Help! I made too much ice cream custard. Can I freeze the custard, re-thaw it later and then freeze in the ice cream maker?

Question

I am having half as many people over for lunch as originally planned and so have twice as much custard base as needed.  Since re-frozen homemade ice cream is never as good as freshly churned, I'm hoping I can put the liquid custard in the freezer, unthaw it at a later date and then make ice cream with it.  It's a standard egg yolk and cream custard.  Otherwise I am going to make two freezers of ice cream and we are all going to have our year's supply of saturated fat in one day!

Benny · Answer

I often make a good amount of basic ice cream base and churn it in batches throughout the week adding different flavorings each time.  Vanilla one day, blueberry the next followed by cookies and cream, etc...  I haven't had any bad results by keeping the base in the fridge for up to a 5 day span.

Judith21 · Answer

Thanks for your answer!  Maybe if we alternate eating ice cream with big salads over the next few days....

Judith21 · Answer

Thanks for your help!  Maybe we'll just eat it all today...

boulangere · Answer

No, that isn't going to give you a good result.  When the water in cells freezes and expands, the cells rupture, and when you thaw it and churn it, your ice cream will be icy.  But you can certainly hold the extra custard in the refrigerator for a couple of days, then churn and freeze it.  That way you can extend your consumption of those delicious saturated fats over a few days!

Reiney · Answer

You can keep the base in the fridge for a few days, and then spin the ice cream later (within 4 days or so, I'd say). Alternatively you can spin it all now and then melt (in fridge) and respin the leftovers within a few days. I'd suggest either of these would be preferable to freezing the base, unspun.

Help! I made too much ice cream custard. Can I freeze the custard, re-thaw it later and then freeze in the ice cream maker?

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