unsure

variation

4s

smoked

pseudo choc

air?

…..back to the point, frozen desserts.

so now we know about water and solids.  we know that there is more to a frozen dessert than just ingredients and that we must begin to look at it components. we have a pretty piece of paper with some numbers and words on it (our frozen dessert guide, fdg).  what next?

the fgd starts to show the relationship between frozen desserts and their components.  now we begin to learn how these components relate to each other.  Control the components, control your product.  as you work with items such as ice cream, sorbet, frozen mousse, iced lollies and frozen soufflés look at the texture/formula and you may notice a few things:

· sweet products are very soft

· products with a lot of air in then are very delicate in the mouth

once again i am overstating the obvious, but lets take a slightly deeper look at this…

· sweet products are very soft

o if you are craving some overly scientific data (or have trouble sleeping) google freezing point depression and read away.  It may be a little dry but it is a very important concept.  the idea is that 100% water will freeze a 0C, but when a solid is dissolved in water the freezing/melting temperature will go below 0C.   this is a phenomenon that will require an overly complicated explanation so for now we will leave it at this: sugar depresses freezing point. it make a frozen product much softer and easy to scoop

· products with a lot of air in then are very delicate in the mouth

o a frozen air and a frozen ice can have an identical formula.  an ice is still frozen and is similar to an ice cube in texture.  a frozen air has extremely large amounts of air incorporated into it before it freezes.  the final texture melts away in your mouth very quickly.  mouth feel can be greatly influenced by how much air is incorporated.  large amounts of air make for a very tender product.

frozen desserts are controlled by carefully balancing relationships between components.  after, looking at your fdg and thinking about what we have talked ablout, here are some of the relationships you may see:

· large amounts of water = icy texture

· large amounts of solids = sandy texture

· higher amounts of sugar = softer texture and faster melting

· large amounts of air = faster melting in the mouth

· fat can prevent large ice crystals (so can solids)

· high % of solids + medium to high % of sugar + high % fat + large amount of air = frozen mousse

· high % of solids + high % of sugar + large amount of air = frozen soufflé

one thing i want to point out is how you can take a high % of solids and still make a soft and creamy texture (frozen mousse and soufflé)  by (1) depressing the freezing point with large amounts of sugar and (2) adding a large amount of air.

attached is  a list of frozen desert methods.  it is a creative tool to help you organize some of the relationships in frozen desserts.

download freezing-methods

Tags: freezing methods, frozen desserts, frozen powder, ice cream, sorbet