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Why is there no warm ice cream? |
Sweets & Treats
Have you ever learned that ice and water have a really cool relationship? – Ice is the solid form of water that forms when water freezes. Likewise, when ice warms up it melts back into liquid water, which is why there is no such thing as “warm ice.” Once ice becomes warm, it’s no longer ice… it’s water!
Similarly, ice cream is made from frozen milk or cream, sugar, and flavoring. Just like water becomes ice when it gets cold enough, the ingredients that make up ice cream also freeze into a more solid state when they are cold enough. Then, if they warm up again, they turn back into the liquids they were before they were frozen! That’s why there’s no such thing as “warm ice cream” – it would just be the liquid ingredients of ice cream: sweet, flavored milk without any of that cold, fluffy goodness!
Freeze it!
When ice cream is made by freezing milk, sugar, and flavoring, an important step is churning, or stirring, the ingredients as they get colder. This is what makes ice cream fluffy and soft, instead of hard and solid like a cube of ice.
To see the difference, leave a small scoop of ice cream in a bowl and allow it to melt. Then, put the liquid ice cream into the freezer and wait an hour or two for it to freeze again.
What do you find when you take the bowl back out of the freezer? Does the re-frozen ice cream still seem fluffy, or is it frozen into a hard block that would be a little less yummy to eat?
