How To Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Learn how to make homemade vanilla ice cream using only 5 simple ingredients. This ice cream has become our family’s favorite dessert, especially in the summertime. You can whip up the ingredients in 30 seconds or less, and within an hour you’ll have perfectly frozen soft-serve creamy vanilla ice cream. Serve on top of favorite homemade cherry pie recipe or sourdough apple pie for the perfect easy dessert.
Quick Look: Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 🍳 Cook Time: 1 hour
- 🕒 Total Time: 1 hr, 5 mins
- 👥 Servings: 2 quarts
- 📊 Calories: ~401 kcal per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 🔥 Cook Method: No-cook / Churned
- 👩🍳 Flavor Profile: Rich and creamy with classic sweet vanilla notes, smooth texture, and a refreshing, melt-in-your-mouth finish.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Simple and straightforward
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Made with just a handful of simple ingredients you likely already have on hand, including cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla.
- Want to make sugar free ice cream? Just use maple syrup, honey or even cane sugar in this recipe for a healthier option.
- Rich, creamy, and full of real vanilla flavor without any artificial ingredients or preservatives found in many store-bought ice creams.
- A great way to use extra raw milk or cream from the homestead and turn it into a delicious homemade treat.
- Easy to customize with your favorite mix-ins, toppings, or seasonal fruit for endless flavor variations.
- Pairs perfectly with warm sourdough desserts, fruit pies, and homemade baked treats like sourdough peach cobbler, sourdough discard brownies, and sourdough pumpkin pie.
If you enjoy making homemade dairy recipes, be sure to check out some of our other favorite recipes. Instant pot homemade yogurt, homemade sour cream, how to make cottage cheese using raw milk, homemade butter recipe, and how to make homemade mozzarella cheese. These simple home dairy recipes are a great way to use fresh milk and build traditional homesteading skills while saving money on groceries.
Ingredients
- Cream/Milk - You’re gonna want about 3 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1 cup of whole milk, or a similar ratio of cream to milk. We just grab a jar of milk out of our refrigerator that has a cream line on top, and pour the cream/milk together into our ice cream maker (see video below). You can also use store-bought cream/milk, or half and half. I’ve also made this with coconut or almond milk for a dairy free option, and that is delicious as well!
- Sweetener - sugar, cane sugar, or maple syrup all work well!
- Salt - just a tiny bit of salt makes the sugar taste sweeter. We like to use Redmond real salt because it has a lot of natural minerals in it.
- Vanilla - we usually use our own homemade vanilla extract recipe. It gives such a beautiful flavor to the ice cream.
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Tools You May Need
Ice Cream Machine - this is by far, my favorite ice cream maker. It's a two quart ice cream maker, which is just right for my family of seven. You don’t have to pre-mix any of the ingredients, and it makes the ice cream in about an hour or less. Old fashioned vanilla ice cream with no ice, no rock salt, no mess - it’s seriously the best! This ice cream machine will pay itself off in no time, especially considering the high cost of store-bought ice cream. It's also important to consider all of the chemicals and other unnecessary ingredients found in the ice cream that is purchased from the grocery store. The cost savings make this ice cream machine a worthy investment.
Homemade Ice Cream Variations
Once you've mastered this easy vanilla ice cream recipe, try creating different flavors with simple add-ins:
- Chocolate chip ice cream - add in ½ cup of mini chocolate chips
- Mint chocolate chip ice cream- add in ½ cup of mini chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract
- Strawberry ice cream- add in ½ cup of pureed strawberries
- Peach ice cream- add in ½ cup of pureed peaches
- Chocolate ice cream- add in ½ cup cocoa powder
- Coffee ice cream - add in 1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules
How To Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
- Step 1: Remove insert from ice cream maker, and make sure that the ice cream paddle is in place. Pour in heavy cream/milk until it’s about ¾ full.
- Step 2: Add sweetener, salt & vanilla. There is no need to stir it up, as it will mix as it churns in the ice cream maker.
- Step 3: Place insert back into ice cream maker. Put the lid on. Press power, and then start. Churn ice cream until the ice cream machine automatically shuts off. This usually takes about 60 minutes, and when it's done, you’ll have perfectly soft ice cream.
- Step 4: Serve topped with your favorite toppings. Some of ours are homemade chocolate syrup, homemade caramel sauce and fresh fruit.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.
Tips
- Take a quick minute to add the ingredients to the ice cream maker and while you do chores or fix dinner, it will make the most delicious ice cream you’ve ever tasted.
- Try different sweeteners like maple syrup or cane sugar to make it even more healthy.
- Buy the ice cream maker! It will seriously change your life!
How To Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream FAQs
The simplest way to make ice cream at home is to purchase a countertop ice cream maker that has an internal compressor and freezes the ice cream without you having to add ice and salt. This no mess way of churning ice cream is the easiest way to have fresh ice cream all summer long. Add milk, cream, sugar, salt, & vanilla to the ice cream maker, push a button and in 1 hour you will have ice cream.
Whether or not homemade ice cream is better with or without eggs depends on what kind of texture you prefer. Ice cream made with eggs has a more custard like consistency, while ice cream made without eggs is lighter and fluffier. Both are delicious! My family prefers ice cream without eggs.
The secret to creamy ice cream is to make sure the ice cream has a high fat content. When making the ice cream, be sure to use about 75% cream as that will make a creamier ice cream.
Other Homemade Desserts
If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21. I can’t wait to see what all you make!
How To Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups cream
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ¾ cup sugar or maple syrup or a combination
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Remove insert from ice cream maker, and make sure that the ice cream paddle is in place.
Pour in heavy cream/milk until it’s about ¾ full. - Add sweetener, salt & vanilla.
- Place insert back into ice cream maker.
- Put the lid on.Push power, and start. Churn ice cream until the ice cream machine automatically shuts off.
- This usually takes about 60 minutes, and when it's done, you’ll have perfectly soft ice cream.
- You can change it to the “cool” setting if you’re not quite ready to eat it, and it will keep it cool.
- Serve topped with your favorite toppings. Some of ours are homemade chocolate syrup, homemade caramel sauce and fresh fruit. Or serve a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of cherry or apple pie. It's also great in ice cream cones.
- Store any leftovers in a freezer container in the freezer for up to a month.
Notes
- Try different sweeteners like maple syrup or cane sugar to make it even more healthy.
- Use different add-ins like chocolate chips, fresh fruit or instant coffee granules for fun flavor combinations.
- Buy the ice cream maker! It will seriously change your life!
SO GOOD
I've made ice cream for 50+ years, and use honey to sweeten it. Why? Because the honey helps to keep the ice cream from getting rock hard in the freezer. It remains scoopable for weeks in the freezer and tastes amazing!
That is a great idea, thanks for sharing!
This is was sooo good! Definitely will be making again!