Sweet Cream Ice Cream

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Sweet cream ice cream is just cream, milk, and sugar, churned into a rich, cold scoop. It’s the plain base Cold Stone builds many of its flavors on, and with no vanilla in the way, you taste the cream itself. Every bowl is ready for cookies, fresh fruit, or a warm slice of pie.

Here in Vermont, few things grow better than grass and cows, and our local dairies make thick, rich cream with a flavor all its own. Sweet cream ice cream lets that flavor come through.

Most ice creams start from a flavoring, like vanilla, chocolate, or fruit. This one starts from the dairy. It’s sweetened cream and milk with a pinch of salt, so the cream is the flavor, and good cream makes a better scoop.

There are two versions here. The classic is four ingredients and freezes to a firm, old-fashioned scoop. The Cold Stone copycat adds a little corn syrup and cornstarch, which keeps it softer and easier to scoop straight from the freezer.

Once you’ve made a base this simple, it’s easy to branch out. Try fresh mint ice cream made with garden mint, haskap ice cream with early summer honeyberries, or dandelion and honey ice cream in the spring. If you have a patch of tiny wild berries, there’s alpine strawberry ice cream too.

What Is Sweet Cream Ice Cream?

This sweet cream ice cream is a Philadelphia-style ice cream, which means it has no eggs. The base is cream, milk, sugar, and salt, with nothing added for flavor.

That’s the only real difference from vanilla. Vanilla ice cream can start with a base like this one and add vanilla extract or a vanilla bean. Sweet cream leaves it out, so it tastes like sweetened fresh cream, clean and milky.

Custard ice creams, sometimes called French-style, use egg yolks to thicken the base. The yolks make them dense and extra smooth. Without them, sweet cream ice cream is lighter, and it sets a bit firmer.

The name goes back to Philadelphia’s 19th-century confectioners, whose ice cream used cream and sugar with no eggs. You’ll also see it called American-style ice cream.

Cold Stone Copycat Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Cold Stone Creamery uses sweet cream ice cream as the base for many of its flavors, folding the mix-ins in on a frozen stone. If you’ve had it there, that’s the flavor the copycat version is after.

Their posted ingredient list starts with cream, nonfat milk, sugar, corn syrup, and whey. After that come small amounts of stabilizers and emulsifiers, including guar gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, and polysorbate 80, plus annatto for color.

Those extras keep the ice crystals small and the ice cream soft enough to scoop and mix. At home, corn syrup and cornstarch do much the same job. Corn syrup keeps the texture smooth without adding much sweetness, and cornstarch soaks up some of the water that would otherwise freeze into ice crystals.

If you can get very fresh, high butterfat cream, try the classic version first, with as few ingredients as possible. Most supermarket heavy cream is ultra-pasteurized, and many brands already list gellan gum or carrageenan on the label, so you’re part way to the shop texture. In that case, the copycat version gets you closest.

Ingredients for Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Readers ask most about adding vanilla and swapping the dairy. Vanilla is easy to add, and the variations below cover it.

The cream and milk are what make the texture, though, so stick with heavy cream and whole milk. The classic version needs just four ingredients.

• Heavy cream: Look for heavy cream or heavy whipping cream, which has at least 36 percent butterfat. Lighter creams freeze icier. If you can get cream from a local dairy, this is the recipe for it.
• Whole milk: Milk loosens the base, so it doesn’t come out too heavy or buttery. Low-fat milk works, but the ice cream turns out icier.
• Sugar: Plain granulated sugar sweetens the ice cream and keeps it from freezing rock hard. I use the lower amount in the classic version because I like my ice cream a little less sweet. Use the full amount for a sweeter, ice cream parlor scoop.
• Salt: Just a pinch, to bring out the flavor of the cream.

The Cold Stone copycat version skips the salt and adds two ingredients for texture.

• Light corn syrup: Use light corn syrup, not dark, which tastes strongly of molasses. It keeps the ice cream smooth and soft enough to scoop.
• Cornstarch: It thickens the base slightly and holds onto water, so fewer ice crystals form. It has to boil for a minute or two, or it can leave a chalky feel on the spoon.

How to Make Sweet Cream Ice Cream

You make both versions the same way. Heat the base, chill it well, churn it, and freeze it until firm.

Most of the time is hands-off waiting. The only difference is at the stove, where the copycat version needs a short boil to cook the cornstarch.

Heat the Base

For the classic version, combine the cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Warm it over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the sugar dissolves and the base just starts to simmer. Let it bubble gently for about 30 seconds, then take it off the heat.

