There’s an Ice-cream emergency: You reach for a tub of the stuff in the freezer and what do you get? It is a block of ice. Then you pull out a spoon and attack. But wait! Why is this so hard? It isn’t the ice cream that’s at fault here. It’s your spoon.
Scooping should be viewed as a precision exercise, rather than brute strength. That view change the way you dish up dessert. It makes a difference whether you are a busy ice cream worker or serving dessert to your kids on a weeknight.
How to Scoop Ice Cream Perfectly
Ice Cream Dishers: At a quick look, this numbering system might seem counterintuitive, with smaller serving sizes coming after larger ones. That’s because the number corresponds to the number of scoops per quart. Each scoop is large or small depending on that number. A #6 gives six giant servings per quart. A #60 gives sixty wee little balls. The chart displays the change in both diameter and volume along the scale.
But it’s not all style. It’s also budget and portion control. For a crowd, a slightly smaller scoop can save you gallons of ice cream throughout the summer. No one will be any less satisfied. We found that a #16 or #20 is ideal for home cooking. You get about 3 tablespoons or a quarter cup per ball. That’s just right, leaving room for toppings but still feeling like plenty.
And, if you’re making cookies, it helps that you didn’t have to measure them spoon by spoon; you used a disher. Each starts off as an equally sized ball so all the cookie bake evenly. It is hard to do when you scoop by hand. For truffle centers or small things like mini muffins, a #24 is good. In this case, accuracy is more important then large quantities.
It’s also about technique. Don’t push down on rock hard ice cream then try to pull it back up. Let the scoop do the work. After each individual scoop, dip the bowl into warm water. This isn’t because it’s hygienic (though it helps), but so that the metal doesn’t stick to any frozen bits which will mess up the next scoop.
Then roll the spoon. Push forward with your wrist curled so there’s a natural dome in the center of the bowl. Too many people plunge straight down and end up crushing rather than lifting. Combine this with the water, and even thick gelato will yield.
Also, some textures work well with one size but not the other. The light, airy churned vanilla ice cream takes the bigger size better. It is full of air, which means there is more air per amount of product and more overrun. It can be piled high onto a waffle cone and still stand tall.
On the flip side, the dense gelatos that don’t have as much air trapped inside retain their shapes better when served in small quantities. Put a huge scoop of thick chocolate gelato onto a cone and it’s like chomping down on a brick. Medium-sized scoops is just right, enough that you can taste how rich the flavor is without being to sickeningly sweet.
Strawberry sorbet, meanwhile, will melt quicker and get gooey. To maintain the structure of this dessert, keep the serving size on the small side.
A good disher is an investment that pays off in ease of use. Find one made from solid stainless steel with a strong spring mechanism. Plastic coated handles is cheap, break easily and also rust fast. When you release the spring it snaps crisply back into place. Sluggish? It won’t clear the bowl right. Every scoop are a battle to extract the ice cream.
Care must be taken but is easy. Hand wash your scoops and dry them thoroughly. Dry well. Keeping wet causes moisture to collect in the hinge, that rusts the disher and weakens the spring tension over time. Adding a drop or two of mineral oil to the pivot point keeps the mechanism smooth, and this lasts for years.
Even leftover ice cream served with the right scoop feels like something you did yourself professionally. The food doesn’t fight back when you serve it. It’s not a guessing game about portion control. And the serving size matches the texture and the vessel. There are no mistakes, just an unintentionally delicious looking sphere of perfection nestling snugly on that cone.
And it tastes good too. You stopped fighting the freezer and got the right tool for the job.