Alabama's STEM explorers is made possible by the generous support of Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology.

Southern research solving the world's hardest problems, the Holle Family Foundation, Alabama Works.

Alabama STEM Council, Alabama Mathematics, Science, Technology and Engineering Coalition for Education, Alabam Math, Science and Technology Initiative.

I've been waiting for this moment all day.

Where's the ice cream?

Oh, no.

I forgot to put the ice cream away.

What am I going to do now?

I know I'll make my own ice cream.

Want to come along?

Hi, welcome to Alabama STEM Explorers.

I'm crews and I'm here with Kiesha and we're at Alabama State University in Montgomery.

And we're going to make ice cream.

Yay.

I love ice cream.

OK, so we have some sugar, half and half, some vanilla extract and some kosher salt.

Well, you have all the ingredients that we need and we only need about 15 minutes to do this.

So let's go ahead and get started.

Get your smaller bag and we're going to add our ingredients into that one.

OK, let's first start with our half and half.

We're going to pour a half a cup of half and half into our smaller bag.

Do you need me to assist you?

I'll hold for you.

Great.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

So we're going to pour this into our bag.

OK, the next ingredient that we're going to add is going to be our vanilla extract because remember, we're making vanilla and vanilla is my favorite mine too.

So we're going to do one fourth teaspoon of vanilla extract.

You can get the.

Here you go.

Oh, yes, OK. Well, sometimes we make a little progress, okay We'll just wipe that up later.

Then we have to add sugar because we want to ice cream too.

Yeah.

So let's do a half a cup of sugar can open this.

Sure.

And you just pored over the list measuring, Oh, OK, I make sure we have the right amount, so list for you can pour in.

I thank you.

Mm-Hmm.

Shake it and make sure his level good.

All right, guys, you're half a cup.

I wonder how good this is going to taste.

I think it's going to be delicious.

Let's make sure we put our top back on our vanilla extract we don't want to feel.

All right.

So let's seal that bag up.

Make sure you kind of squeeze the air excess air out great.

Now let's get our larger bag, which is our gallon size, and we're going to add four cups of ice into the air.

I think we already measured it out for you over there on the side, so you can just use just poured over in the air.

Now hold this.

Here you go.

Ready.

Now go great.

one more thing we have to add is our kosher salt.

So in here, we're going to add one half cup of kosher salt to our ice Oh, OK, so this makes it colder.

Might be we shall see, won't we?

I think you're on the right track and thinking about why we're headed in the kosher salt to our ice There's a lot of kosher salt.

Yes, we want to make sure, though we make our ice cream.

Oh, right.

You just mix it into ice.

May want to just shake the bag a little, get it mixed around in there.

OK, Stephanie, it does have to be a whole lot.

We're going to shake it more.

So now, once you take your smaller bag and put it into the larger bag, because if you've ever seen like an old ice cream machine, you know you have your ingredients of the liquid portion inside and an outside of your salt and your ice.

So let's just keep that sealed and sealed inside there.

We're going to keep this sealed.

Oh, yeah, OK.

I guess we got got this air as seated inside of this kind of packet around like, yes, get it down in the air here.

Oh, right.

OK, now the ice is cold, so we're going to use this little dish rag to make sure we keep it wrapped around as we shake it.

So you got to shake it?

Yes, OK.

I don't know if you remember Polaroid Pictures but we shook those Polaroid pictures, something you're going to shake that ice, baby, shake it, shake it.

Yes.

And we're just going to keep monitoring that.

We're going to shake it.

Let's shake it for a little while.

Make sure you give it some good shakes on the air.

Oh yeah, yeah.

All right.

You're doing a great job.

Sure, I'll take some, too.

But we're going to have ice cream soon.

Yay.

Let us just take some more.

All right.

Yeah.

So what are you noticing while you're shaking?

What do you know about the bag on the outside suddenly getting colder?

It's getting very light.

The salt is getting into.

the salt is doing its's work.

Yes.

