Make homemade ice cream

Churn your own ice cream with simple ingredients and customise it with your favorite mix-ins and flavours.

Time:: 60 min
Cost:: low
Difficulty:: moderate
Where:: Indoors
Best:: Solo

Everything about how to make homemade ice cream comes down to one problem: keeping the ice crystals small. Fat, sugar and constant movement during freezing all work against crystal growth, which is why a rich churned custard is smooth and a frozen bowl of sweetened cream is not.

Why make homemade ice cream is worth an hour

Churning breaks up crystals as they form and incorporates air, which is why machines produce a better texture with less effort. Without one, periodic stirring during freezing achieves a rougher version of the same thing. Sugar matters beyond sweetness because it lowers the freezing point, keeping the mixture soft enough to scoop rather than setting solid.

How to make homemade ice cream step by step

1
Choose custard or no-churn
A cooked egg custard gives the best texture. A whipped cream and condensed milk base needs no machine at all.
2
Cook the custard gently if using one
Low heat, constant stirring, until it coats a spoon. Too hot and you have made sweet scrambled eggs.
3
Chill the base completely
Several hours or overnight. Churning a warm base produces large crystals and an icy result.
4
Churn or stir during freezing
Machine, or stir vigorously every thirty minutes for the first two hours. Movement is what keeps it smooth.
5
Freeze in a shallow container
Faster freezing means smaller crystals. A wide shallow tub beats a deep one considerably.

Tips to get more out of it

Do not reduce the sugar much. It controls the freezing point, so less sugar gives a rock-hard result.
Press cling film onto the surface before freezing to prevent ice forming on top.
Let it sit out for five minutes before serving. Home freezers run colder than commercial ice cream cabinets.

Ways to mix it up

If you want something quicker, a fruit sorbet needs no dairy and no custard stage. If you want to understand the variables, make one batch with the full sugar and one with less, and compare how hard each sets.