Vanilla Ice Cream

Hear me out: making ice cream at home does admittedly take a bit of effort, but the payoff is TOTALLY worth it. With only 6 (staple) ingredients and a bit of patience, you’ll have homemade vanilla ice cream ready for all of your favorite toppings. Whether you’re looking to cool off on a summer’s day or need a homemade birthday dessert, keep reading on for all of my tips and tricks to making the perfect scoop below.

How To Make Vanilla Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

• Sugar: The sugar amount here creates the perfect amount of sweetness without overpowering the ice cream.
• Egg Yolks: You’ll need 6 egg yolks to create this homemade ice cream. Check out our egg white gallery for ideas on what to use the leftovers for.
• Heavy Cream & Whole Milk: A mixture of heavy cream and whole milk makes this ice cream rich, creamy, and perfectly decadent. I don’t recommend replacing either of these—the high fat content will ensure your ice cream is not overly icy.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla is our primary flavor here, so it’s worth it to use pure vanilla extract. I highly recommend using the “good vanilla” for the best possible flavor, but you can use artificial in a pinch.
• Salt: Here at Delish, if we’re talking salt, we’re talking kosher salt. If you use another salt, you’ll risk your ice cream being way too salty or not salty enough. Kosher salt will help bring out the vanilla flavor here too.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

First, we'll create our ice cream base. In a large bowl, beat together your sugar and egg yolks until you've created a mixture that is a light yellow color, and that has thickened slightly. You can also use a whisk, though you may have to work a bit harder at it. This should take 3-4 minutes, but keep going until you notice the two key signs.

Next, we'll add the heavy cream and whole milk. Again, either by hand with a whisk or with an electric mixer, combine everything together until no traces of yolk remain in the mixture.

Now we're going to cook our mixture on medium-low heat. Since the custard base contains eggs, you're gonna want to be very careful not to cook them, or else you'll be left with some very creamy scrambled eggs. Keep a close eye on your custard and stir it frequently with a wooden spoon, making sure the mixture never comes up to a simmer. To test if the mixture is cooked, coat the back of your spoon with ice cream base and then swipe your finger through the center. If the streak you wiped away fills in with custard mixture, it needs more time. If there's a distinct line through, then it means your custard is thick enough and you're good to go! If you want to take the guess-work out of this step, you can also use a candy thermometer to read the temperature of your custard. When it hits 170° to 175° F, it's ready to take off the heat.

Once your custard is perfectly thick, remove it from the heat, and add in the vanilla and salt. Strain your custard into a large bowl or container, cover and let it chill in the fridge. I recommend chilling for at least 3 hours, but you can go up to overnight. Give yourself plenty of time for this—you don't want to rush your ice cream and end up with a melty mess.

Once your custard is frozen and your ice cream maker bowl is frozen (more on that below), add your custard to the ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions.

When the ice cream appears to look like soft serve, transfer it to another container and freeze until fully hardened. Again, you can do this for just 2-3 hours, but if you want to guarantee it sets, overnight is ideal.

Recipe Tips

• Start the day before. Since both your ice cream maker's base and your custard need to chill completely, I suggest starting the whole shebang the night before you plan on serving your ice cream. The base will need to be frozen completely, while your custard just needs to be chilled.
• No ice cream maker? If you don't have an ice cream maker, check out our ice cream in a bag or mason jar ice cream recipes instead.

Homemade Ice Cream Variations

This ice cream is the perfect base for pretty much any flavor. The easiest way to integrate mix-ins (I'm talking crushed cookies, strawberry jam, chopped Reese's, etc.) is to fold them into the churned soft-serve style ice cream that comes out of your ice cream maker, before it goes into the loaf pan. (BTW, if you prefer soft serve, you can eat it right out of the ice cream maker!) If you're looking to flavor the base of the ice cream (like in our favorite chocolate ice cream, blueberry ice cream, peppermint ice cream...), you'll need to add those flavorings to the custard before you cook it.