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Homemade Ice Cream

By: Allrecipes Staff

Although it can be made from just a few ingredients--cream, milk, eggs, sugar, and flavorings--there is something extra-special about homemade ice cream.

Ice Cream Recipes

Adding Flavor

Herbs and spices should be infused into the mixture as you heat the milk. Vanilla beans, lavender, green tea, fresh peppermint, and candied ginger are all good choices.

To get the most flavor from a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise with a sharp knife and scrape the seeds into the milk.
After the bean has steeped, remove the pod and rinse in cold water and pat dry.
"Used" vanilla beans are still powerfully aromatic, and can be stored in a canister of plain granulated sugar to make vanilla sugar.
Extracts, liqueurs and flavoring oils (citrus, peppermint, cinnamon) should be added after the custard has cooled slightly.
Add perfectly ripe fruits and berries to your ice cream base: sprinkle fruit with sugar and crush it with a potato masher before mixing it in. This adds much more flavor than plain chunks of fruit stirred into the mix.
To add nuts, chocolate, crumbled cookies, or whole berries, let the ice cream reach the consistency of soft-serve, and then stir in the garnishes; pack in airtight containers and freeze until firm.

Start with a simple ice cream base or crème Anglaise, and mix in the ripest summer fruits, high-quality chocolate (whether melted and/or cut into chunks), or toasted nuts to create your own flavors.

About the Process

The other ingredients of ice cream--added through the freezing process, not the recipe--are ice crystals and air. Although ice cream can be made without an ice cream machine or old-fashioned hand-cranked churn, it will not have the desired smooth, creamy texture. Just freezing cream and sugar results in relatively large ice crystals that are detectable to the tongue. By agitating the mixture and adding air to increase its volume, ice cream machines make the texture of the finished product light and smooth.

Ultra-premium ice creams have a low "overrun," that is, the volume of air added to the mix. That's why the cartons feel so heavy, because the ice cream is very dense. Some lower-grade ice creams that consist of half air, half ice cream mix have a 100% overrun. Those cartons are correspondingly light.

More about overrun and ice cream

Custard Ice Creams

Ice cream is divided into two basic categories: custard-style (or French custard-style) and Philadelphia-style (also called "New York" or "American"). Custard ice cream is, as the name suggests, made from a custard base. Egg yolks or whole eggs are whisked together with hot milk or cream and sugar, and cooked gently until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Egg yolks are natural emulsifiers, and the resulting custard makes an ice cream that is remarkably smooth and rich. Chill the custard for at least one hour before freezing.

Egg-Free Ice Creams

Philadelphia-style ice cream contains no egg yolks and does not require cooking. It's based purely on cream and sugar, and is very delicate-tasting, with so few ingredients.

Ripening and Storing

When the mixture has thickened and is hard to stir, remove it from the ice cream maker and transfer it to a freezer container. While it's tempting to eat it right away, when it's a "soft-serve" consistency, ice cream should be allowed to harden in the coldest part of your freezer for several hours or overnight.

If you have leftover ice cream, however unlikely that may be, store it airtight with a layer of plastic wrap pressed onto the surface to prevent it from absorbing odors.

Comments

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arasmassey

Jul. 19, 2009 10:29 pm

Does anyone have a recipe for home made "ice milk"? Cream based recipes do not agree with me. Can't find ice milk in any of the grocery stores. Please share.

bakerdunn

Jul. 19, 2009 10:34 pm

I like to use nonfat milk or soy milk and non-fat greek yogurt and then the sugar, vanilla, etc...-- its very creamy and then I don't have a problem with the ice cream not agreeing and it is still very cremy and tasty...

robograndma

Jul. 24, 2009 6:26 am

when I "harden" my ice cream or serbert it gets rock hard. How can I stop this I would like a firm ice cream but not so hard I have to let it sit out befor I can scoop it.

portia

Jul. 27, 2009 8:43 pm

I have decided to tackle ice cream. My first try was tasty but had glitches. My ice cream machine instructions limited me to a 40 minute "stir". My product did not seem firm enough. After a few hours in the freezer, the consistency was okay. The following evening it was hard as a brick and instead of softening up it melts along the edges. Am I missing a trick?

Lily

Jul. 28, 2009 3:58 am

Im trying out nutella ice cream.

Lily

Jul. 28, 2009 3:59 am

And I don't have an icce cream maker.

CBD

Jul. 29, 2009 3:27 pm

I tried mixing a can of condensed milk with a bit of Splenda (to taste) and a few spoonfuls of low sugar cherry jam. Into the ice cream maker and yum! Leftovers were rock hard, though - maybe I should have cranked longer...

bakebuff

Jul. 30, 2009 4:58 am

just wondering when making ice cream, if you can switch fat free half & half for whip cream? and is light cream coffee cream? and where do you find the ratio to add artificial sweetners instead of sugar?

ANCESU

Aug. 4, 2009 1:28 pm

Just a tip to those who get rock hard ice cream... just before freezing in ice cream machine, try adding a tablespoon of alcohol (I use whatever I have on hand, plain vodka or Amaretto) to the mix. This causes the ice cream to not freeze TOO hard when you store it in the fridge.