For the Cold Stone copycat, whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in the saucepan first, which keeps the cornstarch from clumping. Then whisk in the milk, followed by the cream and corn syrup.

Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring the whole time so it doesn’t scorch. Let it boil gently for 1 to 2 minutes, until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. That short boil cooks out the raw starch taste.

Chill the Base

Pour the warm base into a container and cover it. I just pour mine into a quart mason jar with a wide-mouth storage lid, which makes it easy to pour into the ice cream maker later.

Refrigerate it for at least 4 hours, or overnight. The base should be fully cold, below 40°F, before it goes into the machine. To speed things up, stir it in a bowl of ice water until it cools, then move it to the fridge.

Even with a compressor machine, don’t skip the chill. A warm base takes much longer to freeze, which makes bigger ice crystals and a coarser texture. Whynter tells its owners to chill the base for at least 4 hours.

The base keeps in the fridge for a few days. I’ve stored it for up to 3 days without any trouble, as long as the cream was fresh to begin with.

Churn the Ice Cream

Pour the cold base into your ice cream maker and churn it according to the manufacturer’s directions. Churning works air into the base as it freezes, so the batch grows to a quart or a little more.

How long it takes depends on your machine and how cold the base is. Whynter’s manual allows 30 to 60 minutes for a batch in its compressor machines, so go by the texture rather than the clock.

It’s ready when it looks like thick soft serve and holds its shape around the dasher. Stop there. Rich cream can start to turn buttery if it churns too long, especially very fresh, high butterfat cream.

If you’re using an old-fashioned ice and rock salt maker, a cold base matters even more. A warm one melts through the ice fast, and you’ll go through a lot more ice and salt before you get to ice cream.

Freeze Until Firm

Straight out of the machine, the ice cream has the texture of soft serve. It’s not completely firm yet, but it’s still downright delicious. My kids usually demand a bowl right out of the ice cream maker, and I don’t blame them.

For scoops that hold their shape, use a silicone spatula to scrape it into a chilled 1-quart container. Press a piece of parchment right onto the surface, put on the lid, and freeze it for 2 to 4 hours, until firm.

The classic version sets quite firm, so give it 5 to 10 minutes on the counter before scooping. The copycat version stays scoopable straight from the freezer.

Choosing an Ice Cream Maker

I use a Whynter ice cream maker, and I love it. It has a built-in compressor that works like a little freezer, so there’s no bowl to freeze ahead of time.

Mine holds 2.1 quarts, so a batch of sweet cream ice cream fits with room to spare. A compressor machine can also churn batches back to back, with a short rest in between, which is handy when you’re making ice cream for a crowd.

Freezer bowl machines cost less. The bowl has to freeze solid before you start, which can take a full day, and you get one batch per frozen bowl.

Old-fashioned ice and rock salt makers still work well, and the bigger ones make several quarts at a time. They need plenty of ice and salt, plus a well-chilled base.

No machine at all? My fresh mint ice cream shows how to freeze ice cream without one, by stirring it in the freezer as it sets.

Serving Sweet Cream Ice Cream

A plain scoop is lovely on its own, and it’s even better next to a warm dessert. Try it with elderberry pie, maple strawberry rhubarb pie, or a slice of Norwegian apple pie.

It’s also good on whole wheat honey shortcakes with fresh berries, or beside a warm piece of rhubarb upside-down cake.

For a quick sundae, drizzle it with blueberry syrup or a spoonful of salted caramel pear butter. Homemade maple syrup or boiled cider works too.

One reader skips the ice cream maker and uses the chilled base as a sweet cream coffee creamer. It’s a great way to use up any extra.

How to Store Homemade Ice Cream

Keep sweet cream ice cream in a covered container toward the back of the freezer, where the temperature holds steadiest. Press parchment or plastic wrap onto the surface after each scoop, so ice crystals don’t form on top.

Homemade ice cream doesn’t have the stabilizers store-bought ice cream does, so it’s at its best within about 2 weeks. After that, the texture slowly turns icy.

Sweet Cream Ice Cream FAQs

Readers ask most about the corn syrup and how long the base keeps, so those answers are here.

More Homemade Ice Cream Recipes

More homemade ice creams with fresh flavors from the garden.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Haskap Ice Cream

Dandelion & Honey Ice Cream

More Summer Desserts

More easy desserts for warm weather.

Lilac Popsicles

Maple Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Whole Wheat Honey Shortcakes