What Equipment Do You Need To Make Homemade Ice Cream?

Discover the essential kitchen equipment for making delicious homemade ice cream. Your guide to creating frozen desserts in your own kitchen.

There’s a certain joy that comes with creating your very own ice cream from scratch. An opportunity to customise your flavours, experiment with ingredients, craft delicious healthful food for yourself and your loved ones and the very best part, you get to savour the sweet fruits of your labour.

You don’t need a massive kitchen or a collection of complex gadgets to create your own homemade ice cream though, with just a few essential pieces of equipment and a dash of creativity, making homemade ice cream becomes a breeze.

Crafting Creamy Delights: What you’ll need:

Making homemade ice cream offers an exciting, experimental and fun chance to create something delicious and personalised and anyone can do it. Whether you are a novice or a more seasoned home chef, it’s far easier than you might think.

There are several reasons to make your own homemade ice cream:

• Freshness and Quality Control:
  When crafting your own ice cream, you have complete control over the ingredients used. You can opt for fresh, high-quality dairy, and choose natural colourings and real fruits. This level of control ensures that your ice cream is free from artificial additives and preservatives, delivering a truly delectable and pure taste.
• Endless Flavour Possibilities:
  Making homemade ice cream opens up endless flavour possibilities. From classic vanilla and chocolate to exotic combinations like lavender and honey or salted caramel, or how about bacon and maple syrup? The choices are as vast as your imagination. Experimenting with unique flavour profiles allows you to create personalised frozen treats tailored to your taste preferences.
• Creativity and Customisation:
  Crafting homemade ice cream allows you to be a culinary artist, customising each batch to suit your preferences. You can add mix-ins like chocolate chips, nuts, or cookie pieces to add texture and excitement, and there’s always space for a sprinkle of sprinkles too. This creativity elevates your ice cream experience, making it a personalised treat like no other.
• Fun Family Activity:
  Making ice cream at home can be a fun and engaging activity for the whole family. It’s a fantastic way to bond with loved ones, especially kids, who can actively participate in the process of mixing, churning, and enjoying the fruits of their labour.

So now you’re thinking, what do you need to make homemade ice cream? What equipment do I need? Below is a list of all the equipment and utensils you could possibly need.

Equipment Required for Homemade Ice Cream:

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Creating luscious homemade ice cream requires some essential equipment to ensure a smooth and successful process.

We’ve listed below what you need to make homemade ice cream:

• Ice Cream Maker: An ice cream maker is a valuable investment for crafting consistently creamy ice cream. There are various types available, including electric and manual churn models. Electric ice cream makers are more convenient, automating the churning process, while manual churn models require a bit more effort, but can be just as effective. Click on this link to see a wide range of Ice Cream makers

• Mixing Bowls: Mixing bowls are essential for combining your ice cream base ingredients, whether it’s a custard-based recipe or a simpler no-churn option. Click on this link to see a wide selection of Mixing Bowls.

• Whisk or electric mixer: A whisk or electric mixer is used to blend the ingredients and create a smooth mixture. Click on this link to see a wide selection of Whisks, or click here for electric hand mixers.

• Blender or Food Processor: Required to puree fruits and ingredients to ensure a creamier texture and finish to your ice creams. Click on this link to see a wide selection of Blenders or click on this link to see selection of Food processors.

• Measuring cups / weighing scales: Measuring cups or weighing scales are essential for accurately measuring the ingredients for the ice cream mixture. Click here to see a selection of Measuring Cups, or click here to see a selection of Weighing scales.

• Spoons: Always have lots of spoons to hand for tasting your ice cream at different stages of the process (we don’t want double dipping!) Click here to see a selection of spoons.

• Spatulas: for making sure you get all the ice cream out of each vestibule (saucepan, mixing bowls) and there’s no waste. Click here to see a selection of spatulas.

