54 Summer-Ready Ice Cream Recipes

Churn, Baby, Churn

By
Cathy Jacobs
Cathy Jacobs
Cathy Jacobs
A freelance journalist and avid home cook, Cathy Jacobs has more than 10 years of food writing experience, with a focus on curating approachable menus and recipe collections.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
Updated on 07/21/21
Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

The Spruce/Cara Cormack

Summer is ice-cream time. Save big bucks on store-bought cartons and enjoy all your favorite flavors (plus some new creative blends) with this winning collection of frozen treats. From classic chocolate to matcha-infused and maple-bacon—there's a bowl, cake, and popsicle here to please every palate.

Most of these recipes require an ice-cream maker, but a few need only a stand mixer plus a dish or bowl for freezing the ingredient mixture. Get to scooping!

Toppings

While you're thinking about ice cream, don't forget the toppings! Adding a gooey sauce, tender fruit topping, or a crunchy cone or shell, is a great way to upgrade a bowl of ice cream or gelato. Try these tasty additions:

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    Ube Ice Cream

    Ube Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Kristina Vanni

    Ube is a trendy tuber with an eye-catching purple color, and a sweet, vanilla-like flavor. Whip up a batch of ube ice cream at home to rival the Trader Joe's version with our must-know recipe using ube powder and extract. It's a great summer dessert to impress your foodie friends.

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    No-Churn Ice Cream

    No-Churn Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Diana Rattray

    If you've always wanted to try your hand at making ice cream, but lack an ice cream maker, our no-churn ice cream recipe is a great place to start. It takes just a few minutes to throw together, with no cooking required. All you need are a few kitchen tools, 4 ingredients, and a few hours of freezing time. Tweak it with chocolate chips, fruit chunks, or your favorite add-ins for an easy, cooling treat.

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    Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

    Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Cara Cormack

    Hokey Pokey is New Zealand's favorite ice cream flavor, and for good reason. Now you can enjoy the scrumptious treat stateside, with our easy recipe that combines golden, crunchy honeycomb candy (also called sponge candy, or hokey pokey down under) with scoops of store-bought vanilla ice cream.

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    Classic Chocolate Ice Cream

    Chocolate Ice Cream
    Chocolate Ice Cream. Diana Rattray

    What would summer be without chocolate ice cream? Save money by making your own this summer with this foolproof recipe for a rich and creamy version that kids and adults alike will love to eat. Be sure to allow the cooked custard mixture to cool completely before churning in your ice-cream maker.

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    Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

    Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    Impress your gourmet friends with this on-trend matcha ice cream. It's simple to prepare with heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar, and green tea powder, which you can find in Asian supermarkets.

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    Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

    Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

    Diana Rattray

    Peanut-butter loving kids and adults will flip for our nutty, creamy peanut butter swirl ice cream. You'll use an ice cream maker, and just a handful of ingredients, to create the custardy vanilla ice cream base. Then swirl in our essential, 4-ingredient peanut butter sauce, and refreeze to set.

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    Everything Bagel Ice Cream

    Everything Bagel Ice Cream

    The Spruce Eats/Leah Maroney

    The original everything bagel ice cream nearly broke the internet, and spurred long lines, but you don't have to wait to taste this sweet and salty delight. We've cracked the code on making the trendy treat at home, right down to the everything bagel seasoning, with no churning or special ice cream maker required.

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    Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

    Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream

    Kristina Vanni

    Savor the scrumptious flavors of old-fashioned strawberry shortcake in the form of a cooling summer dessert. Our winning strawberry shortcake ice cream boasts a pleasingly pink strawberry custard base, laced generously with cubes of frozen pound cake, so you get cake nibbles in every scoop.

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    Salted Caramel Ice Cream

    Salted Caramel Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Kristina Vanni

    If you like sweet and salty treats, you'll swoon for this luxurious salted caramel ice cream. Our recipe uses an ice cream maker for the silkiest possible ice cream, with the perfect balance of sweet, rich, light, and salty tastes. It's a divine dessert on its own, and goes great alongside pumpkin pie.

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    Black Sesame Ice Cream

    Black Sesame Ice Cream

    Judy Ung

    Black sesame ice cream is a popular Japanese treat with a rich and nutty flavor that may remind you of peanut butter ice cream. The secret is Japanese black sesame paste (or nuri goma), which is made with honey, and imparts a sweet, toasted sesame flavor to the custard. Whole black sesame seeds bring fabulous crunch.

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    Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream

    Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

    Looking for the perfect July 4th party dessert? Whip up this patriotic tri-color ice cream that calls for mixing swirls of vibrant red raspberry sauce and chunky blueberry jam into a homemade vanilla ice-cream base.

