Vegan Ice Cream

Hello,

I want to develop a vegan ice-cream.
In my country, there are very few vegan ice cream manufactures, and they all use coconut-cream as their base ingredient, which leaves a coconut off-flavor that a lot of customers don’t like. Therefore, my main concern is finding a different liquid base and a proper protein source other than coconut milk / coconut milk solids.

As for the moment, I am using:

-Liquid base: oat milk (for its natural flavor and aeration propeties)
-Sugars: sucrose, dextrose, glucose 40DE, trehalose
-Other solids: inulin, maltodextrin (malto for bulking solids and inulin for more creaminess)
-Emulsifiers: mono-diglycerides and polysorbate80 at 80:20 ratio
-Stabilizers: locust bean-gun, guar gum, kappa carrageenan, in a ratio of 4:2:1

I am quite satisfied with the flavor and the texture, but as I don’t use any protein source, there is a poor over-run and it freezes too hard (regardless to the sugar profile i choose). On top of that, oat milk could be pricey, and I suspect that a proper protein would allow me to use water as my base.

I have read Ice Cream 7th edition by Goff and some articles about the subject, but as I am not a food scientist myself, I would be thankful if anyone could give me an advice of how to improve my recipe.

Thanks!

I suggest using Fava bean protein. It has a neutral taste.

Thanks for your reply! Would you suggest to use aqua-fava base from the first place or whether to add fava protein powder to water / vegan milk?

fava protein powder to water

Thank you,
is there any certain type/brand of fava protein powder you would recommend? When it comes to pea protein ive heard that only highly soluble types are good for ice cream, but i dont have any clue about fava.

Ingredion has a good one that they are sourcing out of Canada

We have a coconut based ice cream in our country and there is no coconut taste. It is because fresh coconut is used. While most vegan ice creams companies use coconut milk. Theses milks can have a strong coconut taste as the coconuts are stale or dried.
The best option if you are not making a healthy brand of ice cream is to use oil. Any oil from coconut(extra virgin or deodorized) to any neutral oil.
Hydrogenated fats also can be used.
There is dairy based Brand in My country who was using almost 95% hydrogentated fats and oil to make ice cream. Nobody could make out the difference. They just used more than 3% milk solids so they could call it ice cream.
But another ice cream company who ironically uses hydrogentated fats but in much lesser quanties files a law suit and the company cannot use the word ice cream they are now calling their ice creams “frozen Desserts”

About your ice cream freezing too hard I think its lacking air. You need to get a an ice cream churner that will incorporate air into it and a blast freezer that will freeze the ice cream quickly before the air bubbles dissapate.
AFAIK protein does not play an important role in ice cream. Thought cream might contain protein unless you boil it. There is an Indian ice cream called “kufli” that is boiled there the protein plays a role giving a different texture.

I would suggest using stevia and erythritol to make it healthy.
The best options would be to use nut milks like almond cashew or a mix of it. Cashew gives a great texture and good taste and it will keep the ice cream soft. As cashew hardens you can add a lot of water to it increasing your bottomline.

Thanks for your reply!

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to fresh coconuts in my country; they tend to be VERY pricey. Instead, I use deodorized coconut oil as my main source of fat, which works perfectly fine.

Regarding the proteins - I suspect that the lack of incorporated air is mainly due to a protein deficiency. For some reason, all of the big companies (Ben and Jerry’s, So Delicious, etc.) use pea protein in their formula, whether their ice cream is based on water or vegan milk.

I don’t have access to a professional ice cream machine yet, only to a Cuisinart ICE-100 home machine, so I can’t test it properly. However, I think that a source of protein is going to be crucial for achieving a sufficient overrun level.

What are your impressions about it?

I will check that out, thanks! I appreciate your help.