All About Soft Serve Machines

Soft serve is a type of ice-cream but different in texture than the usual regular ice-cream. It is more soft and light than the regular ice cream due to the presence of air introduced at the time of freezing. Due to the air content, it is more soft, creamy, light and white than the regular ice-cream. The Soft Serve Machines are used to serve the frozen desserts in a variety of mixes and flavors including ice-cream, gelato, ice-milk, frozen yogurt, etc.

So, if you have decided to open a restaurant or soft dessert parlor, then, the Soft Serve Machine will be a crucial investment to make. There are several basic things that you will need to know about the Soft Serve Machines. So, let us get familiar with the Soft Serve Machines:

The components of the Soft Serve Machines:

• Hopper- It is the place where the frozen yogurt part mix is poured.
• Freezing cylinder- It is a small shaft that lies on the horizontal side inside the machine. The frozen yogurt drips from the hopper into the freezing cylinder. It is the place where the ice cream or yogurt mix freezes;
• Beaters- They are present inside the freezing cylinder. They spin around the cylinder preventing the mix from freezing and becoming solid. Moreover, the beaters also whip and add air in the machine to form a nice creamy product;
• Front plate- It is the piece that is attached on the front of the machine including handles. The front plate also includes an opening from where the soft serve is dispensed. The shape of the opening from where the product is dispensed may vary but most of them have star shaped design to give the soft serve design that we see;
• Overrun- It is the air that is present in the soft serve or yogurt mix. The air is very critical ingredient for making the soft serve and giving it a smooth and soft creamy texture. Without the air, an icy and dense ice-cream will come out;

Moreover, the Soft Serve Machines are available in different sizes including the floor and the countertop model. Most of the medium to high capacity Soft Serve Machines work on electricity. The selection between the gravity and pump cylinder will determine the way the mix gets into the freezing cylinder. The pump machines can put up to 100 percent air while the gravity fed machines can put about 45 percent air. The gravity fed machines are easy to fix and less costly. However, with the pump machines, you can have full control over the air that you put in the final product.

The Soft Serve Machines produce heat and therefore they need to be cooled. So, for this purpose, the machines are available in two variants: air cooled and water cooled. The air- cooled need less maintenance and have low installation costs.