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    Mason Jar Ice Cream

    Mason Jar Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Cara Cormack

    Mason jar ice cream is probably the quickest way to get your ice cream fix, without needing to venture out to the ice cream shop. You don't even need an ice cream maker for this hipster-approved recipe that uses good, old-fashioned arm power. It's easy to tweak with your favorite flavorings and add-ins, for a customizable summer treat.

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    Blue Moon Ice Cream

    Blue Moon Ice Cream

    Kristina Vanni

    With its bright blue hue, and a taste like Fruity Pebbles, it's no wonder that blue moon ice cream has been a longtime staple in the Midwest. Instant vanilla pudding gives our recipe a rich and creamy texture the whole family will cheer for. Churn it up at home for enjoying during any moon phase.

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    Spumoni Ice Cream

    Spumoni Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Leah Maroney

    From its trifecta of pistachio custard, cherry, and chocolate ice cream flavors, to the fudgey chocolate base, Spumoni ice cream is a truly special treat. While it takes some effort to make the classic, layered Italian ice cream flavor, the results can't be beat. Try it for a special ending to a spaghetti dinner at any time of year.

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    Two-Ingredient Ice Cream Bread

    Two-Ingredient Ice Cream Bread

    The Spruce/Kristina Vanni

    Two-ingredient ice cream bread is one of those magical recipes that sounds impossible until you try it. Yet it's incredibly easy, and yields a moist and light loaf of quick bread that tastes just like your favorite ice cream flavor. Decorate it with rainbow sprinkles for a kid-pleasing after-school treat, or a delightful work-from-home snack.

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    Paleo Avocado Ice Cream

    Paleo Avocado Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Christine Ma

    Are you missing ice cream on a dairy-free diet? Our incredible plant-based avocado ice cream is so sweet, creamy and delicious, even die-hard ice cream fans will be fooled. Coconut milk teams up with avocado, honey, lime, and salt for a silky, green, guilt-free treat.

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    Coffee Ice Cream

    No Churn Coffee Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Chelsea Ross

    Rich and creamy coffee ice cream made with instant espresso and sweetened condensed milk makes a sophisticated dessert for all your summer dinner parties. You can even use decaf if you crave the intense flavor of coffee without all the keep-you-up caffeine.

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    Orange Sherbet

    Orange Sherbet

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    Creamy and refreshing, with a taste like an orange Creamsicle, our homemade orange sherbet is a must-know ice cream maker recipe. The addition of whipped cream to freshly-squeezed orange juice, and milk, gives this sherbet a lovely, light and airy texture.

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    Cinnamon Ice Cream

    Cinnamon ice cream recipe

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck 

    Looking for a topping that will bring slices of apple pie to the next level? Delight your most refined friends by simply adding ground cinnamon to softened high-quality vanilla ice cream and allowing the mixture to refreeze. The result is the creamy cinnamon ice cream of your dreams.

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    Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

    Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    Rich, smooth, laced through with thick golden syrup, and flecked with abundant chocolate chips, this is the chocolate chip ice cream of your summer dreams. Enjoy it on cones for a sweet and refreshing treat on hotter days, or use it for a birthday party ice cream cake.

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    Ice Cream Cake

    Ice Cream Cake

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

    While you're making all that delicious ice cream, turn it into a stunning ice-cream cake. This frozen dessert sandwiches chocolate, pistachio, and strawberry ice creams between white cake layers. Frost it with fresh whipped cream and add fun sprinkles and maraschino cherries for a party-worthy treat.

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    Ice Cream Tacos

    Ice Cream Tacos

    Leah Maroney

    Imagine combining two of the most popular foods — tacos and ice cream — into one crazy-delicious treat. That's what we've done with our genius ice cream tacos, which involve coating sugared, toasted flour tortillas with a sweet chocolate shell, and stuffing them with your favorite ice cream flavor.

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    Rocky Road Ice Cream

    Rocky Road Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Kristina Vanni

    Delight summer guests with a cone or bowl of homemade rocky road ice cream. Our classic recipe starts with a rich and creamy chocolate ice cream, and is fully loaded with chewy marshmallows, dark chocolate chunks, and crunchy almonds, for a triple whammy of deliciousness.

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    Southern Buttermilk Ice Cream

    Southern Buttermilk Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    Buttermilk is a Southern staple used in everything from pancakes to cornbread. Now you can enjoy its signature, rich, tangy flavor in our creamy buttermilk ice cream that makes the best-ever topping for sliced peach pie, or a warm-from-the-oven apple cobbler.

