? Or should I just make my base from scratch?

Hi. The issue I have here in Canada is that the commercial ice cream mix has milk ingredients, sugar, modified milk ingredients, mono and diglyerides, guar gum, carrageenan,cellulose gum, polysorbate80. When we have frozen it straight from the soft serve machine it sets rock hard. Any suggestions on what I can do? Should I add more sugar or maybe some stabilizers. Fat content is 11.45g per 1st.

Hey. Is it possible to turn soft serve ice cream mix 14% into regular ice cream? If yes, what do I have to add to taste less like soft serve?

Can I store softy ice cream in the same way as gelato? Because wen i try it’s coming more ice..and the taste little change I want to supply coffee shops with softy ice cream. Is it feasible or should I start with gelato?

What if my ice cream's vital requirement is zero fructose? I doubt there's much if any commercial "mixes" and whatnot to support it. I wonder what brands like Halo Top do? Pay a "mix" company to create a special version just for them?

I would never use PreGel products. Their company rep stopped by and was rude and insulted our homemade recipe. Our shop was on social media and we always got five star reviews. Our customers complimented us for our amazing product. We actually had to ask him to leave our shop.

Im trying yo stay open minded but Im very worried that by using the same pastes etc that everyone is, will not all ice cream shops have exactly the same ice cream? In Belgium we have clise competitors and we need to srt ourselves a part ftom them

I stayed for the sandwich joke and it wasn't there.

there's a surplus of ice cream joints in my area albeit i live at a popular hiking mountain - opening 1 up around here would get a caucus of stares in your direction.. from the competition - i'm not sure about the quality drop off at the grocery store, the liability of shelving things for so long and leaving the quality to rot on the shelves while 'someone's' life is on the line with their precious business - lives on the line, stakes are too high for the matters at hand -- you see the fools play the markets with their companies but the products and matters underlying their market swings have nothing to do with money, like anything, you could even make the case for paypal that their stock price is nonsense in terms of their underlying business, a hazard or menace

i disagree what made ben&jerry,Häagen Dazs ,greaters ,Baskin Robbins big is making there own recipe making ice cream is not just freezing. its Science if you perfect your base you just won the jack pot look at jenis splended ice cream she invented a new base made with cream cheese and she became big. or halo top thats low in calories its a new thing became big Anyone just sell ice cream for a smaller profit go with these companys that make powdered mixes or premix base anyone Artisanal would become bigger

a commercial base? ew, gross! 'swrong witchu?

Gross. Sure if your goals is to sell out and sell out.

I understand all of this, but AFAIK, there is only one supplier of ice cream mix for Long Island, NY and they're in NJ. I have no idea if they are good or bad. However, if for some reason it became untenable to work with that sole supplier, your business is dead.