20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (2024)

As a general rule, nobody takes a bite of ice cream and says, "This is disgusting." That's because when cream meets sugar, it takes real effort to go astray flavor-wise. That makes ice cream the perfect place to indulge in flights of culinary fancy. Wondering what blueberry and lavender are like together? Buttermilk and lemon? Ginger, maple, and miso? Homemade ice cream is the place to find out. Here are 20 ideas that will make your ice cream the hit of the summer.

1. Double Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (1)

Because you can never go wrong with double chocolate.

Get the recipe from Pass the Sushi.

2. Buttermilk Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (2)

As you might have guessed, lemon verbena brings a distinctive lemony herbaceousness to this light, tangy ice cream.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

3. Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (3)

Even if you're just making dessert for one, this toasted coconut ice cream served with a drizzle, or a generous pour, of cajeta (Mexico's version of dulce de leche) is going to make your night.

Get the recipe from Kelly Bakes.

4. Vegan Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (4)

Proof that vegan recipes can be adventurous too, this purple ice cream combines the somewhat unlikely flavors of blueberries and fresh lavender for some very tasty results.

Get the recipe from Tasty Yummies.

5. Cognac Medjool Date Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (5)

Medjool dates lend their distinct caramelly sweetness to this irresistibly boozy cognac ice cream.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

6. Vegan Coconut Raspberry Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (6)

Coconut milk brings a creamy sweetness to this recipe for (perfectly pink) vegan raspberry ice cream.

Get the recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.

7. Peach Cobbler Ice Cream With Texas Bourbon Caramel Sauce

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (7)

Everything good packed into one amazing dessert. You're welcome.

Get the recipe from A Southern Fairytale.

8. Sour Cherry Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (8)

Cherry ice cream is a longstanding summer favorite, and this recipe for homemade sour cherry ice cream hits the mark every time.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

9. Pistachio Chocolate Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (9)

Forget the green food dye, this lusciously flavored pistachio ice cream is the real deal. And, with chunks of roasted pistachios and bittersweet chocolate chips, you'll be ready to forsake the storebought stuff forever.

Get the recipe from Cook Like a Champion.

10. Satsuma Plum Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (10)


A perfectly sweet plum can be hard to track down, but this recipe makes the most of whatever kind of plums you happen to have on hand and turns them into a tangy, lightly sweet dessert that's perfect for summer parties.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

11. Grapefruit Curd Ice Cream

Bright grapefruit flavor and rich custard combine beautifully for a dessert that's simultaneously refreshing and decadent.

Get the recipe from Savory Simple.

12. Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (12)

Pie. In the form of ice cream. You've got this.

Get the recipe from Cafe Johnsonia.

13. Cherry Amaretto Chip

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (13)

Enjoy the simple things in life. Like cherries, amaretto, and chocolate.

Get the recipe from Cook Like a Champion.

14. Stout Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (14)

Gourmet ice cream flavors might not be everyone's thing, but beer-flavored ice cream? Prepare to impress.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

15. Masala Chai Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (15)

Take your afternoon chai latte to the next level with this extravagantly spiced masala chai ice cream.

Get the recipe from A Brown Table.

16. Ginger Maple Miso Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (16)

Miso (yes, miso) brings a delicious hit of umami to this complex, spicy, and crazy-delicious homemade ice cream.

Get the recipe from Spa Bettie.

17. Bourbon Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (17)

Say good-bye to Jell-O shots, because the best way to get drunk on dessert is with a bowl of this surprisingly potent bourbon ice cream.

Get the recipe from Brooklyn Supper.

18. Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (18)

Diligent research has shown that dulce de leche or any kind of caramel ice cream is the best. Facts are facts.

Get the recipe from Laylita's Recipes.

19. Old-Fashioned Tutti Frutti Ice Cream

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (19)

"Tutti frutti" is a term that refers to any kind of mixed fruit ice cream. It's also a Little Richard song. And that's cool, since you'll need something to belt out as you make up a batch of this hand-churned delicacy.

Get the recipe from Cafe Johnsonia.

20. Chocolate Mint Ice Cream (No Machine Needed)

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (20)

Cool, minty refreshment can be yours, even if you don't have an ice cream maker! This clever recipe uses fluffy whipped cream as its base and chills up beautifully. Never go without ice cream again!

Get the recipe from The Kitchen is My Playground.

Related:
12 Life-Changing Chocolate Cakes You Need to Make
15 Insane Things You Can Do With Buttercream

Elizabeth Stark is a food writer with a passion for seasonal food, great desserts, and inadvisable wine pairings. Read more on her blog, Brooklyn Supper.

Follow Elizabeth on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (21)

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is a food writer with a passion for seasonal food, great desserts, and inadvisable wine pairings. Read more on her blog, Brooklyn Supper.

20 Totally Insane Homemade Ice Cream Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making ice cream very creamy? ›

Keep It Creamy

Sugar, corn syrup or honey, as well as gelatin and commercial stabilizers, can all keep your ice cream at a softer consistency.

What is the secret ingredient to ice cream? ›

The cream cheese helps create an ice cream with a denser, smoother texture. As explained by TASTE, cream cheese acts as a stabilizer in ice cream, preventing water from seeping out of the milk and cream as well as preventing the formation of ice crystals that detract from ice cream's creaminess.

How do you make homemade ice cream creamy and not icy? ›

Whole milk – I don't recommend replacing it with reduced fat or skim. Whole milk's higher fat content ensures that the homemade ice cream comes out creamy, not icy. Cane sugar – For sweetness.