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    Vegan Oreo Ice Cream Flurries

    Vegan Oreo Ice Cream Flurries

    The Spruce

    If you're missing McDonald's Oreo ice cream flurries on a vegan diet, have we got good news for you. All you need to recreate your guilty pleasure treat in vegan form is a pint of dairy-free vanilla ice cream, and a box of Oreos. (Yes, they're vegan!)

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    Baked Alaska Dessert

    Baked Alaska Dessert

    The Spruce/Diana Chistruga

    Invented over a century ago at New York City's Delmonico's restaurant, baked Alaska is an old-fashioned dessert that still delights diners today. It's easy to make this impressive, frozen treat with layers of ice cream, sponge cake, and fruit, all topped with a cloud of fluffy, browned meringue.

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    Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

    Homemade Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Diana Rattray

    If you're a fan of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, you'll love this homemade version. It's made with fresh or frozen cherries and chunks of good-quality chocolate swirled into a vanilla-based custard.

  • 28 of 52

    Spaghettieis Ice Cream Sundae

    Spaghettieis Ice Cream Sundae

    The Spruce/Abbey Littlejohn

    What looks like a plate of pasta, and tastes like an ice cream sundae? It's spaghettieis, a fun and unique ice cream confection originating from Germany. Strings of vanilla ice cream (created with a potato ricer) play the role of noodles, while strawberry sauce subs in for marinara, and white chocolate or coconut shavings mimic Parmesan cheese.

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    Butter Pecan Ice Cream

    A bowl with two scoops of butter pecan ice cream

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

    This butter pecan ice-cream recipe is made without eggs, without cooking the custard before churning, and with honey instead of sugar for a richer flavor. The pecans are the star of the show because they are toasted and coated in butter before being added to the ice-cream base.

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    Dole Whip

    Dole Whip

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney 

    A popular Hawaiian dessert, this refreshing fruit-flavored ice cream is the ideal treat on a hot summer day. Pineapple, pineapple juice, coconut milk, and vanilla ice cream are blended together until thick and creamy.

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    Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

    Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

    The Spruce / Nyssa Tanner

    There's no need to wait for the ice cream truck to enjoy old-fashioned strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. You need only 4 ingredients, and a set of ice pop molds, for these deliciously sweet, nutty, and crunchy frozen treats. They are the perfect hand-held dessert for cookouts, pool parties, and other summer gatherings.

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    Rum Raisin Ice Cream

    Rum Raisin Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

    Here is proof that ice cream isn't just for kids. In this recipe, rum is incorporated in two ways: First, it is added to the custard mixture and then the raisins are soaked in the rum, infusing flavor and plumping them up.

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    Giant Ice Cream Sandwich

    Giant Ice Cream Sandwich

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    Indulge in a nostalgic summer childhood treat with our giant ice cream sandwich cake. It is easy to assemble with a convenient cake mix, and store-bought vanilla ice cream, and makes a crowd-pleasing dessert for summer birthday parties.

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    Halva Candy Ice Cream

    Halva Candy Ice Cream

    Anita Schecter

    If you are a fan of chef Yotam Ottolenghi, you may already know about his famous halva ice cream. Our version of the sweet, creamy, crunchy treat combines vanilla ice cream ingredients with tahini for a rich and custardy ice cream that tastes like the iconic Middle Eastern halva candy.

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    Fresh Peach Ice Cream

    Fresh Peach Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Elaine Lemm

    Fresh peaches are one of the joys of summer and this ice cream is a fantastic way to celebrate and extend their luscious, ripe flavor. Enjoy it on its own, in a bowl or cone, or use it for topping slices of warm peach pie.

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    Italian Vanilla Gelato

    Italian Vanilla Gelato

    The Spruce/Julia Hartbeck

    When you can't travel to Italy for gelato, our homemade vanilla gelato is the next best thing. It's lower in fat than American vanilla ice creams, with a richer, creamier consistency that is deeply satisfying. Follow the tips in the recipe for making it by hand, or using an ice cream maker.

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    Ice Cream Float

    Ice Cream Float

    The Spruce Eats/Leah Maroney

    You don't have to travel back in time for a classic ice cream float. All you need to make this all-American treat are some root beer, a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a quick stove-top cinnamon-syrup. Serve in a frosted glass, with a straw and a long spoon, garnished with a stemmed maraschino cherry.

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    Carrot Cake Ice Cream

    Carrot Cake Ice Cream

    Joy/Flickr

    Creamy, carrotty, and a little boozy, this carrot cake ice cream is heaven in a dish. It's basically a luscious, creamy vanilla ice cream with all your favorite carrot cake flavors swirled throughout, including tangy cream cheese, cinnamon, brown sugar, shredded carrots, golden raisins, and walnuts, and an (optional) glug of rum.

