Indulgent Ice Cream - Part Two

In the botanical area, taste and use level are important considerations. "At 10% of the U.S.P. (U.S. Pharmacopeia), flavors and matrices provide enough masking," says Forouz Ertl, vice president, technology and regulatory, Botanicals International, Long Beach, CA. "The bitterness of some botanicals, such as gingko, can be covered with masking agents, flavors and the matrix." In Europe, where botanical extracts have been used in more recent years in a number of foods, the German Pharmacopeia recommends use of about 10% of the effective level of a botanical for food products. "Scientifically, I would not recommend going over 25% of the U.S.P.," Ertl says, "due to multiple doses liable to be encountered in the diet from different foods during the day."

There are numerous ingredients, such as fruit and fruit preps for vitamins, phytochemicals and colors. Botanical extracts, soluble or fine suspended powders, can be added to the mix, as long as the particle size is small enough not to add grittiness to the ice cream.

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These high-solids products are added to the partially frozen ice cream or frozen dessert coming from the freezer, where they are injected with a variegate pump using nozzles that can produce various patterns and swirls in the product as it is packaged.

"Variegates are cooked products in a stabilized sugar solution," Watson says. "Indulgent-type products tend toward a more natural ingredient statement. Generally, in variegates at 55% to 65% total solids, natural stabilizers like pectins are a little more difficult to work with, as it is somewhat more difficult to control viscosity. In variegates, pectins, locust bean gum, xanthan gum and modified starches are used. At the low levels used, it is more difficult to control viscosity, since they're more sensitive to other ingredients in the mix. Small changes can affect viscosity levels. More control must be exercised in choice of ingredients and levels. Indulgent products tend to use citrus and apple pectins rather than xanthan gum."

Fruit preparations add high value as well as nutritional value to indulgent ice creams. Smaller pieces provide discrete pieces throughout the packaged product. Larger pieces at lower counts would not be as appealing. In any case, the fruit feeder auger might restrict fruit piece size. Fruit preps for indulgent ice creams tend to have higher fruit levels than those for regular ice creams due to cost factors. Use levels can be as high as 50 lbs. of fruit prep per 35 gallons of ice cream mix. Fruit preps often contain sugar, citric or malic acid, thickeners such as pectins, xanthan gum or modified food starches, preservatives including sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, and added color. Fruit preps need to be chosen that are workable with the ice cream product. Any adverse effects on the ice cream due to sugars, acids, thickeners and colors should be determined. Viscosity changes, melt and other structural properties, sensory changes or color and flavor bleed require modifications or selection of different preps. Label requirements may require formulation without some additives, such as preservatives.

Aseptic packaging gives good fruit-piece texture, color and flavor due to HTST pasteurization as compared to retorted products. Heat processing kills microorganisms, so they can be held at 55° to 75°F (12.8° to 23.9°C), with a 12-month shelf life. Individually quick-frozen fruits also are used. The products have been frozen using liquid nitrogen, and quality can be very good, due to the small ice crystals forming as a result of the quick-freezing.

Variegates require tempering prior to pumping into the soft frozen ice cream from the freezer. A fudge might require warming at a suitable temperature to a viscosity at which the variegating pump can deliver the fluid into the ice cream with the texture that will yield the desired swirl pattern and consistency. A chewy caramel variegate stored at 35° to 45°F might have to be tempered at ambient temperature prior to use to attain the correct viscosity throughout the container. The variegate must not be so warm that significant ice cream melting occurs before hard-packing is achieved. The variegating sauce also must not be exposed to warm temperatures for too long a time prior to use or it might be subject to spoilage.

Some products, like ambient-temperature fruit preparations, have to be pre-chilled to a cold temperature that will allow addition via variegating pump or fruit feeder in a pattern or blend required, without melting the frozen mix or bleeding juices into the frozen product. The pH of either variegates or inclusions will not usually curdle protein if the products are blended at cold temperatures and hardened quickly. Should a problem become evident, a buffer such as a citrate could be used or the acidity of the additive reduced.

