Traditional ice cream is a rare occurrence these days. Most ice creams in stores and recipes are actually frozen custards which call for cooking an egg custard base before chilling and then freezing it with an ice cream machine. I wanted an easier traditional eggless ice cream—no cooking or fear of salmonella required. The problem is those eggs in a frozen custard are responsible for the smooth and stable texture of the final product. Thankfully there are a few work arounds that allow you to omit the eggs from the recipe and still produce a smooth, stable and scoop-able right from the freezer ice cream. If you read my No-Churn vs. Machine Matcha Ice Cream article, than you are familiar with some of the challenges of traditional eggless ice cream. In fact, the recipe I initially developed for the traditional ice cream in that article and video suffered from some of those problems to a slight degree. Not one to let sleeping dogs lie, I set out to perfect that recipe and develop a smooth and creamy traditional eggless ice cream that would be easy and safe for even children to make.

The problems with eggless ice creams are textural. They can be icy and develop freezer shock fairly quickly after a couple of days in the freezer. Both of these problems are the result of the ice cream developing large interlocking ice crystals instead of small ice crystals that give a creamy mouth feel. Ice cream is a paradox in that it must be frozen, but not too frozen. There are a few methods for preventing the development of the large ice crystals that ruin perfectly tasty ice creams.

Increase the fat:

The first version of this recipe that I tried used 1% milk because that’s what I had on hand. I figured the heavy cream would balance it out. It also used a classic 2-to-1 ratio of milk to cream. I found this to be an insufficient amount of fat resulting in a leaner product, which despite the heavy cream, reminded me of ice milk from the 80’s and 90’s. That’s not to say it wasn’t good. This leaner mixture was very refreshing and clean on the palate, perfect for hot and humid summer days when dense frozen custard is too heavy. By switching to whole milk and a 1-to-1 ratio of milk to cream, the resulting product was smoother and creamier without crossing the line into the overly creamy, frozen butter taste of no-churn ice cream recipes. The increased fat also prevents the ice cream from freezing completely solid. Think about it—a frozen stick of butter is never as solid as an ice cube because fat does not behave in quite the same way as water as it chills.

Add a syrup:

Substituting some of the granulated sugar with glucose syrup (otherwise known as corn syrup—not to be confused with high fructose corn syrup), prevents the ice cream base from freezing completely. The low water content of the syrup does not allow it to freeze solid and those unfrozen corn syrup particles get in the way when the water in the milk and cream try to lock together into larger ice crystals. The corn syrup lends the viscous pliability of its frozen state to the final ice cream, making it softer straight from the freezer.

Add Air:

Most home ice cream makers are french pot style machine. This means they do not add much air to the ice cream as it churns. Commercial ice cream machines actually add the manufacturers’ desired amount of air (known as “overrun”) to their product. They do this, not to cheat consumers by selling them air, but to improve the overall texture of the ice cream. Air creates a smoother, creamier mouth feel by separating the ice crystals. This is how “no-churn” ice creams work. Besides the syrup, fat and lots of trapped air from the whipped cream allows the ice cream base to freeze smooth and soft without churning. Most traditional eggless ice creams just call for mixing all of the ingredients together and freezing. This does not allow the incorporation of that all important air to the base. I found that by whipping the cream to a thicker consistency separately from the other ingredients before incorporating everything together—I was able to add air to my ice cream using a regular countertop ice cream maker. The resulting product was much smoother, creamier and slower melting than the original version I developed and not significantly harder to make.

Add Alcohol:

Alcohol never freezes—well not until it reaches -173.5°F. I don’t drink, but I keep a bottle of vodka in my freezer for pie crusts and I’ve yet to find it frozen into a block. Alcohol is in essence anti-freeze. Adding a little alcohol to an ice cream recipe in the form of real vanilla extract or a flavorless vodka, keeps the mixture from freezing solid or developing freezer shock while it sits in the freezer for a few days. Thankfully, a little goes a long way, so there is no need to worry about young children consuming the final product.

Freeze it fast:

The faster something freezes the smaller the ice crystals. Commercial ice cream manufacturers have blast freezers that freeze their products quickly and produce the smooth store bought ice creams we are accustomed to. Home freezers aren’t as cold but you can encourage fast freezing by using a shallow chilled container to take your ice cream from the soft serve to the hard scoop stage. A shallow container exposes more of the surface area of the ice cream to the cold of your freezer, allowing it to cool more quickly. The result: smaller ice crystals and smooth creamy ice cream right from your home freezer.

I scream, you scream, we all scream:

Stop screaming already and get to it! With these techniques and the right proportion of ingredients, you too can produce a smooth and creamy eggless ice cream at home without the stabilizers, gums and mystery ingredients of commercial products. Try this easy Classic Eggless Vanilla Ice Cream for yourself and see how well these tricks work. Once you’ve mastered classic vanilla, try some very simple variations on this recipe, including my revised and perfected version of Matcha Ice Cream.