Oh, let's let's take a look and see how our ice cream is coming along.

Let's open up the bag.

See, just look at our ingredients.

And in fact, oh, it's starting to harden.

So let's shake it a little more ice.

Pack it down in there.

It's extremely cold, though.

Yes, it is.

That's why we want to make sure we always have this something to wrap around with this an ove or some kind of just how to make sure you don't get your hands too cold.

They were just shaking their heads, though.

Do you know that we're making an emulsion with that ice cream mixture that just bad that you know an emulsion is on?

Yes, it is adding some something to something that doesn't go together.

Yes.

It's like when you take two things that are normally not going together, like such as oil and water, and you're mixing.

And so that' what we're doing here and we make this emulsion So we're going to keep shaking it.

Oh, it's really cold.

Let's let's check in to see how our ice cream is coming along.

Let's check it out.

Is it hardening up?

So we go, Oh yeah, oh is it very hard?

Yes, it's got to be like a self-serve ice cream, but it' hard.

Let's shake it just a little bit more.

Get it down in there.

Good.

I remember I was going to be protected.

Yeah, he always threatened his safety, whether we're doing in the kitchen or in the science lab.

Keep going, OK?

Yes.

Yeah.

I think you're doing a great job.

Thank you.

Yes.

This is really fun.

It is fun.

Well, you know what, if you don't have ice cream, you can always make your own.

Yeah.

And being like you want to take in making flavor at the top of her and make her all different flavors.

Yes, now to ask the question, what do you think would have happened if we had not put that kosher salt in there?

I honestly don't know, you tell me Well, if we had not added the kosher salt in there, we would not hav had the ice to freeze as quickly as freezing the ice cream.

So that's why the salt is so important.

It kind of gets speed up to the action for this case and making sure that we can get ice cream much quicker.

OK. You know, we only had regular ice again, shaking and shaking and shaking.

They would have not gone cold as needed to get because we know we keep ice cream where in the way, in the freezer, in the freezer otherwise it would just melt.

Oh, right, I think it looks pretty good side.

Oh, well, you have done an awesome job.

We got ice cream.

Oh, we just need a little bowl to pour it in.

Oh yes.

Let's try this out.

If we had our spoons we eat it directly out of the bag.

So we got us a nice soft serve vanilla ice cream that you know you can do at any time.

This is easy to make.

Look at that.

Oh yes, it looks very good.

And so we know that, well, we don't have ice cream.

We can make ice cream.

You scream, I scream.

We all scream.

We all scream for ice cream.

Hey, big spoon creamery.

You started seven years ago by a couple Ryan and Jerry, Martha O'Hara in their driveway And they started their very small scale.

They had the passion.

They had the flavors.

And then since then they've grown.

There's now our Avondale location.

We have a location in Homewood.

And we're also in several Piggly Wiggly across the state.

We specialize in artisan ice cream and seasonal flavors.

Making ice cream is all about science and math.

So, of course, you know, if you're making brownies or a cake, you have to follow a recipe and a recipe doesn't just come from anywhere Our one of our owners is a pastry chef, and so she made all of our recipes.

And so each recipe has all of the leavening agents that we need.

So you're baking powder, you're baking soda.

The things that make make it where you don't make pancake cake.

So we have to follow our recipe exactly so that we end up with a nice, fluffy cake.

So there's your science and then with your math, you've got to count, right?

So maybe it's 100 grams of something.

Maybe it's two ounces, or maybe it's a tablespoon.

So you have to do all of your math to make sure that your recipe comes out just perfect.

So that's on our baking side.

Then on the other side of things, you have to have the creamy part of the ice cream.

So we make these bases, which are big pots where we cook our milk and our egg yolks, and we have different sugars and all sorts of things that we mix in there together and we have to put them together.

Then we have to keep them so heated so that they get the right consistency, but also because milk and eggs are raw things right?

So they might have that germs in them.

