The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need

By Melissa Clark

Updated March 11, 2025

The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
20 minutes plus several hours’ cooling, chilling and freezing
Rating
5(5,161)
Comments
Read comments

This silky, luscious and very classic custard can be used as the base for any ice cream flavor you can dream up. These particular proportions of milk and cream to egg yolk will give you a thick but not sticky ice cream that feels decadent but not heavy. For something a little lighter, use more milk and less cream, as long as the dairy adds up to 3 cups. You can also cut down on egg yolks for a thinner base, but don’t go below three.

Then flavor it any way you like. See the chart here for more than 16 flavor ideas. Or invent your own.

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Ingredients

Yield:About 1½ pints
  • 2cups heavy cream
  • 1cup whole milk
  • ⅔cup granulated sugar
  • ⅛teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 6large egg yolks
  • Your choice of flavoring (see note)
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a small pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat.

  2. Step 2

    In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot cream into the yolks.

  3. Step 3

    Whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream.

  4. Step 4

    Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).

  5. Step 5

    Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturers’ instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed.

Tip
  • This recipe for ice cream base may be churned on its own, but it is meant to have flavors added. See the chart here for flavor options and directions for incorporating them into the base recipe.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
5,161 user ratings
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Comments

essjaebee

I'm sorry to disagree, but this is the only ice cream recipe you'll ever need:

2 cups heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Add 1 tbl vanilla for vanilla, or add berries, nuts or whatever else you want. Mix well, freeze for at least 6 hours.

Judith Norman

I always add a touch of vodka to my homemade ice cream which slows the freezing process (I think) and prevents the ice cream from getting icy.

Mariah

I subbed the same measure of coconut milk for milk and coconut cream for the heavy cream. Delicious and lactose-free!!! Definitely a keeper. Thank you!

Alexandra

Glad I read the comments on this one because everyone was right about not needing 6 yolks! I used three and the texture was perfect. Great, easy recipe. I ground up a bag of freeze dried strawberries and steeped them in the milk/cream mixture from the beginning. Next time I think two bags to get it more intensely strawberry-y.

Sarah

This ice cream recipe is perfect as written. I happen to prefer a rich, custard-style ice cream, so I’ve made no changes or substitutions to the base. I’ve tried lots of variations, too. The strawberry is sublime; I added some vanilla too and got a fun strawberries and cream flavor. I did a creamsicle flavor by adding orange zest to the sugar before making the custard and adding white chocolate chunks to the ice cream in the last few minutes of churning. That was super fun. The base is also a great blank slate for experimentation. I’ve tried the following flavors with varying levels of success: cherry/rosemary (surprisingly good), blueberry/balsamic (not bad), basil/lime (only so so), lemon/thyme (fantastic), plum/pistachio (weird but good), and saffron/raspberry (expensive).

Michele

Made the Nutella version as per the recipe. So delicious, best ice cream ever. Not too rich or sweet. I think I’m now ruined for commercial ice cream.

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