• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Amish Heritage
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About Me
  • About Amish
  • Recipes
    • Main Dish Recipes
    • Side Dishes
    • Amish Desserts
      • Amish Pies
      • Amish Cookies and Bars
  • Privacy
  • Newsletter
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Home
    • About Me
    • About Amish
    • Recipes
      • Main Dish Recipes
      • Side Dishes
      • Amish Desserts
        • Amish Pies
        • Amish Cookies and Bars
    • Privacy
    • Newsletter
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Amish Recipes

    Amish Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

    03/29/2022 by Anna 2 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Amish Homemade Ice Cream

    Have you ever tried a bowl of soft-serve Amish homemade ice cream? It's so creamy and delightful!

    And honestly, is there any treat quite as well-loved as ice cream? I'm not sure if there is. Because I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like ice cream. And most of us not only like it, but we also LOVE it!

    bowl of Amish ice cream

    Ice cream comes in so many delicious flavors! And I sure love a bowl or cone of ice cream on any day of the week. Plus it also goes great with cake, pie (especially Dutch apple pie), brownies, etc. It's a wonderful and refreshing dessert!

    Fond Memories of Stopping for Ice Cream Cones

    Growing up as an Amish kid, we didn't get to eat ice cream very often. There were twelve of us in our family, so you can imagine that it took a gallon of ice cream for all of us to get a bowl. And we didn't have money to splurge on ice cream. So it was a rare treat.

    One of my uncles and aunts lived about two hours from us. And once in a while we hired a taxi driver and went to visit them, along with another uncle and cousins. Once, we stopped for ice cream on the way home and soon got into the habit of stopping every time.

    We kids always looked forward to this. And every time we went somewhere in a taxi van with my uncle, we chanted the famous line, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"

    I'll never forget those days, and how special it was to get an ice cream cone.

    Amish Ice cream

    This is a homemade vanilla ice cream with eggs recipe, so it's technically homemade frozen custard. The custard base needs to be cooked, therefore you'll need to plan ahead to allow the mixture time to chill.

    Typically, I cook the custard base the day before I want to make homemade ice cream, as this allows time for it to be well-chilled. Then I add the cream and vanilla just before placing the mix into the ice cream maker bucket.

    If you didn't plan ahead and want to be able to freeze your ice cream within an hour, set the pan of custard base into a bowl of ice water to chill it quickly.

    Your ingredients need to be cold for the ice cream to turn out. And it's also helpful to have the bucket and paddle chilled before starting the process of churning.

    ingredients for ice cream: milk, cream, gelatin, eggs, and vanilla
    ice cream mix
    ice cream maker
    churned homemade ice cream

    Old-fashioned Hand Churned Ice Cream

    I have good memories as an Amish kid, of making homemade ice cream with an ice cream maker. For some reason, it was quite exciting. And we couldn't wait to lick the ice cream off the paddle.

    But typically, we only made ice cream in the wintertime when it snowed. I guess we probably never had enough ice to use, so we made ice cream using snow to freeze it.

    We had one of those old-fashioned hand-crank ice cream makers, and it took some muscle power and dedication to get a gallon of ice cream churned.

    But thankfully, I had seven brothers. They all took turns cranking that handle, and the ice cream got made in record time.

    And those were pleasant evenings, with the family all gathered around enjoying bowls full of homemade vanilla ice cream.

    bowl of homemade Amish ice cream

    This post contains affiliate links.

    Flavored Homemade Ice Cream

    The good news is that this basic vanilla ice cream recipe can easily be turned into whatever flavor of ice cream you want.

    You can make traditional vanilla-flavored ice cream and let everyone top their own with ice cream toppings, or add vanilla beans for a stronger vanilla flavor.

    And you can also easily add other ingredients to this old-fashioned vanilla ice cream.

    Last week I added two cups of frozen red raspberries to our homemade Amish ice cream for a delicious raspberry-flavored ice cream. Everyone approved!

    Just before churning, add any kind of fresh or frozen fruit that you desire, although I recommend that you cut the fruit into small pieces.

    You could add butter pecan syrup and chopped pecans, mint syrup and mini chocolate chips, crushed oreo or chocolate chip cookies, crushed candy bars, mini M&M's, etc. Have fun and create any kind of ice cream you prefer.

    Or serve this homemade vanilla ice cream with my moist chocolate cake recipe or delicious Amish pecan pie.

    vanilla ice cream with strawberries and chocolate drizzle

    4 Qt. Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

    This Amish ice cream recipe begins with about 2 quarts of homemade ice cream base. But after churning, it yields almost 4 qt. of ice cream (my 4 qt. bucket gets full if I add fruit, etc.).

    You will need an ice cream maker to churn the ice cream. I use an electric Oster 4 qt. bucket ice cream maker and I've been happy with it so far.