• Saucepan or Double Boiler: If you’re making custard-based ice cream, you’ll need a saucepan or double boiler to heat and thicken the custard mixture. A double boiler is preferable for more controlled and gentle heat distribution. Click here for a selection of saucepans and click here for double boilers.

• Freezer-Safe Containers: Once your ice cream is churned, it needs to be transferred to a freezer-safe container for further firming. Choose a lidded container that’s the right size for the amount of ice cream you’re making. A container with an airtight seal will help prevent ice crystals from forming. Click here to see a selection of freezer-safe containers.

• Ice cream scoop: An ice cream scoop is used to serve the ice cream. Click here to see a selection of Ice Cream Scoops.

• Microplane Grater or Zester: In some cases, you’ll one of these for zesting citrus fruits. Click here to see a selection of Microplane Graters and click here to see a selection of Zesters.

• Fine-Mesh Sieve: A fine-mesh sieve is useful for straining your custard base to remove any cooked egg bits or other solids, resulting in a smoother texture. Click here to see a selection of fine mesh sieves.

With these essential equipment pieces in hand, you’ll be well-prepared to embark on your homemade ice cream journey, creating frozen delights that will leave your taste buds wanting more.

Overall, it’s not an exhaustive list of equipment/utensils that you’ll require and you likely have most of these already but in case you find you’re missing any, we’ve listed all you should need.

Additional Items for Making Ice Lollies from Ice Cream or Frozen Yoghurts.

Head on over to our post – Chill out with Homemade Frozen Yoghurts: Easy Recipes & Tips – Chill Out with Homemade Frozen Yoghurts: Easy Recipes and Tips – to see how to get the kids involved and make Froyo Lollies.

Here are a few more pieces of equipment you’ll need to make ice lollies, with easy links in case you find you are missing any items:

• Ice Lolly Moulds: Ice lolly moulds come in various shapes and sizes, and they are perfect for creating frozen yoghurt lollies. Choose moulds that are easy for little hands to hold and release the lollies easily once they are frozen.

• Wooden or Plastic Ice Lolly Sticks: These sticks are inserted into the ice cream moulds, providing a handle for the frozen yoghurt lollies. Ensure they are sturdy and child-friendly.
• Cake Pop Sticks and Stands: These can be used to make Ice Cream Cake Pops (see our article – Learn How To Make Homemade Ice Cream Cakes – Frosted Fusions)

• Plastic Squeeze Bottles: These bottles are fantastic for drizzling sauces, adding fruit purees, or creating colourful swirls in the frozen yoghurt. Kids will love using them to add their unique touch to the lollies.

• Toppings Galore: Set up a toppings station with a variety of sprinkles, crushed nuts, fresh fruits, chocolate chips, and other favourite toppings. This allows kids to customise their frozen yoghurt lollies to their liking.

• Mixing Bowls: If you’re preparing different flavoured yoghurt bases or toppings, you’ll need mixing bowls and whisks for the kids to create their masterpieces.

• Whisks: You’ll need whisks to mix all your combined ingredients to ensure everything is properly incorporated.

• Aprons: Making frozen yoghurt lollies can get a little messy, so consider providing aprons for the kids to wear.

• Cleaning Supplies: Working with kids, you’ll want to have cleaning supplies on hand to tidy up afterwards.
• Transporting your Ice Creams: There have been many occasions where I have made a batch of ice creams for family events, or friend’s parties and have needed to transport pots of Ice Creams. Now, fortunately, I live in the UK, so it’s pretty rare that we’ll have sweltering ice cream melting temperatures, however, if you are lucky enough to enjoy warmer climates, then you may require a food-safe container for transportation, much like the bags you’ll see Deliveroo or Uber eats using. They generally can keep food hot and/or cold.

Other Items You May Find You Need

As you practice making your Homemade Ice Cream, you’ll want to try out different flavour combinations and create different textural experiences and you’ll find yourself becoming more adept at this. Practice makes perfect as they say!

Something you’ll find with Homemade Ice Cream is that some ingredients don’t produce the colour we expect.