They can make people sick, so we have to cook them to a safe temperature so we use a thermometer as we're cooking, and we make sure that we get them to the spot where it's going to be healthy and delicious.

So lots of science there.

The next part where science comes in after you cook this space and you put in all your ingredients, you've got your textures.

All right?

You have to get it cold because if you let it stay hot, then your germs are going to grow and you have this bacteria.

So we call it the danger zone.

So we have to take our hot base and they're really hot.

Really, really hot.

We carry them to our big walk-in coolers.

It's like a giant refrigerator.

And then we put these ice paddles in.

So these giant little tubes of ice and we put them down in these bases because we have to get them cool in four hours.

If you keep them too hot, you're going to have all these germs growing and people are going to be healthy and they're not going to like your ice cream.

So you got a cooling down really fast.

And then once they're nice and cool, we can use them to make our ice cream.

So we ran them through a big machine and it turns it into that yummy, creamy deliciousness.

Working at Big Spoon is the best.

We have so much fun.

We make ice cream all day and you know what else you get to do when you make ice cream, so you get to eat it.

So we taste all of our flavors and sometimes we eat it just because we want to snack.

We make ice cream sandwiches.

They have little cookies on each side.

We make the regular ice cream that goes in the waffle cones.

We make sundaes so you can put whipped cream and stuff on top sprinkles.

And we have so much fun when we're working in the kitchen.

We're obviously working hard.

You know, we've got to follow our recipes and make good ice cream, but we turn on music.

We listen to all sorts of things.

Sometimes we dance around a little bit.

We have the best time.

Sometimes we get extra special treats will make extra cookies.

It's so much fun.

I think one of the coolest parts about making ice cream is how it's something that you never think about when you're a kid.

They never say, Hey, you want to make ice cream when you grow up, but it's such a cool job you get to use your science in your mouth every single day to make delicious things.

And everybody who comes to get ice cream, they always leave smiling.

You can't eat ice cream and frown.

I'm Anderson and I'm Kathryn And today we're coming to you from Southern Research in Birmingham, Alabama.

That's right.

And on today's episode, we're going to do a lot of really fun food science.

So the ice cream that Cruz made that was pretty good.

But I say we make it a little bit better with the special ingredient.

What do you think that ingredient might be?

Anderson?

Liquid nitrogen?

You got it.

So before we get started, we need to make sure we are saf so it's let's put on and put on our safety glasses.

All right, and so before we make the ice cream, we are going to try a little treat, so what I'm going to do is only to grab some marshmallows.

Do you like marshmallows?

Oh, I love my good.

Me too.

But you've never had marshmallows like this, I promise, are so much better.

Now I'm going to put some graham crackers in here.

All right, perfect.

And then what I'm going to do and you get it before you do stir in a second.

But what I'm going to do first is I'm going to take some liquid nitrogen and I'm gonna pour of our marshmallows.

Oh, OK.

So why they were gonna pour it over our marshmallows like that Good job.

You see all this this fog?

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

All right.

I'm going to pour of our graham crackers, and it's kind of cool.

If you see the liquid nitrogen on the table as a splash on the table, the little droplets aren't even touching the table because it's constantly evaporating.

So it's kind of like a little hovercraft, which is interesting.

So what we'll do, I'm going to throw a couple of more marshmallows in there for you.

OK, delicious.

Delicious, delicious.

All right.

We've got our graham crackers.

They are cooking and whatever I say, cooking, they're not really.

They're not cooking like you think they're cooking because normally you're you're applying heat.

But liquid nitrogen is super cold.

And so really, they are just freezing.

So we're going to let them cook a little bit.

You can stir up those marshmallows.

Perfect job.

Great job.

Wow.

Yeah, you can kind of hear them.

They're getting a little crunchy.

So the first thing that we are going to do, I'm going to give you one of these graham crackers and I will show you first.

So this is very, very cold.

You do not want to put this in your mouth right away.

So the way we will warm it up is we will blow nice and warm.

All right, and then while you're at it, you're going to pop it in, by the way.

