This Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream is perfect by itself, on top of another dessert, or as a base for some delicious fruit or candy mix-ins. Use your imagination!
Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
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We make homemade ice cream all the time… When we’re having a party and have a lot of mouths to feed, we bust out the big guns with our White Mountain Ice Cream Maker. That bad boy makes 6 quarts of ice cream at a time (that’s a gallon and a half!), so that’s special-occasion-only. But for every-day use (because don’t you need ice cream every day?) I use our Cuisinart Countertop Ice Cream Maker. It makes about 2-3 cups of ice cream, just perfect for my husband, our son, and me to have some… with maybe a little bit leftover.
This recipe is for the smaller, countertop version. Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll convert this recipe to the big bad mamma-jamma 6-quart ice cream maker, too!
I had originally planned to make vanilla bean ice cream – you know, get a vanilla bean, scrape the insides out, and use that to flavor the ice cream instead of a bottle of vanilla extract. But then I went to the grocery store. The only vanilla beans I could find cost almost $12 for just one vanilla bean! I couldn’t believe it… and I had no idea how many I would need to use in the recipe, and how many times I would “accidentally” mess it up and need to make it again before the recipe was ready for you. So I decided to go with vanilla extract instead.
Can I Use Imitation Vanilla Extract?
Please, please, please – use pure vanilla extract and not the imitation stuff. I don’t like the flavor of imitation vanilla extract anyway. And when you’re using it in a recipe like this – where the only ingredients are milk, sugar, and vanilla, that is the only thing you are going to taste. So do yourself a favor and splurge a bit on pure vanilla extract for this recipe.
I went a little crazy with this ice cream and used only heavy whipping cream. Since it is “only” vanilla ice cream with no other interesting flavors, I wanted the consistency to be nice and creamy. That’s where the high fat in whipping cream comes in handy. This is some of the thickest, richest ice cream I have made… and there were no leftovers!
How Hard Does Homemade Ice Cream Freeze?
Homemade ice cream won’t reach the scoopable consistency you’re used to in ice cream right out of the freezer. Homemade ice cream right out of the ice cream maker usually has a consistency more like soft serve. The longer you let it mix in the ice cream maker, the more firm it will get… for a while. But if you want seriously scoopable ice cream (like in these pictures), you’ll need to store the ice cream in the freezer for a couple of hours first.
Once my ice cream is ready, I like to use these Glide-A-Scoop tubs. They fit just about anywhere in my freezer and are perfect for getting that perfectly round ice cream scoop. Just transfer the frozen ice cream out of the ice cream maker into one of these tubs and pop it in your freezer for 2-3 hours. If you can wait that long!
Enjoy!
3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of This Recipe
- What’s the Difference Between Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt? – free printable
- How Much Fat is in Milk? – free printable
- Freezer Storage Guidelines
3 More Recipes to Try
Printable Recipe Card for Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Easy Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract not imitation vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of the whipping cream, the sugar, and the salt. Whiskuntil most of the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the rest of the whipping cream and the vanilla and stir to combine.
- Following the manufacturer's instructions, assemble the ice cream maker and turn on. Pour the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker and freeze until the desired consistency is reached (about 15 minutes).
- Serve immediately, or transfer to a freezer-safe container to freeze for later.
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[…] or add a dollop or two of Easy Homemade Whipped Cream. (I’ve heard it’s also good with Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream…) Or just enjoy the summery tartness of the […]