How to Make Ice Cream: Ice Cream Bases & Flavorings

1. Philadelphia-Style - no eggs

Choose Philadelphia-style for bright, fresh, and subtle flavors where you want the primary ingredient to shine through. Best flavors: Bright and fresh: Fruits like strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, and even apricots. Subtle aromatics: Herbs like basil, delicate tea flavors like Earl Grey, or floral notes. Citrus: Lemon curd, Blueberry Lemon Mascarpone. Other options: Vanilla, chocolate, coffee, mint chocolate chip, pistachio, etc.

Named for the many dairy farms that used to surround Philadelphia, this eggless ice cream base is as simple as it gets. Because there is no cooking involved, preparing the base is as easy as whisking together cream, milk, sugar, and salt, then chilling and churning.

Pros: Cooking a custard—without curdling the egg yolks—takes skill. Stirring ingredients doesn’t! You can’t mess this up. The brighter, lighter flavor of Philadelphia-style also lends itself particularly well to fresh fruit, vegetable, or herb ice creams.

Cons: Because there are no fatty egg yolks to emulsify the ice cream base, Philadelphia-style ice creams freeze harder and icier than their custardy counterparts. To sidestep this, make sure to let the ice cream sit out at room temperature for 10-ish minutes before serving, or supplement the granulated sugar with a liquid sweetener, such as corn syrup or honey (more on why below, “How to Avoid Icy Ice Cream”).

Basic ratio: 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar (or 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup liquid sweetener), 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

2. French-Style - eggs

Choose custard-based for rich, creamy, and decadent flavors that stand up well to a stronger base. Best flavors: Rich and decadent: Vanilla, chocolate, coffee, caramel, and butter pecan. Robust flavors: Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom. Deep flavors: Coffee, toffee, matcha. Examples: French vanilla, dark chocolate, coffee, mint chocolate chip, caramel, butter pecan. Custard-based ice cream can have a distinctly eggy taste, which may overshadow the flavors of fresh cream and vanilla. This is less pronounced in ice creams with additional flavoring agents: chocolate, strawberry, etc.

Also known as custard ice cream, this super silky base is distinguished by its egg yolks. Unlike Philadelphia-style, you have to cook the ingredients first, then chill, then churn. Here’s the cheat sheet: Combine the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Warm up the cream and milk. Slowly add the warm dairy to the yolk-sugar mixture (to temper the yolks), then return the whole mixture to the stovetop and cook until thick enough to coat a spoon, like gravy.

Pros: The egg yolks not only add rich flavor and a buttery color, but they act as an emulsifier, creating a smoother, creamier ice cream that’s less prone to crystallization (the enemy of ice cream everywhere!).

Cons: Egg-tempering and custard-making can be tricky. If you temper the eggs or cook the mixture too quickly, you’ll end up with scrambled eggs (and eggy-tasting ice cream, ick). To avoid this, temper the yolks as slowly as possible (adding a couple tablespoons of warm liquid at a time), then cook over medium-low heat, whisking slowly but constantly.

Basic ratio: 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 6 egg yolks, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

3. Neither Here (Philadelphia) Nor There (France) - raw eggs

If you look hard enough, you’ll find a couple rebellious ice cream recipes that call for egg yolks, but don’t cook them. This style is so uncommon, there’s not even a name for it, but it’s the sort of ice cream my mom made every summer when I was growing up, inspired by the now 32-year-old Ben & Jerry’s cookbook. Turns out, Superiority Burger owner and ice cream extraordinaire does the same thing. As Dana Cree writes in Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream, Headley “likes how the egg yolk adds richness but no cooked flavor.”

Pros: With this method, you can get the best of both worlds. Simply whisk the eggs and sugar until pale yellow and very thick, then add the cream and milk. It’s the ease of the Philadelphia method, with some bonus richness.

Cons: Raw egg yolks are questionable from a food-safety perspective (since germs, like salmonella, can only be killed by cooking to a certain temperature). Proceed at your own risk.

Basic ratio: 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar (or 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup liquid sweetener), 2 large egg yolks, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

4. Sicilian-Style - cornstarch instead of eggs for thickening

Sicilian-style ice cream is a type of gelato, specifically known for being lighter, often egg-free, and made with cornstarch or starch as a thickener instead of eggs. This lighter base is more suited to Sicily's hot climate, allowing the distinct flavors of ingredients like Sicilian lemons or Bronte pistachios to shine through, and results in a denser, intensely flavored treat compared to Northern Italian gelato. This cornstarch-based approach results in a less fatty, more intensely flavored gelato, particularly ideal for highlighting delicate flavors like pistachios or fruits, whereas the custard-based northern style offers a richer, creamier texture.