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"One of our best sources when determining new flavors for our ice cream add-ins is to look for hot trends in desserts," says Subha Luck, industrial sales manager, Rhino Foods, Inc., Burlington, VT. "We visit high-end restaurants and bakeries and test their dessert items. Since tiramisu is a hot dessert right now, we have developed a baked cake ice cream add-in that tastes like tiramisu." She adds that market research, focus groups and "good old intuition" also generate valuable concepts.

Among the many choices, the king of inclusions might be chocolate - rich, creamy and indulgent by its very nature. Containing 52% cocoa butter and 48% cocoa solids, the ingredient can be supplied as milk chocolate, dark semisweet chocolate, white chocolate (consisting primarily of cocoa butter and sugar) or chocolates flavored with liqueurs, oils and extracts.

"A technical reason why one chocolate might be better is that we have one blend of beans used to make our chocolate," says Jim LaRosa, vice president, specialty ingredients, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, San Leandro, CA. "We remove the shell by passing them through a micronizer, obtaining the nibs. Nibs are the shelled bean, which are hard and not greasy, even though high in fat. The fat is entrapped in the cocoa fibers. Grinding the shelled blend to a small uniform particle, we roast the particles to a uniform deep roast, with no shell burn-on. The shell can also give an off-flavor. Then, the deep-roasted nib blend goes through a series of high-shear blenders, and then ball mills. The result is the chocolate liquor product. This is the same product as the cocoa nibs blend, but is now a liquefied product." The chocolate liquor is refined for the final chocolate products, or it is sold for formulation into various coatings.

Genuine chocolate has a standard of identity, in that no fats other than cocoa butter are allowed. Typically, indulgent ice creams will have real milk-, dark- or white-chocolate pieces as inclusions. "Maintaining the desired texture of chocolate is a challenge," Watson explains. "In genuine chocolate, increasing solids and water activity is all that's available."

Compound-coating bits can be used for different textures. Made from refined palm, soy or cottonseed oils that have been partially hydrogenated, these contain longer-chain, non-lauric fats, chosen for physical characteristics close to cocoa butter. They also can be made by esterification of glycerol with selected fatty acids. Cocoa liquor may be used with non-lauric fats. MSNF are usually used to prevent fat incompatibility. When frozen, lower melting-point fats give a softer, chewier compound. Higher melting-point fats provide chips that are more crunchy.

To formulate an indulgent, but less-caloric ice cream with chocolatey inclusions, product designers might consider a compound made with the reduced-calorie fat, salatrim. Scientists at Cultor Food Science, Ardsley, NY, have adapted the confectionery version of this fat to produce chips and variegates for ice cream applications. Because the fat calories are lower in the salatrim product than in chocolate or standard compound coating, the fat level in the ice cream base or the level of inclusions can be increased - both of which spell indulgence - without a significant rise in calorie count.

Many premium ice cream products have a nutty theme - praline, black walnut, chocolate-covered almond, spumoni - the list seems endless. Nuts provide flavor, crunch and visual appeal along with an upscale cachet.

The variety of nut used is typically a matter of flavor. For example, according to the Walnut Marketing Board, the flavor of walnuts is synergistic with fruits, chocolate, vanilla, mocha, liqueur and more. They might be part of an exotic flavor such as Indian kulfi ruh gulab, an ice cream that combines walnuts and rose essence.

No matter what the combination, designers need to consider the type, size and level of nut to use. They can be raw, blanched or oil- or dry-roasted. With almonds, for example, "roasted products are the most popular by far," says Sam Cunningham, Ph.D., director, quality control and R&D, Blue Diamond Growers, Sacramento, CA. "Oil-roasting is most typical. Roasting enhances the flavor of the nut." The time and temperature of the roast determines the resulting color and flavor. A darker roast would catch the eye in a light-colored ice cream base, while a lighter roast might be more visually appealing in a dark fudge base.

Oil-roasting also provides the nuts with additional resistance to moisture migration since the oil can slow any water absorption. Other water-resistance films can be used, such as zein, various gums, food-grade waxes and even chocolate. However, the low water activity and hydrophobicity of most nuts helps maintain a soft crunch in ice cream without additional coatings.

