Is all ice cream the same?

In one very important way all ice creams are the same as they are all gorgeous and are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, but just think about it for a second, there are many, many different types of products all called ice cream but look, feel and taste very different to one another.

So what are the main types?

The first main type is what we in the ice cream trade call ‘soft’ but which is known to millions of happy customers as maybe ‘Mr Whippy’ or ‘Mr Softee’ and is often served as a ‘99’ in a crisp cone complete with a small stick of rich, flaky chocolate.

But not even soft ice cream is all the same as you will see by travelling around the country where in some places it is bright and white like the colour of milk and in others it is more golden like the colour of butter or rich cream. It is not only the colour that differs as individual makers chose the kind of flavour they want with some slightly sweeter than others or having a particular vanilla taste.

The second main type is what we in the trade call ‘hard’ but which is known by millions of happy customers as scooped being served as it is by being scooped out of a tub or container and piled on to a crispy cone.

Scoop ice cream is made in a slightly different way to soft which enables the maker to offer a mouth watering range of flavours and different textures by adding what we in the trade call ‘inclusions’ which are the bits of fruit, chocolate, cookie etc that are blended in to the ice cream when it is made for you to enjoy when you eat it.

So are all ice creams the same? Certainly not!

What is Artisan ice cream?

Quite simply, artisan ice cream is ice cream made by an artisan which the dictionary definition of artisan being a ‘skilled craftsperson’. Delving a bit deeper in to the dictionary tells us that a crafts-person is some one who makes things skilfully by hand.

Although now-a-days, ice cream makers do not plunge their hands in to a bowl to make their ice cream, the artisan makers certainly do take a very ‘hands on’ approach using all the skills that many have learnt from many, many years making ice cream with recipes and techniques often handed down from one generation to the next.

Artisan producers are able to be ‘hands on’ as they make smaller batches of ice cream that will be sold and eaten in as short a time as possible as ‘fresh’ ice cream is the best around.

They also use processes and machinery that need the ‘human touch’ be it in choosing and mixing the ingredients or keeping a close eye on the freezing to make sure the ice cream is of the smoothest, highest quality possible.


How is artisan ice cream made?

As well as the experience and skill of the artisan maker, great ice cream begins with great ingredients.

For most artisan ice cream makers the ingredients include milk, eggs, butter and cream which are blended together and whisked to make a light, melt-in-the-mouth texture we all love.

The first stage in the process is to select the ingredients including the milk which in many cases is produced by their own cows or bought from local farmers and suppliers. The same care is taken over the other ingredients including the flavours and inclusions which are often supplied by specialist companies who source their raw materials from around the world.

Ingredients sorted, the process can begin.

The first step is mixing the ingredients to the artisan makers own recipe before being pasteurised. This involves heating the mix up to kill off harmful bacteria before the mix is cooled as quickly as possible down to a temperature of between 0oC and -4oC for at least 4 hours and often much longer especially as the flavours are added at this stage.

The next step is to churn the mix to blend in some air. It may seem strange that ice cream has air in it but if it didn’t it would come out of the freezer like and ice cube and not like ice cream at all. The amount of air also varies from maker to maker and even from recipe to recipe but it is always added to produce the ‘lick-able’ treat we all love.

During the churning process the temperature of the mix is lowered to between -2oC and -7oC and it is also at this stage that the artisan maker may add pieces of fruit, toffee, cookie or nuts etc to complete the recipe.

This done, the ice cream is put in to a container which may be an individual tub or a family pack or even a ‘Napoli’ tray to be proudly displayed in an open freezer cabinet in an ice cream parlour or shop, and then it’s off to the cold room where the ice cream is ‘hardened’ at a bone chilling temperature of -28oC.

The final stage of the process is getting it to you whether by an ice cream van, in a parlour or your local shop, pub, hotel or restaurant just tuck in and enjoy!