How to Make Ice Cream Without Eggs

 The cost of eggs is soaring. According to eggprices.org, a dozen eggs reached over $8 in the U.S. last month. Avian flu, supply chain issues, and corporate greed are all at least partially to blame. For home cooks without money to burn, it is hard to justify the price of eggs, especially if only half the egg gets used, like in ice cream.

This article seeks to explain how to make homemade ice cream without eggs, but we need to work backwards. In order to understand how to replace egg yolks in ice cream, we need to understand why they got there in the first place.

Why are egg yolks in ice cream?

Egg yolks are in ice cream for two main reasons: flavor and texture.

1.   Flavor

Custard is the magic made when egg yolks, sugar, and milk are gently cooked together. When ice cream contains egg yolks, it is called frozen custard. Custard ice cream is very common, especially for flavors that benefit from a little extra richness. Chocolate, vanilla, and other “heavier” flavors often contain egg yolks. “Lighter” ice cream flavors, like cherry or strawberry, are less likely to contain egg yolks; some people find that egg yolks dull the brightness of lighter, more refreshing flavors.

2.   Texture

Texture is the other reason to use egg yolks in ice cream. In both homemade ice cream and elementary school science class, emulsification is the process by which water and fat become cohesive. After all, water and oil cannot mix without a little assistance. Egg yolks fix that! Emulsifiers such as egg yolks are the reason that water-filled ingredients, like fruit puree or nondairy milk, can combine with cream, which is mostly fat. When eggs are cooked, their protein binds with both water and fat, emulsifying your ice cream base and thickening it.

Eggs should be heated to contribute to texture. According to eggsafety.org, egg yolks are safe to eat in ice cream if the ice cream base gets cooked at least to 160 F (71.1 C). In other words, we should be cooking our eggs anyways if we use eggs that may carry the risk of salmonella.

I usually cook a custard ice cream base to around 165-170 F (73.9-76.7 C) just to be safe but also to get a greater emulsifying effect from the egg yolks. In Hello My Name is Ice Cream, Dana Cree’s custard recipes employ a temperature of 180 F (82.2 C). However, I do not definitively know what the temperature should be for egg yolks to contribute to emulsification—I will update with this info if I find it.

The difference between stabilizers and emulsifiers

Stabilizers and emulsifiers are not the same thing! Generally speaking, emulsifiers help keep ingredients cohesive, while stabilizers help keep ice crystals from growing too big. Egg yolks do both, but I tend to think of them as an emulsifier first and a stabilizer second. You can read much more about them on Under-belly.

How to make homemade ice cream without egg yolks

Some ice cream does not actually need any added emulsifier. This is the case for Philadelphia-style ice cream, which is ice cream that does not contain any eggs. If an ice cream recipe calls itself “Philadelphia-style,” then it is egg-free. The downside to these ice creams is that they tend to be icier and melt much more quickly. This includes no-churn recipes, like the ones that involve whipping the cream and folding in condensed milk.

Homogenized milk is already an emulsification, as it contains both water and fat that have been treated in such a way that makes them cohesive. Same with cream. Milk and cream already have some emulsifier in them from the milk solids, but they are relatively weak, and ice cream will tend to melt too quickly without something extra added. Egg yolks come in handy, but there are other options.

Cream cheese

Dairy products already contain some emulsifier as previously stated, but dairy products with more milk solids are even better. Try taking a page out of Jeni Bauer’s book by adding some cream cheese to your next batch of ice cream—just a few tablespoons should suffice. As a bonus, storebought cream cheese also usually contains added stabilizers.

Powdered milk

Powdered milk, particularly nonfat powdered milk, is one way to add more protein to ice cream. It contributes to the number of solids and helps bind more water to fat. These milk solids are already in your dairy, so adding powdered milk just increases their binding power.

Pudding mix

Another product with lots of potential for ice cream is pudding mix. Pudding mix can contain monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are emulsifiers. You can just add the pudding mix to your sugar, shake it up, and proceed as normal. I have seen pudding mix used in many Ninja Creami recipes to add texture to a no-cook ice cream base. It would likely work well for a cooked ice cream base, too. Pudding mix is also pretty dang cheap, so when eggs are too expensive, try using pudding mix instead and decreasing the amount of sugar by a little bit.

Lecithin

Lecithin is a popular, egg-free emulsifier. Often deriving from soy or sunflower plants, lecithin helps water and fat stay cohesive in ice cream. Lecithin is often sold as a supplement at health food stores. If you do not have access to lecithin by itself, look for it in the ingredients list of other products. I noticed that a protein powder I buy contains lecithin, so I added some to an ice cream I made and found that it did not need egg yolks at all. The milk proteins in the protein powder also probably helped.

I have not yet tried to use soy milk or sun butter as emulsifiers, but I imagine they might work since soybeans and sunflower seeds are both great sources of lecithin. It seems I have more experimenting to do.

Closing thoughts

When you try making custard ice cream without eggs, it will taste like something is missing, because it is. Instead, try making other forms of ice cream that do not use eggs, like Philadelphia-style ice cream or this gelato.

I have to be honest and say that some recipes just are not the same without egg yolks, so there are times that call for buying eggs. If you are going to splurge on eggs to make custard ice cream, then whatever you do, please do not throw away the egg whites! Egg whites are great for omelets, quiches, meringues, sorbets, ice cream cones, and so much more.

In the meantime, I wish you luck in your eggless ice cream endeavors. If you are looking for an eggless mix-in idea, check out this recipe.