January
Chocolate
Chocolate ice cream is a smooth, cocoa-rich classic you can find almost anywhere. Making it at home lets you choose your cocoa, from milk-chocolate tan to nearly black.
Independent ice cream publication
Ice cream to make, serve and understand
Stellar Scoops helps people who make ice cream at home, people who serve it at a party or event, and people who simply want the facts.
Open the Scoop PlannerNo. 01 · Serve
Serve ice cream to a crowd
Plan for a crowd with the Scoop Planner, the Dry Ice and Cooler Calculator and Cost per Scoop. Charts for scoop and container sizes sit beside seven guides on storage, keeping it cold, nutrition, cones, sundae bars, toppings and hiring a truck.
No. 02 · Make
Make ice cream at home
Make ice cream at home with the Base Builder and Batch Scaler, which gives base formulas by style and machine in grams and cups, and the Recipe Scaler and Converter. Ten guides cover the steps, custard, dairy-free bases, stabilizers, no-machine and no-churn methods, icy batches, and Cuisinart, KitchenAid and Ninja CREAMi machines.
No. 03 · Know
Know the facts about ice cream
Know is our reference shelf. Live now: a monthly ice cream price tracker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, a flavor library of 66 flavors, the frozen dessert types section, a calendar of ice cream days, and facts pages on statistics, history and a glossary.
Plain inputs, sourced answers
How it works
How our tools work
Each tool asks for a few plain inputs. It applies standard ratios, food-science ranges and published data, like the BLS national average price. Then it shows the answer in units you can shop or cook with, and says where each number comes from. The calculators run in your browser, and the numbers you type are not sent to our server.
- You type. A few plain inputs, like guests and scoop size.
- We apply ratios. Standard ratios, food-science ranges and published national price data.
- You get answers. Tubs, pints, cups, grams or dollars, with every source named.
Flavor of the month
February
Red velvet
Red velvet is a red-tinted, lightly chocolate ice cream with cake pieces and a tangy cream cheese swirl. It turns a favorite cake into a scoop you can make at home without a machine.
March
Mint chocolate chip
Mint chocolate chip is peppermint ice cream full of chocolate chips or shards. It is easy to make at home, because the mint stirs into a cold egg-free base a few drops at a time.
April
Honey lavender
Honey lavender is a pale, floral ice cream sweetened partly with honey. It is rare in shops, so making it at home is the easiest way to taste it.
May
Strawberry
Strawberry is a pink classic that tastes of ripe berries. It is a good one to make at home because the fruit you choose shapes every spoonful.
June
Strawberry
Strawberry is a pink classic that tastes of ripe berries. It is a good one to make at home because the fruit you choose shapes every spoonful.
July
Peach
Peach ice cream tastes like ripe summer peaches, sweet and floral, with soft bits of fruit. It needs no eggs, so a simple Philadelphia base carries it well.
August
Sweet corn
Sweet corn ice cream is a pale yellow custard steeped with fresh corn. It is rare in stores, so making it at home is the easiest way to taste it.
September
Coffee
Coffee ice cream is a roasted, slightly bitter flavor with milky sweetness. It is easy to make at home by steeping ground coffee or beans in the warm dairy.
October
Pumpkin
Pumpkin ice cream is a spiced custard that tastes like pumpkin pie. It is easy to make at home with canned puree and pantry spices, and it is only sometimes found in stores.
November
Butter pecan
Butter pecan is buttery vanilla ice cream full of pecans toasted in butter. It is easy to make at home, because the nuts go in during the last minute of churning.
December
Peppermint
Peppermint ice cream is a cool, sweet base with crushed peppermint candy folded in. It is easy to make at home with an egg-free Philadelphia base and a little extract.
What the moon badges mean
Our moon-phase badges show how easy a flavor is to find, from a rare new moon to a full-moon classic. They are our own mark. You will see them on every flavor card in the flavor library and on each flavor page, with a legend explaining the phases.
- Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home.
- Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs.
- Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers.
- Easy to find Common in most grocery freezers.
- Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere.
Good ice cream starts with good numbers, and we show where ours come from.
Stellar Scoops is an independent publication about ice cream. We are building practical tools, reference data and plain guides for people who make it, serve it and want to understand it. Every number we show names its source, so you can check it yourself.