A cooked-until-thick ice cream base, just like custardy French, but in this case, egg yolks aren't doing the thickening. Cornstarch is. (Yes, the same cornstarch you have in your pantry to make gravy!) As David Lebovitz notes in The Perfect Scoop, "thickening gelato with a starch is a Sicilian trait, and it is done because egg yolks are less digestible than starch, important during their hot summers." If you ask me, the chewy, silky result is something to get behind anytime, anywhere. To make a Sicilian-style ice cream: Heat up the cream and milk. Separately stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly add the warm liquids to the dry ingredients, return to the saucepan, and continue to cook until thick. Chill completely, then churn.

Pros: Cornstarch inhibits ice crystallization (more on that below, "How to Avoid Icy Ice Cream"), which means you're in for a supremely creamy ice cream. It's the sort of texture egg yolks would accomplish, but without the added heaviness.

Cons: Cornstarch breaks down in the freezer over time, which means you won't want to keep this ice cream around forever. Get on those sundaes sooner than later.

Basic ratio: 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/2 cups whole milk, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

5. No-Churn - sweetened condensed milk as base

You don’t need an ice cream maker to make ice cream. But you do need to know how to mimic one. An ice cream maker accomplishes two things at once: freezing and aerating the ice cream base. Freezing makes the mixture scoopable (instead of pourable), while aerating makes the mixture fluffy (instead of rock-hard). The most common no-churn method uses sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream. The former acts as a custard-like base, while the latter adds air. But there are other ways to get creative: In this Genius lemon ice cream, you freeze a lemon-thickened ice cream base until slushy (2 to 3 hours), stir it up, then continue freezing. You can also freeze an ice cream base completely, break it up into chunks, then whip these until fluffy in a food processor like in this no-churn peach ice cream.

Pros: No special equipment needed. No-churn ice cream recipes are great if you’re in a small kitchen with limited appliances—or, ahem, if you forgot to freeze the bowl for your ice cream maker (me, all the time).

Cons: Because these ice creams are creatively—not technically—“churned,” they get harder and icier quicker. If you make a batch, try to eat it as soon as possible (maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all).

Basic ratio: 2 cups heavy cream, 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

How to Flavor Any Ice Cream Base

Extracts
The easiest way to flavor a sweet cream base is by adding an extract. Vanilla, almond, and mint are most common. Like salt, the best way to determine the quantity here is to taste, starting with small amounts (say, 1/4 teaspoon per 1-quart batch) and increasingly incrementally. While it’s difficult to overdo something like vanilla (some recipes use several teaspoons), it’s easy with more potent extracts like almond or mint. Incorporate by stirring into the ice cream base, either right after cooking for cooked bases or with the rest of the ingredients for uncooked ones.

Powders
Like extracts, powders are an easy-as-heck way to go from plain to name-your-dream-flavor. Try instant espresso powder (estimate 2 to 3 tablespoons per 1-quart batch) or matcha powder (estimate 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons per 1-quart batch). To incorporate, add a small amount of the cream or milk to the powder to smoothly dissolve, then mix that into the rest of the liquid base (can be done either before or after cooking, or in no-cook ice creams).

Infusion
You can infuse with heat or without it—and the ingredient possibilities are endless. To do a stovetop infusion, combine the liquids with your chosen ingredient, bring to a simmer, let steep for 30 or so minutes (tasting every so often to check progress), then strain. To do a cold infusion, combine the liquids with your chosen ingredient and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours (again, tasting every so often to check progress), then strain. Here are a few VIPs: Fresh herbs (estimate 1 cup mint or basil, or a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme, or lavender per 1-quart batch). Ginger (estimate a 5-inch piece, chopped, per 1-quart batch). Spices (estimate 1 to 2 tablespoons of something like fennel seeds or black peppercorns per 1-quart batch). Tea (estimate 5 tea bags, like Earl Gray, per 1-quart batch).

