Deep fried ice cream...FAIL!

[skyebrand]

Hi...I've made DFIC many, many times before & it has always been a huge success with dinner guests at retro dinner parties. Anyway, tonight I decided to use a premium ice cream instead of the cheap stuff I normally use to make this abomination but for some reason it wouldn't hold it's shape & melted before the cake batter had cooked in the oil...

Anyone know why?????

[skyebrand]

I've bought a middle-of-the range ice cream (not ice confection) which is definitely freezing much faster than the premium ice cream. I've got it in balls & even though it's only been in the freezer for 8 hours it's already as hard as the premium was after 48 hours. I'll leave it until this afternoon before I coat it & then give it until Friday night before I deep fry it.

I'm also wondering if my choice of oil could be changed to suit better quality ice cream. I currently use canola oil in the deed fryer but any other suggestions would be great!

[1POINT21GW]

Canola oil is just fine.

[todao]

My guess would be that your ice cream (therefore your freezer) isn't cold enough. To make deep fried ice cream using premium ice cream it needs to be frozen to a below zero temperature (or somewhere in that range) and the typical household refrigerator may not get that cold.

[1POINT21GW]

How hard was the ice cream before you deep fried it?

[skyebrand]

I made the balls then froze for 48 hours at -4 celsius but I'm not sure how cold the ice cream itself was because my food thermometer is broken :0(

[1POINT21GW]

More than likely that's the problem. Your freezer needs to be set at -18 or less degrees C not just for this ice cream, but all the time.

[skyebrand]

That's upsetting because it is a relatively new freezer & that is as cold as it gets...I think it is still under warranty so I might have to look into that as it has never gotten any colder than that...

[1POINT21GW]

Yeah, if your freezer is only getting down to -4 degrees C at its lowest, something has to be done. That's much too high for a freezer to be effective at preserving foods long term.

[sbp]

Are you sure the temp isn't showing in Farenheit?

[skyebrand]

There's no way to change the display from anything but what it is already on & I bought it here in Australia so I'm assuming it's C as no one here uses F at all!

[1POINT21GW]

A refrigerator/freezer thermometer costs about $2.50. You may want to consider getting one and seeing what the temperature truly is. Even if you weren't having this issue, it's a good idea to keep one in your freezer and one in your refrigerator (along with an oven thermometer in the oven).

[splatgirl]

+1. My big freezer always reads 0 on the display, but the aux. thermometer (actually a remote weather station thingie with a display that I can keep in my kitchen) in there tells me it ranges between -10 and ~-3. IME, the display temp shows the temp you have it the fridge/freezer set at, NOT the actual internal temp.

[splatgirl]

because it has more fat and less air, both of which make it a better conductor of heat.

[skyebrand]

Well that's disappointing! I'll have to try something in between the two & see if that works! Cheers!

[sbp]

Also, less expensive ice creams have more emulsifiers, preservatives and stabilizers, like guar gum, carageenen, to delay melting.

[splatgirl]

Yes--they don't melt into even sort of a liquid, they just kind of slump. creepy.

I agree with todao's post below--you need to freeze the good stuff harder. Seems like a great excuse to play with liquid nitrogen!

[skyebrand]

I'm pretty sure I'd need a special licence to obtain liquid nitrogen in any legitimate way!

[Coogles]

A few blocks of dry ice in a good quality cooler or styro should be cold enough to deep freeze the ice cream balls. Much easier to work with than liquid nitrogen and usually readily available.

[skyebrand]

I've looked into dry ice previously & it's not available anywhere close to my rural area unfortunately. I think I have this nailed though...my neighbour has a deep freeze so I'm going to use it!