Whether it’s a hot summer’s day or movie night at home, it’s always good to have ice cream. And while you can dig down into the freezer for that frosted half box you forgot about under the peas, there’s nothing better than fresh ice cream. Making your own ice cream not only saves you money, it gives you the fun of endlessly customising your ice cream with flavours and toppings.
And here’s the secret – making ice cream is super easy. And while there are recipes that require a thousand egg yolks and hob cooking, simple ice cream basically comes down to two ingredients. Ice and…well…cream.
So, we'll show you how to make super simple ice cream with and without an ice cream maker, as well as share some tips and toppings that’ll leave everybody screaming for your ice cream. (In a good way).
How to make ice cream without an ice cream maker
So, there’s a more involved way and there’s a really simple way. Let’s start simple. For this recipe, you’ll need.
Ingredients:
500ml double cream
500ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g granulated sugar
Food processor (or anything with a whisk attachment)
How to:
Add cream, milk and vanilla extract to your blender or food processor. Then add the sugar. Whisk until stiff peaks start to form. You can obviously use a hand mixer for this. If you fancy a work out, even just a whisk.
Once ready, pour the mixture into a freezer proof tub. Make sure you leave enough space at the top for the mixture to expand as it freezes.
You can now mix in any sauce or tasty things you want - like blended fruit or meringue. Strawberry syrup works well too. You can even make it yourself with sugar and fresh strawberries simmered down into a sauce and then strained. If you just want vanilla, skip this bit.
You can then freeze the mixture and in 4 hours, it’ll be ready.
Tip: If you leave it in the freezer for a while, it’s a good idea to move it to the fridge an hour before you serve. This will give you smoother, more creamy ice cream.
How to make gourmet ice cream
So, if you nailed the first recipe and enjoyed it, you might want to try a slightly more involved version. So here’s one for the budding chefs. For this one, you’ll need to make a kind of custard.
This version aims to get the ice crystals that form in ice cream as small as possible -which means even creamier ice cream. So the aim is to break up those crystals as you’re freezing the mixture. Also known as churning. This will involve a bit more work than just throwing your mix in the freezer, but we think it’s worth it.
(Incidentally, we have another no churn ice cream recipe alternative here you can check out too.)
But let’s crack on with our fancy ice cream. To start, let’s take a look at your base. Here’s a really simple vanilla ice cream recipe:
Ingredients:
115g golden caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
3 large eggs
285ml double cream
300ml whole milk (it has to be whole!)
How to:
Pour the milk, cream and half the sugar into a saucepan.
Take a sharp knife and slit the vanilla pod lengthwise to reveal all the tiny seeds inside the pod. Use the knife to scrape these into the saucepan. Tear the pod in half and drop that in too.
Heat the mixture slowly over a low heat. You don’t want it to boil. Let it get just hot enough to see a couple of small bubbles.
Set it aside for half an hour.
Put the eggs and the other half of the sugar into a bowl. Beat together until you’ve got a thicker, pale yellow mixture.
Pour 125ml of your cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs and beat together.
Reheat the rest of the cream mixture so that it only just starts boiling again. Take it off the heat and stir in the rest of the egg mixture.
Now heat up the whole mixture again on a low heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes – or as long as it takes for the mixture to thicken enough to coat the back of your spoon. You don’t want it to boil, otherwise the mixture will curdle.
To lower the temperature of the ice cream so you can put in the freezer or your ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a bowl. Get a bigger bowl and pour ice water into it so it’s a bit less than half full. Then nestle the bowl of mixture into the bigger bowl of ice water. Leave it for 20 minutes.
How to make ice cream with an ice cream maker
And here it is! The easiest methos of all. Ice cream makers save you a lot of faff. With ice cream makers, the machine takes care of the mixing and churning and (let’s be honest) is going to do a better job. Just dump your mixture in, input your settings, and leave it until it’s ready. Ice cream makers have a paddle with keep mixing the ice cream to make sure it’s smooth and is chills. The whole process can take as little as 40 minutes!
You can use the ingredients from our first recipe or you’ll be able to find recipes from the manufacturer of your ice cream maker. Cuisinart have their own vanilla ice cream recipe, for example. Feel free to throw in any fruit, nuts or sauces you like and it’ll churn them in.
The nice thing about ice cream makers is that they’re not just for ice cream - they can also handle sorbet, gelatto, frozen yoghurt and even cocktails!
And there you have it – everything you need to get started! But of course, there’s no starting until you have a reliable fridge freezer, so be sure to check out our Refrigeration Buying Guide.