Infusing is simply steeping or soaking a flavorful ingredient into another substance, often a liquid. Most of us make an infusion of coffee beans or tea leaves every day, without giving it a thought. For cooks and dessert makers, cream is a wonderful medium for infusing almost any ingredient that has flavor and scent -- fresh or dried herbs, spices, coffee, tea, citrus zest, rose petals, toasted nuts and seeds. You can use the infused cream to make sauce, ganache, ice cream, or panna cotta. Or, you can simply chill it and whip it into a fragrant, flavorful dessert topping or filling. Think fresh mint whipped cream with strawberries or jasmine whipped cream on a chocolate dessert. The possibilities are endless and intriguing if you are willing to experiment.

One big secret: You can infuse hot or cold. Some ingredients (such as citrus zest) work both ways, with different but good results. Other ingredients taste so much brighter, cleaner, and more delicious in a cold infusion that, once tried, you will never go back. If in doubt, experiment by infusing an ingredient both ways. Whether you infuse hot or cold, it’s important to know that over-extracting the flavor ingredient -- by infusing it too long -- can bring out unpleasant flavors in fresh herbs, bitter tannins and acidity from tea and coffee, and bitterness from citrus zest. If you are not getting enough flavor from your infusion, you need more of the flavor ingredient rather than more infusing time.

Cold Method:
I like cold infusions for fresh mint, tarragon, lemon verbena, rose geranium leaves, and fresh rose petals. By inference, I suspect that cold is the way to go for other tender, fresh herb leaves like basil, as well. The cold method is also good for black and green teas (jasmine is especially nice), dried lavender, aniseed, and coffee beans.

Chop leafy fresh leaves or rose petals coarsely with a very sharp knife, without crushing or bruising them. Stir the flavor ingredient with cold cream, cover, and refrigerate 8 to 12 hours.
Strain the cream, pressing on the solids to extract as much cream as possible. Discard the solids. Some cream will have been absorbed into the solids; add additional cream if necessary for a recipe. If you are not using the infusion immediately, cover and refrigerate it until needed.infusing time.

Hot Method:
Hot infusions work well for some dried herbs and spices, toasted coconut, toasted nuts or sesame seeds, cinnamon stick, and dried chilis.

Combine the flavor ingredient with the cream, and heat until the cream is scalded.
Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let steep 5 to 30 minutes or more. Most ingredients may be steeped for 20 to 30 minutes or even longer -- to your taste -- but tea will be over-extracted and bitter if steeped longer than 5 minutes and roasted cocoa nibs start releasing bitter flavors after 20 to 30 minutes.
Strain out and discard the flavor ingredients. Some of the cream will have been absorbed into the solids; add additional cream to equal 1 cup, if necessary for a recipe. Use the cream immediately or chill until needed.

Purees
This is easy to remember. To make a fruit ice cream, add a fruit puree. You can do this a couple ways: 1) Add some sugar to chopped- up fruit (subtract that amount from the overall recipe), let it macerate in the fridge (a fancy way of saying become syrupy and delicious), then blend (and strain if seedy). 2) Cook the fruit on the stovetop or in the oven until soft and jammy, then blend and strain. Estimate 3/4 to 1 1/2 cups puree per 1-quart batch, depending on the flavor, starting with smaller amounts and adding to taste. Some favorites of mine: strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, peach, apricot, plum, and cherry.

How to Incorporate Mix-Ins

The Golden Ratio
Estimate 1 to 2 cups mix-ins per 1-quart batch. Start with a smaller amount, then increase to sight, depending on how chunky you want your ice cream.

Think Ahead
Freeze the mix-ins before you incorporate them into the ice cream. If you stir room-temperature mix-ins into just-churned ice cream, you’ll significantly raise its temperature (not what we want). I like to spread them out on a plate so they don’t freeze into one big blob (also not what we want).

Stracciatella
Think of stracciatella as literal chocolate chips. When the ice cream is in its last seconds of churning, pour in melted chocolate, in the thinnest possible stream. The cold ice cream will harden it instantly and the machine’s churner will break it into bits and shards. Estimate 4 ounces chocolate (dark, semisweet, or milk) per 1-quart batch.

Swirls and Ripples
Whether it’s fudge sauce, caramel sauce, jam, or lemon curd, the method is the same: After churning, add some sauce to the base of your container, then ice cream, then sauce, and so on. When you scoop the ice cream, you’ll end up with beautiful layers. Don’t pour into the machine or try stirring in by hand; you’ll end up with a homogenous mixture.

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