Torrija ice cream
Real torrijas inside the ice cream: soaked bread, cinnamon and caramelised sugar. Holy Week in a scoop.
The aromatics go in, come out and go back in: cinnamon and peel infuse from 40 °C, are removed so the mix can be blended, are returned to it, and are finally strained out after ageing.
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 torrijas, below 40 °C. The aromatics go in, come out, return, and are strained at the end.
- ·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 and very soft, with the soaked bread dissolved inside, giving body without leaving crumbs. It carries little cream because none is needed: the cinnamon leads and a light base lets it breathe.
All about this torrijas ice cream
The preliminary prep is making real torrijas: an infusion of milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon and peel; small loaves pricked and submerged 15 seconds; drained, egged and fried. All are coated except three, and from those three comes the torrija that goes into the ice cream.
The lovely part is what gets used: the oil they were fried in, strained, goes into the mix at 40 °C alongside the yolk. That oil carries the whole flavour of the frying inside it.
And the dance of the aromatics: cinnamon and peel go in at 40 °C, come out at 85 so the blender can be used, go back in after the torrijas are added and are strained out after ageing. That way they infuse for the whole 24 h without ending up blended.
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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