Making ice cream at home
Base formulas and fixes for CREAMi, bowl, compressor and no-churn ice cream.
This section is for anyone who wants to make ice cream at home, with whatever you have: a Ninja CREAMi, a KitchenAid bowl, a Cuisinart or compressor machine, a no-churn recipe or no machine at all. The guides walk you from base to hardened pint and help you fix what goes wrong.
Start with the step-by-step guide. Each guide pairs the machine makers' numbers with standard food-science ranges and links the Base Builder and Recipe Scaler, which size a base to your machine in grams and cups.
In this section
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How to make ice cream
How to make ice cream at home, step by step
This guide shows how to make ice cream at home in five steps: mix and heat the base, age it, churn it, add mix-ins, and harden it.
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Custard vs Philadelphia-style
Custard vs Philadelphia-style ice cream
A custard base ice cream uses egg yolks and has to be cooked.
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Dairy-free and vegan bases
Dairy-free and vegan ice cream bases
A dairy-free base has to replace two things milk normally brings to ice cream: fat and milk solids.
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Stabilizers and emulsifiers
Ice cream stabilizers and emulsifiers, explained
Stabilizers and emulsifiers are the small-print ingredients on a carton of ice cream, and they do real work on texture.
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Ice cream without a machine
How to make ice cream without a machine
You can make real ice cream at home with a couple of zip-top bags, a bucket of salted ice, or a pan and a whisk.
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No-churn ice cream
No-churn ice cream: how it works and its limits
No-churn ice cream works because two ingredients do the jobs a machine normally does.
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Why homemade ice cream is icy
Why homemade ice cream is icy, and how to fix it
Homemade ice cream turns icy when its ice crystals grow big enough for your tongue to notice.
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Cuisinart guide
Cuisinart ice cream maker guide: ICE-21 and ICE-30BC
This guide covers the two Cuisinart freezer-bowl machines, the 1 1/2 quart ICE-21 and the 2 quart ICE-30BC.
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KitchenAid attachment guide
KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment guide
This guide walks you through the KitchenAid ice cream attachment from freezer to bowl: how long to freeze it, how much batter it holds, and how to run it on STIR.
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Ninja CREAMi guide
Ninja CREAMi guide: programs, re-spin and fixes
This guide walks you through the Ninja CREAMi from a liquid base to a scoopable pint: the 24 hour freeze, what each program is for, when to use RE-SPIN, how to add mix-ins, and what to do when a pint comes out crumbly, powdery or soft.
Other sections
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Tools
Ice cream calculators
Calculators that turn a few numbers into amounts you can shop or cook with.
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Serve
Serving ice cream to a crowd
Plain hosting and buying math for parties, schools, weddings, offices and small shops.
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Flavors
Ice cream flavors
Meet 66 ice cream flavors in nine groups, each with a moon badge showing how easy it is to find.
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Types
Types of frozen desserts
See what sets gelato, sorbet, frozen custard and other frozen desserts apart, from milkfat and air to how each is made.
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Prices
Ice cream prices
A monthly tracker of U.S. ice cream prices, based on federal labor statistics.
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Days
Ice cream days
A calendar of ice cream days, from National Ice Cream Day to flavor days.
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Facts
Ice cream facts and history
Ice cream facts and history with cited sources, plus a glossary in plain words.