Ice Cream Tips & Tools

Make better ice cream.

Sep 15, 2023

I adore making ice cream. Why? First and foremost, people love it. As I’ve said before, ice cream reigns supreme in the dessert kingdom. Second, ice cream allows you to experiment with flavors, textures, and unique pairings. Third, it lasts longer than a lot of other homemade desserts. Finally, it's not that difficult. Some cooks have created great no-churn recipes, but I love to churn, so that's my go-to.

Ice cream acts as a (somewhat) blank canvas for flavors to shine. From classics like chocolate and vanilla, you can go further by steeping the dairy with herbs, spices, nuts, and even grains (like oats or sweet corn). Add a caramel swirl or strawberry ripple. Sprinkle in some chopped nuts, cookie dough chunks, chocolate chips, or cake bits. Go wild!

Sweet corn ice cream with a peach jam swirl.

Yes, ice cream is rich and decadent. I have two rules to keep my intake somewhat moderated: either make your own ice cream or walk to get ice cream from a scoop shop or soft-serve joint near you. I usually have some homemade on hand. Plus Sarah, Nirali, and I frequently sample the local scoop shops and lovely vegan soft serve place nearby. I only buy pints or quarts of ice cream for an emergency. What constitutes an emergency? Homemade pie without any ice cream on the side.

This summer, make your own. You can start out with my S’mores Ice Cream or Tarragon Ice Cream with Strawberry Ripple.

Several folks have asked me about the tools I use and tips I have for making ice cream, so here are a few tips, tools, and resources to get you churning.

Ice cream making tips:

Keep things cold. Fully chill your ice cream base in the refrigerator before churning: Chill any swirls, ripples, etc. that you're using. Freeze any chips or chunks that you're using (e.g. cookie crumbs, cookie dough pieces, nuts, etc.) Freeze your storage container while the ice cream is churning.
Work quickly. Once your ice cream is churned, get it in the container and into the freezer as fast as possible. If you're adding swirls or chunks, work quickly to get those into the ice cream. I enlist an extra pair of hands if I have both a swirl and a chunk. Once the ice cream goes in the freezer, keep it in there until it's fully frozen—for me that's about four hours. To freeze it faster you, can set the storage container onto a flattened freezer pack when you put it in the freezer.
Do not adjust the fat or sugar in an ice cream recipe. The amount and types of fat and sugar in an ice cream recipe effects how it will freeze. Not enough fat and/or sugar will make your ice cream too hard, ice-y, and/or not taste as good. Truthfully, you shouldn't play around too much with the ingredients in an ice cream recipe, except for flavorings (spices, extracts, etc.).

Products to help you get started:

(Not sponsored, I’ve purchased and used all of these items.)

Best value ice cream maker:

Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker 1.5 Quart Capacity.

This was the first Ice Cream machine I ever bought, about ten years ago, and I still use it. You freeze the bowl a day before you plan to make ice cream, so you need a bit of freezer space (and foresight) for that. But it works like a dream, and churns consistent, excellent batches. Because you need to re-freeze the bowl after every batch, you can't churn back-to-back batches of ice cream. To solve for that, I bought a second bowl, so that I can make at least two batches per day.

Best compressor-style ice cream maker (that isn’t more than $1,000):

Whynter Upright Automatic Compressor Ice Cream Maker 2.1 Quart Capacity

I recently got this compressor-style ice cream maker, and it works like a dream. It's a bit more compact and has a bit more capacity than some other models. It churns a batch in about 30 minutes, and can "hold" the ice cream while you get ready to scoop it out. I bought this model because I needed to be able to churn two or three batches in a row. I suggest getting the Cuisinart unless you really want to be able to either (A) make ice cream spontaneously, or (B) want to make multiple batches in a row. As it turns out, Wirecutter agrees with my recommendations here.

Best Ice Cream Scoop, no contest:

Zeroll is the #1 best scoop. This model was first sold in 1935. My grandparents had one when I was a kid, and it's still kicking

The liquid inside the Zeroll’s handle helps to transfer the warmth of your hand to the scoop, and the ice cream always releases perfectly. My husband, Jason, worked at a frozen custard stand in high school, so he does the scooping in our house. Jason agrees that this is the best scoop, so do the New York Times and SeriousEats.

Storage container:

Most recipes for homemade ice cream make between one and two quarts, and many contianers come in around 1.5 Quarts. You can buy great little containers online. A standard 8.5-inch by 4.5-inch loaf pan works great if you don't mind it being occupied for a while. If you want a single-use item: Look for a container that is long and narrow, which helps you get a great scoop, that is that is oval-shaped or with rounded corners, since it’s hard to get your scoop into square corners. This one works great.

Top three ice cream books:

David Lebovitz: My ice cream sage. (Ooo! Sage ice cream would be delicious!) Get his recently-updated book The Perfect Scoop, and try anything on his website or Substack newsletter. Legendary.
Salt and Straw Ice Cream Book: Their innovative (and sometimes wacky) flavors always work, and this is the rare restaurant cookbook that really delivers easy, reliable recipes.
The Ice Cream recipes in BraveTart are outstanding. The devil's food ice cream is a chocolate fanatic’s dream, and Stella Parks provides a bunch of variations to the base recipes.