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

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Because you can never go wrong with double chocolate.

Get the recipe from Pass the Sushi.

2. Buttermilk Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

Get the recipe from A Southern Fairytale.

8. Sour Cherry Ice Cream

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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

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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

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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

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

Get the recipe from Cafe Johnsonia.

13. Cherry Amaretto Chip

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

Get the recipe from Cook Like a Champion.

14. Stout Ice Cream

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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"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)

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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 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 to make homemade ice cream soft and fluffy? ›

Sugar, corn syrup or honey, as well as gelatin and commercial stabilizers, can all keep your ice cream at a softer consistency. Ice cream also stays softer when you store it in a shallow container, rather than a deep tub, and cover the surface of the ice cream with plastic wrap to keep ice crystals from forming.

How to make ice cream in the old days? ›

Ice cream at this time was made using the “ pot freezer” method,which involved placing a bowl of cream in a bucket of ice and salt (note: not mixing the ice and salt with cream as many believe).

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 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 ingredient makes ice cream scoopable? ›

There are two things that play part in making an ice cream perfectly scoop-able. It's the sugar content and the fat content. A higher fat content will cause an ice cream to be more scoop-able since fat freezes at a different temperature than water.

How did pioneers make ice cream? ›

The method by which they did this was they used ice and added lots n lots of salt to that ice, the salt would prevent the ice from melting too fast. In this pool of ice n salt, the milk, cream and other ingredients were kept and churned constantly. This is how ice cream was made back then.

How did people make ice cream in the 1800s? ›

From the introduction of ice cream to Britain in the 17th century to the 1930s, most people made ice cream with a simple sorbetière (a lidded pewter jar) in a wooden bucket. This would have been spun round by hand and occasionally opened and scraped down and mixed.

How much does it cost to make a gallon of homemade ice cream? ›

How much does it cost to make a gallon of ice cream at home? Total cost: $5-7 per gallon of homemade ice cream. Please note that these are rough estimates and prices can vary depending on location and brand of ingredients.

Is it expensive to make homemade ice cream? ›

I don't believe I can share the exact recipe because of copyrights — but you'll need heavy whipping cream, milk, eggs and sugar to make it. The milk, eggs and sugar combined cost about 75 cents (using Walmart prices). The two cups of heavy cream cost about $2.50. Base #1 costs $3.25 and makes a quart of ice cream.

Is selling homemade ice cream profitable? ›

According to Ice Cream University, a standard ice cream shop has a profit margin of about 25%. To break even, you'll need to sell at least $4 worth of products for every $1 spent. To boost your profitability, consider offering artisanal ice cream, ice cream cakes, unique shakes, or other frozen treats.

What is the most important ingredient in making ice cream? ›

Of course, the main ingredients in ice cream come from milk–and the most important part of that is milkfat, which gives ice cream its smoothness and creamy texture. In fact, in order to be called ice cream, the USDA requires it to contain at least 10 percent milkfat, which can come from milk or cream.

What makes the perfect ice cream? ›

Fat. A great ice cream owes its smooth, creamy mouthfeel to fat, which helps keep ice crystals small. As Bauer explains, fat is also extraordinarily effective at carrying flavors, so when ice cream melts in your mouth, you are hit with the taste of your ingredients.

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 creamy and not icy? ›

To continue our bread analogy: As bakers add sugar to bread to keep it soft and moist, ice cream makers alter consistency with sugar. By binding with liquids, sugar molecules prevent an ice cream base from fully freezing into crunchy ice. That is, the more sugar you add, the softer and less icy your batch will be.

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