Compared to the New Zealand champions (27 l per inhabitant per year), the French are small consumers, with only 6 l. However, ice cream is one of their favorite desserts (86% appreciated), especially between April and September. And they are right because, besides having fun, the ice is not the caloric catastrophe announced: count 60 cal per 100 ml for the sorbet, 102 for ice cream, 139 for a ice-cream cone and 143 for the ice cream chocolate coated eskimo.

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But be careful, these figures are valid for industrial ice creams that are merely "crowded" - that is, filled with air bubbles: they can hold up to half of their volume. For
you only have to lift a 1 l tray of a current brand with 1 l of a craft brand (usually only between 10% and 50%): they do not weigh at all the same weight. At the expense of industrialists, it must be recognized that ice creams have a great advantage: soft as soon as they leave the freezer, they are tasted without waiting, unlike ice cream crafts, which require a passage in the refrigerator 15 min.

The "ice" category is divided into two main families: sorbets - composed of water, sugar and fruit (minimum 25%), with a somewhat crunchy texture (especially in the form of "granite") - and
ice creams - made deliciously supple, smooth and sweet thanks to the presence of dairy fat (cream, whole milk: their saturated fatty acids are the cause of this flexibility, soy milk will not give the same result ...) and of egg yolks. In fact, an ice cream, it is nothing but a cereal cream a little rich. And if you realize the latter with your eyes closed, you will not be able to miss a classic ice cream (vanilla, coffee, chocolate ...).

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The Temptation of Sugar

Compare a scented ice cube with fruit juice and a sorbet. The first is hard as a rock, and the second, much more mellow. Why? Because sorbet contains sugar. Element
essential for ice-creams in general, sugar plays the role of texture agent: by absorbing water molecules, it prevents them from crystallizing under the action of cold, and therefore of hardening.

Reducing the amount of sugar, therefore, means exposing oneself to seeing its ice become firm. However, there are two easy solutions to implement: one, perfectly natural, consists of replacing a portion of the sugar of the recipe with honey; the other involves dehydrated glucose syrup derived from corn starch, which improves the consistency of the ice without giving it a sweet taste: up to one third of the sugar volume can be replaced by this powder. Available on Internet (bestduchef.com, for example).

Getty Images - Janne Peters

Ice cream maker or turbine?

All our recipes are possible without any machine. But if you take the game of home ice cream, nothing prevents you to acquire a machine to make your task easier. The ice cream maker, inexpensive (from 30 €), is composed of a bowl accumulator of cold that should be placed in the freezer 12 h in advance. Out of the refrigerator, it pours its preparation very cold, and one engages the engine, which makes take the ice without too much crystals in a good twenty minutes.

The turbine, which is much more expensive (from 150 € to 600 €), produces its own cold and has a powerful engine that allows the ice to be rotated for a long time and vigorously in order to obtain an archicremeous consistency.

4 ice cream recipes

• Easy chocolate ice cream

Preparation time: 10 min. No cooking. At the cold: 6 h. For 6 people: 40 cl liquid cream, 200 g sweetened condensed milk, 60 g unsweetened cocoa powder.

Pour the cream into a bowl that you place in the freezer for 10 min. Whip the cream until it thickens and loses some of its gloss: it must form firm peaks when
you raise the whip. Mix the cocoa and sweetened condensed milk, then pour them on the whipped cream. Using a soft spatula, combine the two preparations by gently lifting the mass. Divide into individual dishes that you place in the freezer for at least 6 hours.

Getty Images / Küng, Ruth

• Express sorbet with yogurt, raspberry-pistachio

Preparation time: 15 min. No cooking. No waiting. For 6 people: 50 g of unsalted raw pistachios, 450 g of frozen biological raspberries (Picard), 1 brewed yoghurt, 50 g icing sugar.