    You will also need ice cream salt/rock salt to add to the ice when freezing the ice cream. And follow the instructions with your ice cream maker to churn the ice cream.

    When finished churning, you will have a soft-serve ice cream (which I love), but if you prefer firmer ice cream, go ahead and put it in the freezer for an hour before serving.

    It gets pretty hard when frozen for a long time. So you may want to remove it from the freezer for a while before serving, to allow time for it to soften a bit.

    If you try this Amish ice cream recipe and enjoy it, leave me a comment below. And let me know what kind of ice cream you made.

    And you might also enjoy homemade cornstarch pudding.

    bowl of Amish ice cream

    Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

    Rich and creamy, soft-serve homemade vanilla ice cream is a wonderful treat.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 10 mins
    chilling and freezing 1 hr 40 mins
    Total Time 2 hrs 5 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American, Amish
    Servings 12 servings
    Calories 281 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 3 1/2 c. milk
    • 1 - 1 1/2 c. sugar
    • 3 eggs, room temperature
    • 1/4 tsp. salt
    • 1 envelope unflavored gelatin dissolved in 1/4 c. cold water
    • 3 c. heavy whipping cream
    • 1 - 2 Tbsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

    Instructions
     

    • Pour the milk into a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Sprinkle sugar over the top. Do NOT stir! Bring to the boiling point. (The milk will begin to rise as it starts to boil, so keep your eye on it.)
      3 1/2 c. milk, 1 - 1 1/2 c. sugar
    • Beat the eggs and add the salt. Add about a cup of hot milk to the well-beaten eggs to temper. While whisking, slowly add the egg mixture to the hot milk. Whisk and cook until it comes to a light boil. Remove from the heat.
      3 eggs, room temperature, 1/4 tsp. salt
    • Add unflavored gelatin to cold water. Stir to dissolve and let it rest for a few minutes. Then whisk it into the hot egg/milk mixture.
      1 envelope unflavored gelatin dissolved in 1/4 c. cold water
    • Chill. It will be fairly thick, whisk until smooth.
    • Add the heavy cream and vanilla to the well-chilled custard. Whisk to combine.
      3 c. heavy whipping cream, 1 - 2 Tbsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
    • Pour into an ice cream freezer and freeze according to the instructions for your machine. It takes my machine takes approx. 40 minutes.

    Notes

    You will need an ice cream maker, lots of ice, and rock salt to make this ice cream.
    One nice thing about making homemade ice cream is that you can adjust the sugar content according to your taste. Add more sugar if you want it sweeter and less sugar for less sweetness.
    You can add fruit, etc. to your ice cream to create different flavors. Look in the post above for suggestions.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1servingCalories: 281kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 4gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 85mgSodium: 79mgPotassium: 129mgSugar: 26gVitamin A: 749IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 97mgIron: 1mg
    Keyword Amish homemade vanilla ice cream recipe, Amish ice cream
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    More Amish Recipes

    • Old-Fashioned Cherry Delight Recipe
    • Amish Chicken Breasts Recipe
    • Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars (Amish Recipe)
    • Amish Chicken and Rice Casserole

    Feel free to share!

    115 shares

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Gwen Goodman

      July 11, 2022 at 11:43 am

      This was an awesome recipe. It worked just as you said. Everyone loved it. It set up perfectly.
      How would I make this into chocolate ice cream?

      Reply
      • Anna

        July 11, 2022 at 12:41 pm

        I've never tried it, but you could probably add cocoa powder to the custard and even some chopped chocolate.

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I’m Anna. I grew up Amish in the Lancaster County, Pa. area (the heart of Amish country). I currently live in a small rural town in Missouri and am a homeschool mom to 4 great kids. Some of my favorite things to do are spending time in the kitchen, (baking and preparing meals from scratch), gardening, and spending time with my lovely family.

    More about me →

    Recent

    • Photographing the Amish
    • Amish Cheese Spread (Cup Cheese)
    • Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars (Amish Recipe)
    • Amish Beef Barley Soup Recipe

    Seasonal

    • Hearty Hamburger Soup (Amish Soup Recipe)
    • Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Pot Pie
    • Chicken Corn Noodle Soup Recipe -Amish
    • Amish Beef Stew

    AMAZON DISCLOSURE: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. If you click on a link to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you. Please see my full disclosure for further information.

    Most Popular Posts

    Breakfast plate with biscuits and gravy

    Amish Sausage Gravy Recipe for Biscuits and Gravy

    Amish pumpkin pie

    Amish Pumpkin Custard Pie Recipe

    Pennsylvania Dutch chicken croquettes

    Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Croquettes Recipe

    moist Amish cornbread

    Easy Moist Amish Cornbread Recipe

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Me

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Important

    • Privacy

    Copyright © 2022 Amish Heritage

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoCookie policy
    You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.Revoke consent