31 Summer Ready Ice-Cream Recipes You Can Make at Home

Churn, Baby, Churn

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Updated 09/26/20

Fresh Peach Ice Cream — The Spruce / Elaine Lemm

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 and coffee to ones infused with matcha and even maple-bacon, there's a bowl here to please every palate.

Note: 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.

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No-Cook Chocolate Ice Cream

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Coffee Ice Cream

The Spruce / Leah Maroney

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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Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

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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Classic Chocolate Ice Cream

The Spruce / 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

Andrea Bricco / Photodisc / Getty Images

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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Cinnamon Ice Cream

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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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.
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Mint Ice Cream

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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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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Banana Ice Cream

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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Spumoni Ice Cream

The Spruce / Leah Maroney

This Italian ice cream is a labor of love, but it's so worth it. Spumoni ice cream is similar to Neapolitan ice cream but it's made with, in this case, store-bought chocolate ice cream and a semi-homemade cherry ice cream to save time, but the pistachio frozen custard is totally homemade and fabulous.
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Lavender Honey Ice Cream

Carin Krasner / Getty Images

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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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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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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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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Magic Shell

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

A fun and simple topping for any ice-cream treat—including bars and cones—create a magic shell at home. The recipe melts semisweet chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave to create a delicious topping that hardens into a crackly shell everyone will love.
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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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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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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

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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Coconut Ice Cream

Jules Stonesoup / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

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

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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No-Churn Ice Cream

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

Don't worry if you don't have a fancy ice-cream maker. This no-churn ice-cream recipe only requires a few ingredients, no cooking, and no special equipment. Fold in mix-ins like chocolate chips or cookie crumbles or keep it simply vanilla.
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Sweet Basil Ice Cream

Brett Stevens / Getty Images

Sweet basil ice cream has a fresh, herbaceous flavor but is still sweet enough to satisfy a dessert craving. It makes a wonderful ending to a steak and potato dinner. For a pretty presentation, serve it in glass or ceramic bowls, to show off the minty green color and decorate with additional basil leaves or seasonal fresh berries.
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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.
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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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Maple Walnut Ice Cream

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

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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Sugar-Free Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

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Parents of cavity-prone kids or those avoiding refined sugars will appreciate this recipe for sugar-free mint chocolate ice cream that doesn't skimp on sweetness or flavor. This simple recipe uses a stand mixer and your freezer instead of an ice-cream maker and is ready to enjoy in 2 to 3 hours.
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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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Papaya Ice Cream

Elizabeth Watt / Getty Images

Only five ingredients are needed to make a papaya ice cream that's especially refreshing on hot summer days. To peel the papaya, simply cut the whole fruit in half lengthwise, scoop out and discard the black seeds at the center, and use a sharp knife to cut the edible fruit from the skin.

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Rhubarb Ice Cream

Lisa Barber / Getty Images

When rhubarb is bountiful in your garden, that's the time to make this recipe with its signature sweet-tart. You can also replace up to half of the rhubarb with ripe fresh strawberries to make a mixed ice cream.
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Honey Pistachio Ice Cream

The Spruce / Anita Schecter

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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Blackberry Ice Cream With Sour Cream

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

Sour cream adds a pleasant tang to this delicious fresh blackberry ice cream. The simple, stovetop blackberry, sugar, and lemon juice mixture is blended and strained before being added to the cream and sour cream custard base.

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