Chop the pistachios coarsely. In a blender, mix the frozen fruits until a dough is obtained: proceed by jerking, often mixing the fruit which remains glued against the walls to the rest of the mass. Add yogurt and sugar. Mix to form a homogeneous mixture. At the end, add the chopped pistachios, mix quickly to mix. Serve immediately. If the preparation has become too soft, pass it in the freezer for about ten minutes, just the time to restore it a little consistency.

• The perfect coffee

Preparation: 20 min. Cooking time: 10 min. At the cold: 4 h. For 8 people: 20 cl liquid cream, 25 cl whole milk, 200 g sugar, 5 tbsp. to s. of soluble coffee, 1 tsp. to s. of coffee extract, 6 egg yolks.

Place the cream for 10 min in the freezer, then whisk in whipped cream. Keep it cool. Bring the milk to a boil with half the sugar, incorporate the soluble coffee (possibly reinforce the flavor with the coffee extract). Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar for 1 min. Pour the boiling milk on it little by little, while whipping. Put the mixture back into the saucepan over low heat.

Thicken this cream without stirring until it coats the spatula. Pour it into the bowl of a robot and whisk it at medium speed until it cools. Keep it cool for 1 hour before gently incorporating it into the whipped cream. Divide it in molds to perfect and keep in the freezer for 3 hours.

• Indian cardinal kulfi

Preparation time: 10 min. Cooking time: 40 min. At the cold: 8 h. For 6 people: 1 l whole milk, 1 pinch saffron pistils, 10 cl liquid cream, 100 g sugar, 100 g ground unsalted raw pistachio nuts, 50 g ground chopped almonds, 4 cardamom pods.

Pour the milk into a saucepan with a thick bottom and bring to a soft boil. Take 2 tbsp. to s. of this milk and dive the saffron there. Book. Add the cream to the pan, lower the heat and let the milk reduce by half, stirring often, for 20 to 30 minutes. Pour the saffron milk, the sugar, half the pistachios and the almonds. Let cook for another 10 to 15 min, until the mixture thickens slightly.

Out of the fire, add the cardamom seeds - contained in the pods - previously crushed. Let cool. Divide into small plastic cups
and place in the freezer for 8 hours. At the end of 3 hours, plant a lollipop stick in each cup. Unmold and sprinkle with remaining pistachios.

The best glaciers

• Berthillon

The most famous glacier in Paris for more than sixty years, thanks to its passion for exceptional ingredients. Besides the classics (including chocolate extra bitter), you must pick among the seventy flavors and discover wild strawberries, caramel with salted butter, praline with pine nuts or nougat with honey.

29-31, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Paris, 01 43 54 31 61.

• Grom

Another glacier obsessed with the quality of its products which guarantees its production without dyes, flavors, preservatives or emulsifiers. Subtitled "Come una volta" ("as before"), this Turinese brand offers only simple but perfect perfumes.

81, rue de Seine, Paris, 01 40 46 92 60, other Paris addresses on grom.it/en/gelaterie.php

• California Bliss

This house in Aix is ​​dedicated to "frozen yogurts" lightened, composed only of yogurt with 0% fat and skim milk (there is a lactose-free version). But question flavors, there is choice: salted butter caramel, pink, mango and even avocado.

47, rue Espariat, Aix-en-Provence, 04 42 29 32 48.

• Nitrogenie

Magic ice creams, prepared minute, in the shop itself, thanks to the action of liquid nitrogen (- 195 ° C). Result: a particularly soft texture, without the least crystal of ice under the tooth and perfumes preserved.

158, rue Saint-Martin, Paris, 01 53 69 16 14.

• The Frosted Factory

Opened five years ago by a glacier artist, this house is proud to announce the origin of each of its ingredients. To create "stunning ice creams" (vanilla from Tahiti, medjool dates from Lebanon, Guatemala coffee, farm yogurt from the Ardèche mountains) and "sorbets" (saffron, lemon-verbena, Corsican grapefruit). 26, rue Soufflot, Paris, 09 54 16 73 75, and other addresses in France on lafabriquegivree.com.