The Role of Colouring in Ice Cream: Enhancing the Visual Appeal

When it comes to ice cream, our eyes often play an essential role in shaping our perceptions and expectations. The vibrant and enticing colours of ice cream can immediately capture our attention and evoke a sense of anticipation and joy.

As humans, we are naturally drawn to visually appealing foods and ice cream is no exception. The enticing hues of classic flavours like strawberry, chocolate, and mint green set a standard in our minds, and we subconsciously anticipate these colours when presented with these well-loved flavours.

While natural ingredients like fruits and cocoa can lend some colour to ice cream, achieving consistent and vibrant shades in certain flavours can be challenging. This is where food colourings step in, offering a solution to enhance and maintain the desired appearance of ice cream. By using food-grade colourings, ice cream creators can ensure that their products remain visually appealing and align with the expectations of their consumers.

However, it is essential to use colourings judiciously and with consideration for consumer preferences. Sometimes, innovative flavour combinations can lead to unusual colour outcomes, which may not be visually agreeable to our psyches.

Experimental:

Let’s say, for instance, you were presented with a pink banana ice cream. Although the taste may be delicious, the striking pink colour may trigger a dissonance in our minds, as we unconsciously associate bananas with their natural yellow hue.

We’ve experimented and tried this out, we made homemade banana ice cream and used red food colouring instead of yellow and had some very interesting reactions.

Take a Banana, another one of nature’s powerhouse fruits, full of goodness and nutritional value, convenient and super tasty, but once they start turning and getting a few brown blotches on them, they lose their appeal to most people.

Often bananas are discarded once they reach that browning stage.

However, what many people don’t realise is it’s at this stage that bananas are the sweetest and perfectly prime for making Homemade Banana Ice Cream. Note to self: Stop throwing brown bananas away and make Creamy Nutritious & Delicious Homemade Banana Ice Cream with them instead.

The natural sweetness in browning bananas means you don’t have to add any sugar or sweeteners to your recipe (or very little), which makes this an incredibly nutrient-rich and delicious Homemade Ice Cream.

However, due to the browning, Homemade Banana Ice Cream can often turn out to look a little ‘beige’, not the yellow our minds associate with Bananas.

To overcome this, we add a few drops of Yellow Food colouring to provide the expected visual appeal (turmeric-based natural colouring).

We always choose natural food colourings, otherwise, we feel we’re defeating the object of making Wholesome, Homemade Ice Cream.

You can get colourings made from Turmeric, Paprika and Spirulina amongst others which give you natural colour, but no artificial extras. In such cases, it may be prudent to strike a balance between creativity and visual appeal, ensuring that the colours complement the flavours and leave a positive impression on those consuming our Homemade Ice Cream.

When we decided to use Red Food Colouring in our Homemade Banana Ice Cream (paprika-based natural colouring), we had responses of; ‘that’s not Banana is it, isn’t that Strawberry?’ or ‘Oh, what’s that flavour? It tastes like Banana, but no, it’s something else, what is that?’

Being presented with a pink-coloured ice cream threw people off balance and confused them. Their eyes were challenging what their palates were tasting. It was very interesting to see how people responded.

And so colour absolutely plays a role in our taste experience and in some instances adding colourings may be required to enhance the resulting Homemade Ice Creams.

By striking the right balance between creativity and familiarity, ice cream crafters can create Homemade Ice Cream that not only tastes delicious but also captivates our eyes, leaving us eagerly reaching for another scoop.

If you feel that your ‘beige’ coloured homemade banana ice cream isn’t quite hitting the spot and you want to add colourings, we recommend using natural colourings. Click here to see a selection of natural colourings available.

We hope this information is of value and adds to your proficiency in creating your own Delicious Homemade Ice Creams. Enjoy the process of crafting creamy, flavourful and nutritious homemade ice cream that brings joy to family and friends alike.

Please feel free to drop us a comment below if you have any questions.

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