Oh, OK?

Well, this warm up a little bit.

Blow it up for me.

Oh, is blow by blow, keep blowing, give all our good jobs here you go, OK?

Go now, crunch it crunch it OK, good job for it.

OK, now the marshmallows are my favorite.

They're OK. You're going to eat it.

You're going to swallow it.

Yeah, burn it up as well.

Good job.

Marshmallows are my favorite retro liquid nitrogen, and I'm going to pour that out for us.

That was pretty cool because I gather delicious.

Isn't it so good?

All right, the marshmallows are even better.

All so there we go.

We blew my up for me.

Are you got to warm them up?

Keep on blowing.

They go.

All right.

All right.

So now we can take a marshmallow.

Yeah, perfect consistency.

Pop it in your mouth.

and let's see the fog.

That's so cool OK, Anderson, are you ready?

Good to go.

OK, here we go.

Oh, 00 look, this is pretty cool when we're not ready.

Oh yes, you are OK. That is a great way to lead us into the liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Are you ready?

And let's do it.

All right.

So now we are ready to make our liquid nitrogen ice cream.

So for liquid nitrogen ice cream, nothing too special.

We need the first ingredient is one cup of milk.

We grab this milk and go ahead and pour it into that bowl for me.

OK. Oh, perfect job, good job you are a chef, Anderson.

All right, then we need a one and a half cups of heavy whipping cream.

Oh, OK. Great job perfect, and then we'll take.

How about some vanilla extract?

So I think this is just maybe like half have a tablespoon or so tablespoon.

Great job.

And then the last ingredient, the less necessary ingredient would be sugar.

So that is a fourth cup of sugar.

Great.

Perfect.

Now, if you want to grab that spoon and you can start stirring it up for me.

OK, we want to get that sugar really dissolved in there.

And hey, Anderson, I just like plain vanilla, boring ice cream I like to jazz it up a little bit.

So we have some other fun toppings that we have some cookie crumbles and we also have some strawberry chunks.

What do you want?

Definitely the cookie cones.

Definitely the cookie crumbles.

OK, good.

Good call.

That's what I was hoping you were going to say.

So I'm going to pour that and keep on stirring.

And you just tell me when you think that sugar is dissolved, you think it's good to go?

I think so.

All right.

Great job.

So we are not going to pour liquid nitrogen into this bowl.

We are going to pour it into the metal bowls and you going to pass me that metal bowl and we will pour this mixture into there.

It looks good, doesn't it?

Oh yeah.

Just wait.

All right.

There we go.

Perfect.

And you can put that bowl right over there for me.

All right.

Any time we are using liquid nitrogen, we definitely need to put on our gloves.

So what I'm going to do, Anderson, is I'm going to have this liquid nitrogen right here, and I'm going to pour just a little bit at a time into the bowl.

And as I'm pouring, I'm going to need you to constantly stir the bowl.

All right.

All right.

So you might need to hold the bowl with one hand and stir with the other hand, if you can All right, you ready?

We're going to go ahead and get started.

All right.

Add a little bit.

Go ahead and stir.

Good job perfect.

The really cool thing about using liquid nitrogen for ice cream is whenever you freeze something with liquid nitrogen, the ice crystals are actually going to be smalle compared to if you put the ice cream in the freezer.

And so what happens is that it gives the texture of the ice cream a more of a a creamier, smooth taste is so, so good.

So a lot of really chefs use liquid nitrogen all the time.

You can actually make hamburgers with liquid nitrogen to which that's crazy.

Yeah.

So they will cook the patty to about medium rare.

And then they will freeze the patty in liquid nitrogen, and then they'll put it on the grill.

So then you get a nice crispy outside, but that the inside is still that perfect, medium rare.

All right, let's take a look.

What do you think?

Oh yeah, we are a little bit more.

All right.

We're going to keep on adding some.

Hey, there we go.

How's that consistency coming?

It's getting a little thicker.

All right.

See?

