Kiwi ice cream
Kiwi pulp added last of all, onto the aged base and straight into the machine. With kiwi, every minute counts.
Kiwi contains actinidin, an enzyme that breaks down protein — it is the one used to tenderise meat. In an ice cream made with milk that means bitterness and a collapsed texture if it is given time.
Ingredients
For 1 kgTick each ingredient as you get it ready.
Need to adjust the formula?
Step by step
9 steps · follow the order for the best result
Chef's notes
- ·The kiwi, last of all: onto the aged base and straight into the machine.
- ·Do not skip the cold ageing: it hydrates proteins and stabiliser and clearly improves the texture.
- ·The serving temperature depends on your recipe: if you formulate to a softer PAC than your freezer (say -11 °C with the chest at -18 °C), temper it for 5–10 min before serving; if the PAC matches your freezer, it can be eaten straight out.
- ·Why formulate at -11 and not at -18 °C: even though your freezer sits at -18 °C, formulating at -11 makes the ice cream tastes better — at -18 it is so cold that the taste buds barely pick up the flavour and the fat is slow to melt in the mouth. And keeps better: ice cream formulated at -11 and kept at -18 has less free water, suffers less from Ostwald ripening (ice crystals joining and growing) and keeps its creaminess longer.
- ·Keep your own notes: write down the POD and PAC that work best with your machine.
The texture
spot on
Creamy with plenty of cream behind it, which is what holds the kiwi's water. The black seeds spread through the mix and crackle faintly, and the fruit's acidity cuts through the fat and leaves the palate clear.
All about this kiwi ice cream
The base is calculated at the centre of the fat band, with cream and milk, and reaches its solids via the milk powder. All of it is pasteurised, chilled and aged without the kiwi in it.
The pulp is added at the end, with the mix already aged, blended and straight to churning. It is not an aroma nicety as with other fruits: it is that kiwi's enzyme attacks milk protein, and the less time they spend together, the better.
The sugar is split between dextrose, sucrose and a pinch of fructose up to the right sweetness. It runs high because kiwi is sharp, and the serving temperature stays in band.
The ingredients and what each does
Every ingredient has a technical job: cream brings fat and creaminess, milk powder raises the non-fat solids, the sugars set the sweetness and the freezing point, and the stabiliser controls crystal growth during storage.
Technique and controlling the numbers
Adjusting the POD (sweetening power) and the PAC (antifreezing power, given as a target temperature) lets you match sweetness and hardness to your taste and your machine. With the selectors in the side bar the formula recalculates itself and you will see how the amount of each ingredient changes.
Storage and common mistakes
Store at -18 °C in an airtight container and avoid freeze-thaw cycles. The commonest faults are not ageing it enough, too much sugar so it never freezes properly, and over-churning, which whips in too much air and wrecks the texture.
Recommended for this recipe
Equipment and ingredients that make the difference.
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