Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream: The Art and Science of the Scoop: A Cookbook

I am new to making ice cream and loved the science behind it explained in plain English plus the recipes work great and so easy to understand.

I bought this book with the expectation that it’d be the standard very-high-level overview about how ice cream works and then a selection of immutable recipes for ice cream.I couldn’t have been more wrong...and I’m totally OK with that.As a chemistry major and a materials science grad student, it was really nice to read about cross-linking in proteins and crystal structures in the constituent materials of ice cream in a way that didn’t gloss over some important things but that was also totally accessible even without a hardcore science background.It was also hugely helpful to have a set of blank slate recipes for various styles of ice cream. The blank slate recipes give ingredients in sample amounts but also as percentages for easy scaling up/down. Additionally, the blank slate recipes are infinitely customizable: you can make something that is known to be amazing (e.g, a salted caramel vanilla Philadelphia-style ice cream) or something totally off-the-wall (e.g., a V8 sherbet with extra celery...which my wife might enjoy). I really like that the author teaches readers how to make their own unique creations; she gives you enough rope for you to make some awesome stuff, but that’s also enough rope to potentially hang yourself (V8 sherbet, anyone?).There’s also lots of info about making add-ins; her cookie dough is amazing because, like other add-ins in this section, it doesn’t turn into a tooth-breaking rock when it’s frozen. Being from the South (Alabama, to be precise), I was very appreciative for her simple recipe for a sorghum syrup for adding to ice cream to make a ribbon/swirl.Definitely a 5-star ice cream textbook, and you’ll walk away with an expanded toolbox for creating better ice cream!

Great book for those wanting to make homemade ice cream, sorbet, etc! My oldest moved out and appropriated my original book. This one is good enough that I bought another. Easy instruction with great results!

Homemade icecream can be as easy or complex as you want. Dump it all in a bowl, churn it and it will still taste delicious.I chose Dana's book because her base recipe is most similar to my own that I'd developed through trial and error and wanted to improve upon. I've learned so much from this book and have incorporated several of her techniques, tips and tricks. The information in this book has helped achieve exactly the quality of icecream I was desiring and understand the roles of every ingredient, every technique, the why's and why nots.A more simplified icecream adventure could be David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop. His book reminds me not to overthink it. I reference both quite often.

This book has some very interesting ice cream recipes - some easy and some more difficult due to the amount of ingredients. Certainly gave some great tips about how to make creamy, great tasting ice cream. Will be a "go to" book when I want to do something a little different for sure.

I would consider this book a near essential for anyone interested in ice cream or it's relatives, including most of the people currently publishing recipes. Unlike so much of what passes for "food science", it goes well beyond assigning names to things and actually explains how and why the ingredients and procedures work and how to maximize their benefits. Not only are all of the popular basic recipes are covered, there is enough information to allow you to customize your own bases. Same with the recipes- those that I've tried have been excellent, but more important there is enough information to allow you to invent your own flavors without inadvertently derailing the ice cream's chemistry. A fine addition to any culinary library.As a side note- there are some slight oddities about the format. Most of the recipes give four alternatives for stabilizers- as these require different procedures they are included as footnotes rather than being included in the step by step instructions, so you have to remember to use them- not an ideal setup, but I don't see how else it could have been done without cluttering up the recipes. And there are four master recipes (custard ice cream, Philadelphia style, sherbet and frozen yoghurt), but there are also instuctions for Jeni's style ice cream and California style (no dairy) sherbets given as part of asides (pink pages)- it would be nice if these were easier to find for those using this book just for the recipes, who may not read it through. Sorbets are not covered.