Grab your ice cream machine and a few simple, wholesome ingredients for this creamy, vanilla old fashioned ice cream.
Key Takeaways: Old Fashioned Ice Cream
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Chill/Freeze Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours and 15 minutes
- Servings: 8 servings
- Cook Method: Eggs are tempered with hot milk and cream.
- Flavor & Texture: Rich vanilla flavor and a creamy, frozen texture.
- Difficulty: Easy. You’ll find some simple mixing, heating, cooling, and freezing.
- Why this Recipe? The ingredients are pantry staples, wholesome, and yield the creamiest vanilla ice cream.
Old-fashioned ice cream brings the rich flavor of cream, tempered egg yolks, and homemade vanilla into your frozen treat. Tempering transforms the cream-and-yolk base from runny to silky smooth, deepening flavor and addressing any raw-egg food-safety concerns.
The process is simple, yielding a delicious vanilla custard base that works well on its own or with your choice of added flavors, mix-ins, or toppings. Serve this ice cream as the star dessert or pair it with a whole wheat blueberry cobbler, apple cake with caramel glaze, or a tangy sourdough chocolate cake.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Creamy, smooth feel – Full-fat dairy and fresh eggs produce a thick, velvety consistency that stays smooth when frozen.
Rich, vanilla flavor – Farm-fresh eggs and homemade vanilla extract give this ice cream
Simple ingredients – Dairy, eggs, sugar, and vanilla – simple, wholesome ingredients that you’re guaranteed to have on hand.
Ingredients
Whole milk – Full-fat milk gives the ice cream a creamier texture.
Eggs – Farm-fresh eggs add the most nutrition, flavor, and color to this recipe. Use the yolks for this ice cream, but keep the egg whites to add to your cottage cheese scrambled eggs or easy zucchini frittata for breakfast this week.
Vanilla – Homemade extract is easy to make and adds deep flavor to recipes like homemade vanilla buttercream, cherry cheesecake, sourdough vanilla cake, and this old-fashioned ice cream recipe.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Modifications and Variations
- Add shaved chocolate for a chocolate chip ice cream.
- Add fresh, chopped strawberries, peaches, or raspberries for bright, fruity flavor.
- For a chocolate version, add half a cup of cocoa powder to the mixture and mix thoroughly before churning.
- Add up to ¾ cup of homemade nut butter for a delicious, sweet and salty spin.
How to Make Old Fashioned Ice Cream
Step 1: Confirm that your ice cream maker is prepped and ready. Add milk and cream to a saucepan and heat over low or medium-low heat. Aim for a simmer, not a boil. Once hot, remove the saucepan from the heat.
Step 2: Add egg yolks and sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until lighter in color and airy.
Step 3: Slowly but steadily pour the hot milk and cream into the whipped eggs and sugar, whisking continuously until smooth and fully incorporated.
Step 4: Pour all ingredients back into the saucepan and whisk over medium-low heat until reaching 165-170 degrees Fahrenheit. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of egg. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours or until chilled through.
Step 5: Once chilled, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and prepare it following the instructions on your machine. Add mix-ins during the last few minutes of churning.
Step 6: Serve as soft-serve consistency from the ice cream maker, or pour the ice cream into a loaf pan and freeze to firm up further before serving.
Lisa’s Expert Tips
- Keep the milk and cream mixture from boiling. Low to medium-low heat helps prevent scalding or curdling.
- Whisk constantly while tempering the eggs to avoid curdled, cooked eggs.
- Make sure your ice cream mixture is fully chilled before adding to the ice cream maker.
- Add mix-ins while the ice cream churns, especially toward the end when the ice cream is thickening.
Old Fashioned Ice Cream FAQs
Leftovers keep best when stored in a freezer-safe, airtight container with plastic wrap pressed onto the surface of the ice cream. This keeps air off the ice cream and prevents ice crystals from forming.
This recipe brings together a simple base of milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. It’s deliciously creamy and sweet, with a rich vanilla flavor enjoyed as-is or with your choice of added flavors, mix-ins, or toppings.
Old fashioned refers to the simple dairy and egg, custard-style recipe. For egg-free, blend-and-churn recipes, try homemade peach ice cream, pumpkin ice cream, or java chip ice cream.
If they begin to curdle, you can blend the mixture with an immersion blender and strain it before freezing.
More Fun Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Healthy Hot Chocolate
- Homemade Pop Tarts
- Baked Apple Cider Donuts
- Easy Homemade Larabars
- Healthy Homemade Gummy Bears
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Old Fashioned Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 2 cups raw cream
- 6 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Confirm that your ice cream maker is prepped and ready. Add milk and cream to a saucepan and heat over low or medium-low heat. You want a simmer at most, not a boil. Once hot, remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Add egg yolks and sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until lighter in color and airy.
- Slowly and steadily pour the hot milk and cream into the whipped eggs and sugar, whisking continuously until smooth and fully incorporated.
- Pour all ingredients back into the saucepan and whisk over medium-low heat until reaching 165-170 degrees Fahrenheit. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of egg. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours or until chilled through.
- Once chilled, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and prepare according to the instructions on your specific machine.
- Serve as soft-serve consistency from the ice cream maker, or pour the ice cream into a loaf pan and freeze to firm up before serving.
Notes
- Keep the mixture from boiling. Keep the heat low to medium-low to prevent scalding or curdling.
- Whisk constantly while tempering the eggs to avoid curdled, cooked eggs.
- Make sure your ice cream mixture is fully chilled before adding to the ice cream maker.
- Add mix-ins while the ice cream churns, especially toward the end when the ice cream is thickening.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am so excited to try this! It looks delicious and brings me back to my childhood.