By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 40 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- 4(307)
- Notes
- Read community notes
You don’t need an ice cream maker for rich, custardy ice cream. With the help of an electric mixer and food processor, you can create ice cream with the texture of soft serve. One of the keys to a silky texture without the ice crystals that plague other no-churn ice cream recipes is using cream cheese (a trick picked up from Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams). This helps hold the custard's emulsification even during freezing. This ice cream is best served right out of the food processor or blender, but if you want to make it entirely ahead, take it out of the freezer 20 minutes before serving. If you would like to make this recipe with an ice cream maker, freeze the custard according to manufacturer’s directions after cooling it completely.
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Ingredients
Yield:About 1½ pints
- 6large egg yolks
- ½cup/100 grams granulated sugar
- ⅓cup/79 milliliters flavorful honey
- 2teaspoons/10 milliliters vanilla extract
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3cups/710 milliliters heavy cream
- 3ounces/85 grams cream cheese, cubed, at room temperature
- ⅓cup/79 milliliters whole milk
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (14 servings)
278 calories; 23 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 16 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 90 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
In a large bowl, whisk together yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla and salt until smooth.
Step
2
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a simmer.
Step
3
Whisking the yolks constantly, slowly pour half the hot cream into the egg mixture. Scrape custard back into saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (180 degrees on an instant-read or candy thermometer). Do not let mixture come to a simmer or it could curdle. Strain into a heatproof bowl and whisk in cream cheese until completely melted.
Step
4
Nestle bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice water. Using a hand mixer or immersion blender, whip custard until thick and cold, about 5 minutes. Spoon mixture into 3 or 4 ice cube trays. Freeze for at least 3 hours or overnight (or up to 1 week).
Step
5
Using an offset spatula or butter knife, pop out ice cream cubes. Transfer to a food processor or blender. Pulse cubes with milk until the ice cream is smooth and has the consistency of soft serve. Serve immediately, or return to container and freeze for up to 1 week.
Ratings
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out of 5
307
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Cooking Notes
Nancy
Custard is delicious. Here is an EASY recipe for strawberry soft serve (based on Mark Bittman's food-processor sorbet):
Put 2 cups frozen strawberries in a food processor with 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar and 2/3 cup heavy cream. Process and serve: It's still frozen, so that's all you need to do. Put leftover ice cream in a freezer container. The freezer will harden it to normal ice cream consistency.
JamesDJ
In the video the cream cheese is added to the custard in the saucepan, which makes sense, because then I imagine it would have an easier time melting then it would after it's been poured into a bowl; also the video clearly shows the custard being poured directly into the bowl without being strained. I know that usually the written recipe is to be followed instead of the video when there's a discrepancy, but in this instance the video seems preferable. Thoughts?
DB
Always a good idea to strain any kind of custard based ice cream so that you remove and egg bits that might have coagulated together despite your best efforts to heat the mixture to just the right temperature. Yes you can add the cream cheese on the stove -- again be careful not to overheat though.
A
I make ice cream and have wrestled with how long to cook the custard (or equivalent) on the stove. David Lebovitz wrote that 175 degrees suffices with his ice cream recipe. I have found that far more helpful than looking to see if the custard is thick enough on a spoon. Just saying.
Kat
Epic fail... I dislike using these modern terms like - my bad... this does not work - buy an ice cream maker (although I don't have one ) or buy high quality already made stuff. This was for my anniversary - EPIC FAIL... liquid - not soft serve... Super bummer... Don't make this - just buy some at the store.
Jeanette
If you use ramekins or muffin holders instead of ice cube trays, just remember that you need to allow more time for the ice cream to freeze. Three hours is fine to freeze the the smaller volumes in an ice cube tray but for muffin holders or ramekins, allow at least six hours. That should help prevent the runny mess you experienced.
Hazel
everyone I give this ice cream loves it and vows to never buy or eat store bought ice cream again.
it is easy, fast, and tastes amazing. I did not alter any of the ingredients or instructions.
Jeanette
You could use mascarpone or (as Lexi below did), substitute goat cheese, which would add a wonderful tang.
ELW
I made as written except I left out the cream cheese (didn't have it). I froze it in an ice-cream maker. I found straining the custard was important. I like but don't love the results - I find it a little sweet and eggy. I'm looking for something like the honey soft serve ice-cream we ate at Honey Paw in Portland, Maine, and this is not quite it. Still good!
Karen
Made this recipe twice and came out great both time. Very important to use good flavorful honey, takes a little while but worth it. Goes well on it’s one or with a variety of dessert, good substitue to vanilla ice cream.
covid 1 3/28
Try to make with barista blend oat milk and fairlife creamer or something
Lola
Is there any way that I could make this chocolate??? If anyone has made it or can tell me how I would really appreciate it.
Amy
I was thinking just add some nice cocoa powder? dunno
AnnP
Doubled the batch - the only modification I made was to add the seed paste from 1/2 vanilla bean.
Pre-cooled a large roaster pan in the chest freezer; sampled after 3 hours - delish. Processed the following am and stored what little remained in the chest freezer. It kept a nanosecond after my husband discovered the leftovers.
Looking for flavor variants.
Janice Byer
Inspired by the homemade ice cream of my childhood, I added the juice of one lemon. We loved the delicately lemony result.
Pat
Could maple syrup be used instead of honey?
Linda
Can I make this in an ice cream maker?
Bernice Glenn
Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams does not use egg yolks in her recipes. She uses cornstarch to thicken the mix.
Hazel
everyone I give this ice cream loves it and vows to never buy or eat store bought ice cream again.
it is easy, fast, and tastes amazing. I did not alter any of the ingredients or instructions.
vicki
Just made this...delicious! But is it essential to freeze the custard in ice cube trays...or other small container? Tough getting it all out....Would prefer to freeze in one container before transferring to blender/food processor. Has anyone tried this? Thanks.
Elsie
If using an ice cream maker, when do you ad the milk?
Jamlady
Do you have any idea how many carbs are in a serving and how many servings this recipe makes? Could I reduce or eliminate the sugar?
Steve Doig
According to the nutrition information link just below the ingredient list (ahem), there are 17 grams of carbs in each of the 12 servings...
Sue
You don't want to reduce the sugar by much in ice cream recipes because sugar prevents the mixture from freezing solid -- ice rocks instead of ice cream. Alcohol has a similar effect, so you might reduce the sugar by a few tbsp and add alcohol, but that may not help with your dietary goals. A few sugar-subs also inhibit hard freezing (erythritol, notably), but as these are usually sweeter than sugar by volume and have pronounced flavors, you be best finding a recipe designed to be low-sugar.
TeddyDavis
Took a long time to get ice cream out of ice cube trays so softened too much. Would put in container in freezer for a while before serving.
eleni
Is there a substitute for the cream cheese in this recipe?
I live in a part of Europe where the only kind of cream cheese is spreadable Philadelphia.
Jeanette
You could use mascarpone or (as Lexi below did), substitute goat cheese, which would add a wonderful tang.
Lexi
Loved this recipe! Used goat cheese instead of cream cheese, which added an amazing, slight tartness. Would suggest possibly using less sugar - perhaps 1/4c instead of 1/2. It definitely helped having two cooks in the kitchen for this one, as a recommendation.
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