A larger nut or piece has two benefits: it helps preserve the desirable crunch by exposing less surface area to pick up moisture and it enhances the visual aspects of the ice cream. "You don't often see a sliced almond in ice cream," says Cunningham. "With a very thin piece, you'll get water absorption from both sides and it will get soggy. Most premium ice creams use a large whole nut; most fall in the 20s count-per-ounce range. Almonds are sized in fairly narrow, count-per-ounce ranges - a large nut would be 18 to 20, and sizes would go down to 40 to 50 per ounce. You could also use a half-almond, or split, or a slivered almond."

According to the Walnut Marketing Board, the optimum level of walnuts to add to ice cream is about 7%. A typical range would be between 5% to 10%. No matter what the type of nut, the object in formulating, especially in a high-quality product, is to try to ensure a nut or piece in each bite of ice cream. This leads to weighing the advantages or disadvantages between cost and size (count per ounce). Given a 5% target level, is it best to have more pieces or larger pieces?

The bake shop provides inspiration for many ice cream inclusions. These fit into a wide range of different categories: doughs, and high- or low-moisture bits. These can be baked, formed with a cooker-extruder or merely extruded. "The main characteristic of extruded pieces is the texture, which is almost fudge-like since they are usually unbaked," explains Alice Schramm, senior food technologist, Rhino Foods. "This is a desirable characteristic in items like cookie doughs, truffles, fudge brownies, etc., but you are limited to items that taste good with that texture. The advantage to baked add-ins is that now you can create different-textured pieces for ice cream, from cookies to cakes, to even pretzels. The drawback is that the moisture content on baked pieces is so low that sooner or later - usually sooner - the pieces pick up moisture from the ice cream and become soggy.

"One way to control moisture migration is to coat your piece in chocolate," Schramm says. "This provides a moisture barrier between the add-in and the ice cream." Other moisture-barrier technologies, such as those listed for nut coatings, also might help the pieces. Another option is to reformulate to provide a high-fat piece that resists moisture pickup. On the other hand, some moisture migration may contribute to the desired texture. "For our tiramisu piece, since the cake in a tiramisu dessert is actually soaked in espresso, the moisture migration helps give the piece a more authentic taste and mouthfeel," Schramm explains.

High moisture add-ins might solve the problems associated with moisture problems, but they might provide additional challenges. For example, one consideration is how the piece will work with production equipment, especially fruit feeders. Schramm recommends a corn-starch coating for cookie dough to prevent the pieces from sticking together or clumping in the fruit feeder.

"There are a large variety of cookie doughs," says Schramm. "There's no reason why your mom's top-secret chocolate-chip-cookie recipe wouldn't work as a dough for ice cream." This would entail a few minor changes, she notes. For example, no leavening agents would be required for a dough. Also, since many ice cream manufacturers would add their own chips to the ice cream, many cookie-dough inclusions have less chips than traditional cookie doughs. Another thing to be alert for with an uncooked piece - whether dough or something else - is any potential microbial problem. This means a close watch on microbial load or methods to treat the potential problem before it occurs, such as the use of pasteurized eggs in cookie dough.

Lastly, it's important that any ice cream inclusion, especially some of the more fragile baked pieces or delicate fruits or candies, maintain their shape. They must be durable enough to withstand the trip through the fruit feeder into the package and then into the consumer's mouth.

"The most obvious, and important factor to consider when using inclusions in ice cream is taste," Schramm says. "There is a fine line between a great product and too much or too little add-ins in the ice cream. It is a real art to determine a harmonious blend between ice cream and the inclusions."

The high path to adventure lies in designing new and extraordinary indulgent ice creams that will keep consumer interest in the category from cooling down. "There are a lot of companies trying to figure out the craziest ingredients to put into ice cream," observes Ted Castle, founder and president, Rhino Foods. "What needs to be considered when developing a new concept is whether it's innovative, tastes great and, most importantly, makes people want to eat the product again and again."

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