By soft I mean still scoopable and not rock hard.
In: 515
2 things. Ice crystal size and sugar.
Ice cream is constantly stirred (read churn) while freezing. This causes the ice crystals to break up while freezing. You have tiny little ice crystals suspended in a sugar solution (more on that in a bit) that will never freeze, making a scoopable consistency. If you don’t churn it while freezing, you end up with a single block of solid ice.
For sugar, it’s function in ice cream is not only sweetness. Adding sugar (or salt) to a liquid decreases it’s freezing temp. As the water itself freezes, the remaining sugar solution keeps on getting concentrated until it can’t freeze anymore. Combine the sugar water and tiny ice crystals and you have…. Sorbet.
Ice cream has of course milk and fat which make things even creamier but the idea is the same. Air is also added while churning which makes things even softer. Primarily, it’s the tiny crystals and sugar water though.
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