What is the best sugar for homemade ice cream? ›

Most home ice cream recipes call for simple table sugar, which is chemically known as sucrose. But in pro kitchens you have more options. Liquid sugars like invert sugar, corn syrup, honey, and glucose syrup all add body, creaminess, and stability to ice cream, and a little goes a long way.

What ingredient makes ice cream thick? ›

Egg Yolks: The most traditional thickening agent, egg yolks contain natural proteins and fats that contribute to a rich and luxurious texture in custard-based ice creams. Cornstarch: Often used in non-custard ice creams, cornstarch mixed with milk helps thicken the base and create a smooth mouthfeel.

Why put eggs in homemade ice cream? ›

Eggs are used in ice cream to add a rich flavor and color, in- hibit ice crystallization, and also to help stabilize or emulsify the fat and liquid so the resulting product is smooth and creamy. Commercial manufacturers use pasteurized eggs, stabilizers, and other ingredients to produce a safe and acceptable product.

How do you increase creaminess in ice cream? ›

So you can up the fat in your ice cream by substituting cream for milk or half-and-half in recipes. Even more effective, is that you can also add more egg yolks if making a custard-based ice cream, which will increase the creaminess due to their emulsifying properties.

What are the 3 most important ingredients of ice cream? ›

If you have ever made ice cream, you already know what goes into it, ingredients such as milk, cream, and sugar. But there is one main ingredient that you may not have thought about, probably because you can't see it—air.

What does corn syrup do in ice cream? ›

While corn syrup helps bind more water and keep it from freezing in ice cream, its most common purpose in sweets is to inhibit the formation of sugar crystals—pure sucrose will crystallize, but adding another form of sugar, in this case glucose, will slow down the formation of crystals.

Which milk is best for ice cream? ›

But the likely answer—according to this test at least—is that premium milk is better for ice cream not because it's fresher, but because it's fattier. If you're wondering, this doesn't mean that more fat = better all of the time. Too much fat can dull an ice cream's flavor and leave a waxy feeling on the tongue.

How to stop ice crystals in homemade ice cream? ›

Chill Your Base Well

The initial mixture should be very cold before it hits the ice-cream machine; ideally, you'll want to refrigerate it overnight. It'll need less churning time this way, and that will keep ice crystals from snowballing.

Can I use maple syrup instead of sugar in ice cream? ›

I had an old recipe for homemade strawberry ice cream in my files that I dug out and I simply replaced the 1¼ cups of white granulated sugar it called for with ¾ cup of pure maple syrup.

What is the best stabilizer for ice cream? ›

The most common ones used in ice creams are guar gum, cellulose gum and carob bean gum. They are used to reduce ice crystal growth, deliver flavour cleanly, increase smoothness, body and creaminess and slow down melting. They also help hold the air bubble structure together and give the ice cream a better texture.

What to add to homemade ice cream to keep it soft? ›

In Lebovitz's book, he states that adding just a bit of alcohol to your ice cream base results in a better texture when it's churned because alcohol doesn't freeze. The alcohol prevents some of the ice crystals from forming, which makes the ice cream softer and therefore more scoopable.

What makes Dairy Queen ice cream so thick? ›

DQ's Blizzards have a high viscosity because of emulsifiers (aka the things that keep the soft serve's ingredients from separating), which hold on to the air blended into the soft serve. Plus, after adding all the brownies, candy and/or cheesecake pieces, even more air is added.

Can you churn ice cream too long? ›

Here's why: Churning ice cream base is a bit like making whipped cream. You need to churn just enough to make the fat globules stick to the air bubbles and form a protective coating that stabilizes the foam. But too much churning can cause the fat globules to stick to each other, turning the mixture into butter.

What kind of cream is best for ice cream? ›

To ensure your homemade ice cream will come out creamy, use heavy cream, half-and-half or milk with a higher percentage milk fat, such as whole milk. If the ice cream is made with a lower percentage milk fat, it has the potential to become icy.

What makes ice cream stay creamy? ›

Ice cream manufacturers often rely on added ingredients to keep their products creamy. Many add emulsifiers (such as lecithin), milk powders, gums, and other stabilizers that bond with free water in the mixture, making water less available for crystallization.

What gives ice cream its creamy texture? ›

At its core ice cream is a successful emulsion of fat into water, sugar, and ice with air mixed into the batch. An emulsion is a mixture of two substances that typically separate (like oil and water). But, instead mix together to form the consistent creamy base used for ice cream. It's Science!

What makes ice cream light and fluffy? ›

Air bubbles are incorporated into the mixture during the churning process, which gives ice cream its light, fluffy texture.

How do you make ice cream more dense? ›

Evaporated milk, many egg yolks, corn syrup, and arrowroot powder add chewiness and body to the base. Churning the ice cream until it's just solid, then freezing it as fast as possible, makes for a dense ice cream that stays extra creamy.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Mr. See Jast

Last Updated:

Views: 6290

Rating: 4.4 / 5 (75 voted)

Reviews: 90% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Mr. See Jast

Birthday: 1999-07-30

Address: 8409 Megan Mountain, New Mathew, MT 44997-8193

Phone: +5023589614038

Job: Chief Executive

Hobby: Leather crafting, Flag Football, Candle making, Flying, Poi, Gunsmithing, Swimming

Introduction: My name is Mr. See Jast, I am a open, jolly, gorgeous, courageous, inexpensive, friendly, homely person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.