Protein vanilla ice cream

After testing various recipes to make traditional ice cream, this time I want to do something more contemporary, to try making high-protein ice cream.

For this purpose I'll use the whey protein I have at home and I'll try to replace the milk powder and part of the other ingredients with this new ingredient.

Whey protein has certain pros and certain cons to consider while balancing a recipe, in particular:

1. they have no impact on PAC or POD
2. Whey protein tends to whip, that is to trap air molecules increasing the overrun during the freezing process. So you have to be very careful to reduce the overrun input. This can be done for example by balancing the fats within the recipe.
3. Whey protein tends to absorb water and to be an emulsifier. Being an emulsifier brings advantages for the creaminess of the recipe, but water absorption could lead to a sandy effect if overdosed
4. Proteins are effectively a milk solid, so we'll have to avoid raising the solids level too much. We'll use dextrose to reduce the amount of sugars and also of calories
5. Proteins denature above 70ºC degrees, this is even more important when they are a main ingredient of the recipe, so we won't be able to pasteurize at 85 degrees as is usually done. Therefore we won't be able to use locust bean gum as a stabilizer, nor eggs to make the cream base. We'll use only guar gum as a stabilizer.

Let's do this experiment and see what comes out!

Ingredients

For about 1kg of ice cream:

Balancing

Preparation

Tested with 750g using the machine Cuisinart ICE-100

1. Ingredient preparation:
   1. Mix all the powders together
   2. Pour the cream into the milk combining the liquid phases
2. Mixing and pasteurization:
   1. Heat the milk with the cream up to a maximum of 60ºC, so as not to denature the proteins
   2. Right away, add the powders and mix vigorously
   3. At 40 degrees add the vanilla or the vanilla extract
   4. Once the process is finished, cool as quickly as possible and put in the fridge
3. Maturation: in the fridge below 4ºC. I kept it 10 h at 2 °C, extracted at 3.5 °C.
4. Churning: I kept it for 37’, extracted at -5.5ºC, which could be too little if the PAC is slightly higher
5. Leave in the freezer for at least 6h so it reaches temperature

Final notes and tasting test

• Overrun: 15%
• Serving temperature: -13ºC
• Texture: Creamy
• Meltability: Slow

Tasting notes

Fresh and not heavy sweetness. It doesn't leave you thirsty after tasting, a good result! No free-water crystals, a good result for a first attempt!

The flavour is light, the vanilla has a good natural note. But being an extract combined with little fat it doesn't leave much aroma over time.

The ice cream turned out neither heavy nor with artificial flavours. Those who know whey protein can probably taste that hint of aftertaste you know, but it's not a predominant flavour.

Conclusions

We can say the experiment worked! We managed to make an excellent ice cream, which was appreciated by the pair of gymbro guests we invited. Half a kilo disappeared in an instant!

A few notes for next time:

• We were afraid the overrun would be too much because of the proteins that tend to trap air already at the start of churning. So we perhaps extracted it too early, at -5,5ºC. A rather high temperature, and it started melting right away during extraction. Especially in summer with 30ºC in the kitchen!
• The vanilla flavour is perhaps too delicate for such a light mix of ingredients, with little fat and no predominant flavours. Definitely worth trying chocolate with low-fat cocoa.
• It would be interesting to try with even more protein, completely replacing the skimmed milk powder

What do you recommend?