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Maple walnut ice cream

A light tan ice cream sweetened with maple syrup and studded with toasted walnuts, with a woodsy, caramel-like sweetness.

Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers. What the badge means

Maple walnut ice cream is a light tan, maple-sweetened ice cream with toasted walnuts folded through. It is sometimes found. You will see it in some shops and some grocery freezers, but not everywhere.

This page covers what it tastes like, where it comes from, how to make maple walnut ice cream at home, what to serve with it, how common it is and what the nutrition figures show.

What maple walnut tastes like

Maple walnut tastes woodsy and sweet, with a caramel-like warmth that comes from maple syrup rather than plain sugar. The syrup sweetens the base and gives the ice cream its light tan color.

Toasted walnuts add crunch and a slightly bitter, roasty edge that keeps the maple from tasting flat. Each spoonful should have smooth, creamy ice cream and a few firm pieces of nut.

The ingredients are short and simple: a dairy base, maple syrup as part of the sweetener, and chopped, toasted walnuts. It sits in the nuts and caramel section of our flavor library.

Where maple walnut comes from

Yankee Magazine calls maple walnut perhaps the most New England flavor of all. It says the flavor has been a regional favorite there since at least the early 1900s, which makes sense for a part of the country known for its maple syrup.

The flavor is easy to make with standard ingredients. The Guelph e-Book lists walnuts among the common ice cream nuts, along with pecans, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios, and says nuts usually go in at about 10% by weight. Federal rules also cover nut flavors: under 21 CFR 135.110, when real nuts are used with artificial nut flavor, the artificial flavor counts as the main one if the nuts make up less than 2% of the finished ice cream.

National surveys track maple more broadly. IDFA’s survey line reads plain “Maple”, not maple walnut. The FDA lists walnuts as tree nuts, a major food allergen.

How to make maple walnut at home

The usual base style for maple walnut is French custard, made with egg yolks. Philadelphia style, with no eggs, also works. The Base Builder sets up a French custard base sized to your machine. It gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.

The flavor goes in through the sweetener. Replace part of the sugar with pure maple syrup, and count the syrup as sweetener in the base. Fold in chopped, toasted walnuts at the end of churning. The Guelph e-Book says nuts are usually added at about 10% by weight and should be oil roasted or heat treated. In factories, pieces like nuts go in as the ice cream leaves the freezer, about as soft as soft serve, which is why home cooks add them at the end.

If you already have a maple walnut recipe you like, the Recipe Scaler resizes it to your machine and converts cups to grams.

Base formula

Open the Base Builder: French custard (egg yolks)

Other styles that suit it: Philadelphia (no eggs)

The Base Builder gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.

What to serve with maple walnut

Maple walnut is a natural partner for fall desserts. Serve a scoop on warm apple pie, where the maple and the baked apples share the same cozy sweetness. It also suits pumpkin pie, standing in for whipped cream with more flavor and some crunch.

For something simpler, pair it with a cup of coffee. The roasty, slightly bitter coffee balances the sweet maple, and the toasted walnuts echo the coffee's warm notes.

  • apple pie
  • pumpkin pie
  • coffee

How common maple walnut is

Our badge puts maple walnut at 3 of 5, a first quarter moon labeled "Sometimes found": it turns up in some shops and some grocery freezers. The badge shows how easy it is to find, not how much people like it.

In IDFA's April 2026 survey of 2,205 U.S. adults, the line "Maple" ranked 34th of 40, with 2% picking it as one of up to five favorites. In the same survey, 0% named it their single favorite. In IDFA's April 2024 survey of 2,203 U.S. adults, "Maple" ranked 36th of 40, again with 2%. Those lines cover maple as a whole, not maple walnut alone.

How it ranks in surveys and order data

SurveyResult
IDFA survey, April 20262,205 U.S. adults, online, April 7-9, 2026, margin of error +/-2 pointsRanked 34th of 40: 2% picked it as one of up to five favoritesThe survey's line: Maple
IDFA survey, April 20262,205 U.S. adults, online, April 7-9, 2026, margin of error +/-2 points0% named it their single favorite
IDFA survey, April 20242,203 U.S. adults, online, April 16-18, 2024, margin of error +/-2 pointsRanked 36th of 40: 2% picked it as one of up to five favoritesThe survey's line: Maple
  1. Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home.
  2. Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs.
  3. Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers.
  4. Easy to find Common in most grocery freezers.
  5. Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere.

Nutrition, roughly

FoodData Central has no record for maple walnut itself, so these figures are for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich, not for this flavor. Regular vanilla has 207 kcal per 100 grams, or about 137 kcal in a 1/2 cup (66 g) portion. Rich vanilla has 249 kcal per 100 grams. Maple syrup and walnuts change these numbers.

Nutrition per 100 grams

FoodData Central record Calories Fat Saturated fat Sugars Protein
Ice creams, vanilla FDC 167575 1/2 cup (66 g): about 137 kcal, 7.3 g fat 207 kcal 11 g 6.79 g 21.2 g 3.5 g
Ice creams, vanilla, rich FDC 167573 249 kcal 16.2 g 10.30 g 20.6 g 3.5 g

FoodData Central has no record for maple walnut itself: these are the figures for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich. Mix-ins and sweeteners change them.

Questions people ask

How do you make maple walnut ice cream at home?

Start with a French custard base, replace part of the sugar with pure maple syrup, and fold in chopped, toasted walnuts at the end of churning. The Base Builder sets up the base formula for your machine.

Is maple walnut ice cream safe for people with nut allergies?

No. Walnuts are tree nuts, which the FDA lists as a major food allergen. Anyone with a tree nut allergy should avoid maple walnut ice cream unless it is made without the walnuts.

When should I add the walnuts to the ice cream?

Add them at the end of churning. That matches how factories do it: nuts go in as the ice cream leaves the freezer, when it is about as soft as soft serve and about half of its water is frozen.

Nut and caramel ice cream flavors · All flavors

Plan and make it with these

Sources

  1. 7 Old-School New England Ice Cream Favorites Yankee Magazine
  2. Ice cream preferences of U.S. adults, topline results (Morning Consult for IDFA, April 7 to 9, 2026) International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  3. Ice Cream Technology e-Book: Nuts in Ice Cream H. Douglas Goff, University of Guelph
  4. Food Allergies: What You Need to Know U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  5. 21 CFR 135.110, Ice cream and frozen custard Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)
  6. Ice Cream Technology e-Book: Freezing/Whipping of Ice Cream H. Douglas Goff, University of Guelph
  7. Ice cream survey of U.S. adults, topline results (Morning Consult for IDFA, April 16 to 18, 2024) International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  8. Ice creams, vanilla (FDC 167575) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
  9. Ice creams, vanilla, rich (FDC 167573) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

Every data source the site uses is on the Sources page.