YesterdaysDessert

Aug. 25, 2009 12:34 pm

I'm trying to make ice cream (mint chocolate chip, actually). I've made the plain vanilla before, and its always turned out extremely loose, and froze to a brick. Like frozen milk. But its still tasty. I want to make this batch thicker and more like cartoned ice cream. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how?

Sep. 5, 2009 8:50 am

I make several ice cream recipes that use 1 envelope plain, unflavored gelatin softened in 1/2 cup water. This is added to 1 cup of hot milk and stirred until dissolved. This amount of gelatin is used for recipes that make 2 quarts of ice cream. The consistency of the frozen ice cream is very similar to the nation wide chain of soft serve frozen confection known for its "curl on top" (for those of us old enough to remember the commercials) and becomes firm, but not rock hard when the leftovers are frozen in a conventional freezer. I have added gelatin to other recipes that did not call for it as an ingredient and liked the results.

rmoyer

Sep. 5, 2009 10:50 am

I was wondering if it is possible to make ice cream without an ice creamer maker and if so what is the process.

Sep. 6, 2009 6:16 pm

you can type in "Ice Cream in a bag." The receipe I use for my Boys Scout is as follow. 1 gallon Ziplock bag 1 pint ziplock bag 6 Tablespoon Ice cream salt 1 Bag of ice 1 cup milk 2 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Fill big bag a little less that 1/2 full of ice. add Rock salt. Set aside In little bag mix sugar and milk and vanilla seal little bag be sure to get all the air out that you can put in Big bag and fill with ice and salt seal bag with as much air out as you can get. Now shake bag for 5-7 minutes with out stoping. It is good and easy to make.

Cristina

Sep. 14, 2009 12:16 pm

If your Ice cream is comming out to hard from the freezer it means that it was not cold enough when it went into the ice cream turn. just let it thaw untill you can mix it with a spoon( hopfully with some ice crystals left) and put it back into the oce cream turn. your ice cream needs to be as cold as you can posibly get. I like to put my ice cream mixture on a bowl with ice cubes and water to cool it down and then put it in my fridge on the coldest setting for an hour to chill the reast of the way. I hope this helps.

r_myers04

Sep. 15, 2009 9:21 am

Old-Fashioned Frozen Vanilla Custard SUBMITTED BY: Duaine Kurtzbein The recipe is unreal 4 1/2 eggs how do you get 4 1/2 eggs

r_myers04

Sep. 17, 2009 2:37 pm

What is Canela it looks some what like Cinnamon sticks. What is it use for

Greek Lover Boy

Sep. 21, 2009 11:19 pm

to r_myers04: i clicked on that Old-Fashioned Vanilla Custard, but only saw 3 eggs listed. did they revise the recipe in the meantime? actually, the more the egg yolks the softer the result even after several days of freezing.

lehcareaj

Oct. 3, 2009 11:07 am

arasmassey, this is a recipe for ice milk if you have an ice cream maker: 3 cups skim milk 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 9 cups whole milk 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Thoroughly combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Freeze according to machine directions. Stir after freezing to blend any unfrozen skim milk into frozen mixture.

tillie-farie

Dec. 10, 2009 8:24 am

thanks for the ice milk recipe, I think I might have to try that one!!

gagababy

Dec. 15, 2009 10:24 pm

i;ve had much success with ice cream making. Common problems that lead to rock-hard ice cream is because your ice cream maker is not chilled cold enough. When it churns the mixture you should see it gradually hardening from the sides of the canister. A wall of ice cream textured layer should form. If this doesn't happen within a few minutes, then the canister is not cold enough. Common mistake is to let it continue mixing "hoping" it is done. If the mixture is then frozen from this liquid state, the resulting ice cream becomes hard because you technically didn't churn it at all. Remember, if you can pour the mixture after churning, it is NOT done right. It should be a 80% solid paste that you have to scoop with a spatula in order for a nice texture and easy scooping. I'm making my 10th batch of ice cream in 3 months. Have fun !

JoeAnn

Dec. 28, 2009 8:19 am

Hi, all of this sounds really great! I'm going to be staying at home, so I'll have time on my hands, so to speak. I love really good chocolate ice cream. Does anyone have a good recipe. Thanks, and thanks for sharing.

Lajo

Jan. 3, 2010 5:37 am

Adding a teaspoon or two of alcohol (I use rum) will keep the ice cream from getting rock hard, and prevents freezer burn.

April

Jan. 21, 2010 10:12 am

One time I experimented with my ice cream recipe and used some real maple syrup. I found that the ice cream remained soft enough to scoop out easily. It never turned rock hard. It was one of those happy little accidents. :D However, real maple syrup is hard to come by in some areas and is always expensive, so I will definitely take note and make sure my cream mixture is extremely cold before I start the ice maker churning process or add a bit of alcohol. :)

nayoula

Feb. 2, 2010 7:58 am

Store all the non-electric parts of the ice-cream maker in the freezer. It helps bring the ice-cream's temperature down fast, and makes it colder than if you start at room temperature.

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