  • 39 of 52

    Affogato

    Affogato

    The Spruce/S&C Design Studios

    If you enjoy coffee with dessert, why not combine the two together? That's what the Italians do with affogato, a simple and delicious after-dinner treat. Just scoop some vanilla ice cream or gelato into bowls, and pour over with hot brewed espresso. Serve at once, topping with chocolate shavings or curls if you want to be fancy.

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    Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream

    Easy chocolate ice cream recipe

    The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

    Attention, peanut butter-chocolate lovers. Chunks of real peanut butter cookie dough are folded into the chocolate custard in this outstandingly rich homemade ice cream that also features mini chocolate chips and optional roasted peanuts.

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    Maple Walnut Ice Cream

    Best-Ever Maple Walnut Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

    Pure maple syrup is the secret to this fantastically flavorful walnut-studded ice cream with an awesome crunchy texture. You can also swap the walnuts for pecans, if you wish.

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    Mint Ice Cream

    Mint ice cream with a sprig of fresh mint

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni 

    Cool and refreshing, mint ice cream is a perfect way to cool down on a hot day. Mint extract and green food coloring are the key ingredients in this fun recipe. It's a great afternoon snack or light dessert, and you can add kid appeal with mini chocolate chips.

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    Banana Ice Cream

    Banana ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni 

    This banana ice-cream recipe is made with only one ingredient—ripe bananas. The high natural pectin and a small amount of fat found in the fruit enable you to create a rich, creamy ice-cream texture rather than an icy one like other frozen fruit. 

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    Honey Pistachio Ice Cream

    Honey pistachio ice cream recipe

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

    A heavenly honey-flavored custard base is studded with roasted pistachio pieces in this from-scratch ice cream that fulfills your need for a sweet and salty treat. You can add a few drops of green food coloring, if you wish, to add a tempting touch of color.

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    Lavender Honey Ice Cream

    Lavender Ice Cream

    @jillamos / Twenty20

    Dreamy, gorgeously purple lavender honey ice cream just begs for a fun occasion to be served. Make this elegant, creamy homemade ice cream for serving at bridal and baby showers, summer backyard parties, or impromptu dinners at home with friends.

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    Semifreddo

    Semifreddo

    The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

    Semifreddo is a no-churn ice-cream recipe, so you don't need a machine to make it. Instead, this Italian dessert is mixed, then molded in a loaf pan and left to freeze. Topped with almonds and sliced to serve, it's a delicious and impressive treat for summer affairs.

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    Mochi Ice Cream

    Mochi Ice Cream

     The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

    Mochi ice cream wraps Japanese sweet glutinous rice flour around an ice-cream ball. Classic flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry taste delicious, but you can also try adventurous ice-cream options such as Kona coffee, green tea, plum wine, and red bean.

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    Coconut Ice Cream

    Coconut Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Cara Cormack

    Coconut milk, a traditional ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisines, is used instead of the traditional milk or cream in this delectable ice cream. Serve it for dessert after a Thai food dinner this summer or anytime you crave the nutty, tropical flavor of coconut.

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    No-Churn Maple Bacon Ice Cream

    No-Churn Maple Bacon Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney

    Satisfy a bacon craving and enjoy dessert at the same time with this recipe, which combines maple ice cream with candied bacon pieces. It's easy to make in your freezer (no ice-cream maker required), and it's sure to delight your foodie friends and grilling buddies alike.

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    Sweet Potato Ice Cream

    Sweet Potato Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Diana Rattray

    Enjoy the favorite flavor of nutmeg and cinnamon-spiced sweet potato pie with a genius recipe that turns sweet potatoes into a deliciously winning summertime dessert. For a pretty presentation, serve it topped with toasted coconut flakes or drizzled with butterscotch sauce.

  • 51 of 52

    Blueberry Ice Cream

    Blueberry Ice Cream

    The Spruce / Kajakiki

    Blueberries are cooked down with sugar, then added to a vanilla-infused base before freezing in your ice-cream maker. The fruity ice cream that results is lovely on its own and makes a wonderful topping for lemon pound cake.

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    Snow Ice Cream

    Snow Ice Cream

    The Spruce/Kristina Vanni & Eric Kleinberg

    If you think of ice cream solely as a summer treat, we're here to blow your mind. Freshly fallen snow is a key ingredient in this magical wintertime ice cream (though you could use shaved ice if the real stuff isn't available). It takes a mere 5 minutes to make, and is a great cold day activity for kids.