Is it starting to feel like ice cream Oh, it'll say, all right, oh yeah, we'll put a little bit more in there.

We'll put a little bit more.

All right, here we go.

This is pretty cool.

Staring with tubes.

Yeah, look, it's your car.

You are a pro.

Look at this.

This is what your kitchen looks like home.

Probably not very cool.

This is the coolest way to make ice cream.

Pun intended.

All right.

How that is, is that looking good?

Well, just a little more.

A little more.

OK, Anderson, it is your call You are the chef today.

So I just a little bit more.

I think that might be good.

Is that good?

All right.

Great job.

OK, so I will take the reins right here if you want to throw me some ice cream balls.

I will service up ice cream balls right here.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Yep, exactly right.

All right.

I will give you the first scoop.

Oh yeah, this looks delicious.

Delicious.

Oh yeah.

Nice cookies and cream.

All right, there you go.

You can go and take the first by.

I'm want to take off your gloves.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is a little hard, little messy.

Even that's OK. Science is messy.

Sometimes it's tell how it tastes.

Let's see.

So it's a good idea, let's let's give it a try.

Oh, yeah, this is a winner.

This is a winner, this can win all kinds of ice cream competitions.

But you I love ice cream, but what, if anything, is cooler than ice cream dippin dots It's absolutely like, what do you say?

Do you want some different testing?

Definitely.

Let's do it.

And we are back and we are ready to make some liquid nitrogen dippin dots so Anderson.

What I have here is I have a styrofoam bowl.

This is full of liquid nitrogen and another Styrofoam bowl.

This is for liquid nitrogen dippin dots up super easy.

So we took the ice cream mixture that Anderson I made earlier and we just put it into these clear bowls.

And so the way that we are going to make our dippin dots is you're going to take your syringe and you are going to pull up some solution with that syringe Yep, just like that.

Perfect.

That's good, and then what I want you to do is I want you to slowly drop in some dots into the liquid nitrogen , OK, and I will stir it up for you.

Oh, perfect, look at those look of that perfect job.

I will start.

Oops!

And you could not have dippin dots with just one flavor, can you know?

Yeah, I know you need a lot of flavor So we have strawberry.

We have vanilla, we have chocolate.

Oh, that is looking so good.

Good job.

You keep on going.

I'm going to grab some vanilla and we will mix it up.

delicious, and what's really cool about this is because liquid nitrogen is so cold, like the second, those dots here, the liquid nitrogen , they are going to freeze on impact.

And so I mean, look at.

What would you call that Anderson without liquid nitrogen dip in line a dip in line a dippin line?

That's right.

Yeah, that nitrogen is so cold it is going to freeze on impact, giving us these beautiful little tiny dip And that's this is incredible.

This is incredible.

I cannot wait to eat these.

So next time you are in the mood for dipping dots you do not have to wait to go to your favorite amusement park You just make them at home.

Well, you would have thought you migh have to get liquid nitrogen, which is a little tricky, but you can come here and we would love to make dippin dots for you.

Thanks for watching.

Alabama STEM explorers, if you missed anything or you want to watch something again, you can check out our website at Alabama STEM Explorers dot org.

Maybe you have a question we could answer here on the show, and you might grab a cool T-shirt.

Feel free to send us a video question or an email on our website.

Alabama STEM Explorers dot org.

Thanks again for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Alabama's STEM Explorer's is made possibl by the generous support of Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, translating the power of genomics into real world results.

Southern Research Solving the world's hardest problems The Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadie General Everett Holley and his parents, Evelyn and Fred Holley, champions of servant leadership Alabama works a network of interconnected providers connecting business and industr needs to a highly skilled and trained workforce.

Alabama STEM Council dedicated to improving STEM education, career awareness and workforce development across Alabama.

Alabama Mathematics, Science, Technolog and Engineering Coalition for Education advocating for exceptional STEM education in Alabama.

Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, the Alabama Department of Education's initiative to improve math and science teaching statewide.