Head Master Of Ice Cream Production
Add this to your list of acquired job titles as a camp director
By Jeff Portnoy
Skylake Yosemite Camp in Wishon, Calif., has been producing its own ice cream and Italian ice for almost 10 years. Not only is it fun, but it’s easy. Plus, it’s a better product than can be purchased, and the “word-of-mouth” impact is incredible.
© Can Stock Photo / Magone
Let’s begin with a few basics and then concentrate on the actual steps in creating a great frozen-treat program.
Regular Or Soft-serve?
The first decision is to choose between soft-serve or regular ice cream. This is really simple. Unless you have a small camp (fewer than 50 campers), it is just not practical to use a soft-serve product. A soft-serve machine only freezes a small amount of ice cream at a time, which makes serving a lot of people at once impossible. The flavor selection is limited, and it is difficult to maintain.
Regular ice cream is much easier to make than one might imagine. A homemade custard base is not required—nor is it recommended. Health-department requirements make it difficult, and it is a step that requires a great deal of attention, so this is one area best left to the pros. With the ability to purchase a quality, bulk ice cream base from a dairy, there is no reason to make this from scratch. There are plenty of other ways to put a personal touch on the product.
Buying A Batch Freezer
The real way to start a frozen-dessert program is to purchase a batch ice cream freezer. The best freezers are produced in Florida by Emery Thompson. This 100-year-old, family-owned company not only makes a great machine, but the freezer is virtually dummy-proof, as well as easy to use, clean, and maintain.
The batch freezers hold 12, 24, and 44 quarts. The 24-quart machine currently costs around $30,000. It is a healthy investment, but you will save money on each portion of frozen dessert served. Skylake’s camp population is 300, so the 24-quart machine was a good choice. A big plus to making ice cream is that kitchen waste is reduced by using up all the extra bananas, strawberries, and even leftover apple cobbler.
When I say easy to make, I truly mean easy. My favorite ice cream has always been banana. To make 6 gallons of this ice cream takes 10 minutes. Start by pouring 14 quarts of ice cream base into the machine, add 8 ounces of vanilla extract, turn on the machine, and as it begins to spin and freeze, peel and drop whole bananas into the hopper. The darker and riper the bananas, the richer the flavor. You can decide on the number of bananas, but I find as many as 20 are great. Eight minutes later, you have 6 gallons of phenomenal, homemade ice cream, which comes out of the batch freezer in a wet, concrete consistency. Put it in a freezer overnight, and it is ready to serve. There are no artificial flavors or chemicals, just fresh, fresh, fresh ingredients.
A primary feature of the Emery Thompson batch freezer is the thickness of the drum, which is so thick that almost anything can be added to the mix as it freezes and it won’t damage the drum. This allows the insertion of fun items like gummy bears, Heath Bar chips, nuts, or Oreo cookies during the freezing process. The items that can be added are almost limitless, and many are available for bulk purchase. I made a fabulous apple cobbler ice cream by taking half a hotel pan of day-old apple cobbler and feeding it straight into the hopper. Out came a signature ice cream. Using your imagination is the fun part.
© Can Stock Photo / bhofack2
Skylake serves ice cream as dessert two or three times a week and uses approximately 10 gallons of ice cream each time. That quantity requires fewer than two batches of ice cream. It only takes 30 minutes to prep, prepare, and store this much ice cream. Our normal procedure for production is to make seven or eight consecutive batches, consisting of three or four different flavors. In two to three hours, a camp can make all the ice cream it needs for a week. Begin with a simple vanilla flavor, adding different products (either during the freezing or upon extrusion), and then finishing production with chocolate flavors. The machine doesn’t need to be cleaned between batches as long as you begin with the lighter flavors and work up to the chocolate or heavier flavors.
I was surprised that, after running my program for a number of years, the California Department Agriculture, Milk and Dairy Safety Division arrived at the camp and advised me that I needed a special license. It was no big deal, but be aware of local health-department rules, which might dictate if you purchase an air-cooled vs. a water-cooled batch freezer.
Making Italian Ice
Now for the bonus. The same batch freezer used for ice cream will also make incredible Italian ice. There is only one way to get an authentic Italian ice, to make it and scoop it fresh. A store-bought version is little more than a Popsicle with an emulsifier in it to keep from freezing solid.
A number of companies produce the syrup bases used to make Italian ice in a machine. One gallon of the syrup, 16 quarts of water, three to six pounds of sugar (depending on the desired sweetness level), and a stabilizer are all that are needed. Ice cream takes about eight minutes to process, while Italian ice takes closer to 15 minutes. Serve the ice in original, 5-ounce squeeze cups, and you may feel like you are on the streets of Manhattan sipping lemon Italian ice. There are easily 20 flavors that can be purchased in the syrup base. However, using fresh lemon juice makes the best original flavor. Go to Dippinflavors.com to see the variety of flavors available.
Some Pointers
Here is a step-by-step guide to get into the world of ice cream making:
Spend an hour or two watching some of the 100+ videos available on the EmeryThompson.com site to determine if this idea is for you. Steve Thompson and his buddy, Tie-Dye Jeff, will quickly engage you in the process.
Make sure you have access to a consistent supply of the ice cream base. This appears to be much easier in the East than in the West. Establish a timeline for purchasing and training on your new toy.
Place orders for necessary supplies. Contact information for all suppliers is available from the EmeryThompson.com website. Items you will need include 3-gallon containers, a scale, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, sanitizers and lubricant, stabilizer, Italian ice syrup bases, and all the desired candy additives.
Start simple and increase the complexity over time.
Keep a record of production, and compile a recipe book to make reproducing what you like simple and consistent.
As camp directors, whether we like it or not, we acquire many job titles—not necessarily by choice; we become plumbers, social workers, janitors, and a lot more. So, why not add a title to your resume that you really want: Head Master of Ice Cream Production. Feel free to email me at jeff@skylake.com to lead you through the process. I suffered some mini-disasters along the way, and I can help you avoid some of those.
Jeff Portnoy has been the Owner/Director of Skylake Yosemite Camp for 28 years. Skylake was founded in 1945, services campers primarily from the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, and is located 15 miles from the South Gate into Yosemite National Park. Jeff’s daughters, Adrienne and Jessica, attended Skylake in the 1980s and 1990s, and are now the co-directors, having taken on all of the day-to-day management of the camp. For more information, visit www.skylake.com.