Ninja Swirl custard soft serve
Gluten free, lactose free option, low FODMAP option
Equipment
- Ninja Swirl machine with 470ml size tub
Ingredients
- 3 extra large eggs 150g total weighed out of shell (yes, whole eggs, but see notes for options)
- 75 g caster/superfine sugar see notes
- 75 g thickened cream 30-35% fat content heavy/whipping in US/UK
- 275 g full fat milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- Small pinch fine salt
Instructions
- Weigh the eggs into a heat-proof mixing bowl and add the sugar and cream. Whisk thoroughly to combine, then place the bowl on a tea towel for grip.
- Place the milk, vanilla and salt in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Allow the milk to heat up, stirring regularly until it is hot and just below a simmer.
- Take the milk off the heat and set the pot aside (we are using it again in a minute). Pour the hot milk into a jug with a pouring lip to make it easier.
- Take your whisk in one hand and the jug of hot milk in the other. Very slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking as you go. This will slowly bring the eggs up to temperature so they are less likely to scramble.
- Once you have poured all of the milk into the eggs, pour all of the mixture back into the saucepan. Place it over a low/medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly (I like to use a silicon spatula for this so I can keep the bottom from over-cooking) for 5 minutes.
- The mixture should feel a little different as you stir – slightly thicker but not fully thickened. If you have a thermometer, you want the mixture to reach 70C/158F to be food safe. Worry more about the consistency though as the mixture reaches this temperature easily within 5 minutes. If the mixture has reached 70C but hasn't changed texture, this is fine too.
- If the egg mixture starts to develop clumps, immediately take it off the heat and whisk very quickly. Transfer it from the pot it was in straight away to remove the residual heat. I find that lumps are processed out once the ice cream is ‘churned’, so don’t throw away a slightly lumpy mixture.
- Allow it to cool a little before transferring to the 470ml Ninja Swirl and into the freezer. Freeze for 24 hours with the lid off. Freezing with the lid off helps ensure the mixture doesn't form a hump during freezing which can damage the machine.
- When ready to consume, spin the ice cream using the SCOOP and ICE CREAM function. I recommend the scoop function for all cream based ice creams as the SWIRL function processes them for too long and churns the cream into butter.
- If you want to make soft serve, allow the ice cream to soften for 5-10 minutes if necessary. Swap the lids and place the piping nozzle on before using the handle to pipe. Note that the machine can’t process the bottom bit of mixture and it tends to go a bit icy.
- Return any leftovers to the freezer with the lid on.
Notes
- I developed this recipe to use whole eggs because I can't stand having endless egg whites in my freezer. You can make the recipe without the egg whites, but you really can't taste them so it's a great no-waste option. I suspect they also help create a pipeable ice cream mixture without xanthan gum.
- The colour and flavour intensity depends on your eggs. Bland, pale egg yolks will result in a neutrally flavoured and pale ice cream.
- I haven’t tested any sugar alternatives in this recipe and I can’t offer advice at the moment.
- For a lactose free and low FODMAP ice cream, use lactose free cream and milk.
- For an egg free Ninja Swirl vanilla ice cream, see my recipe here.
- In my experience, the cooked egg custard starting to clump a little doesn’t affect the end product. Absolutely take it straight off the heat and decant it, but don’t worry too much about the texture as the blending tends to correct it. That doesn’t give you license to wander off and drastically over-cook the mixture, though 🙂
- If your mixture is constantly developing a hump as it freezes, try chilling it in the fridge before freezing it. Just make sure you don’t forget to transfer it to the freezer!
- If your mixture is too soft, lower the sugar to 50g. Sugar lowers the freezing point of a mixture which prevents it from freezing hard enough for the right ice cream texture. Milk and cream also contain (natural) sugar, so it may be that your milk and cream contain more natural sugars than the versions I tested. It also depends on the climate, the temperature of your freezer, etc.
- A slightly soft ice cream is easily rectified with 15-20 minutes in the freezer after spinning. This is why I generally recommend spinning your ice cream a little ahead of time.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!