Irresistible Ice Cream Recipes

Pure. Violet. Joy. The intense color comes from simmering the berries for a few minutes to release their juices—but after that step, this brightly fruity no-special-gear-required recipe couldn't be more simple.

No-Churn Blueberry Ice Cream recipe.

It looks like ordinary vanilla, but the addition of brown sugar and sour cream lends subtle caramel and tangy notes that will have your friends asking, “What’s in this ice cream?”

Sour Cream and Brown Sugar Frozen Custard

A cascade of chocolate syrup drizzled inside the glass adds drama to a chocolate chip cookie dough shake crowned with crushed grahams, mini chocolate chips and marshmallows.

S'more Outrageous Chocolate Milk Shakes

True to the easy no-churn spirit, this burst of summer sunshine requires no stovetop cooking or baking: Just stir in purchased lemon curd and crumbled vanilla Oreos.

No-Churn Lemon Bar Ice Cream recipe.

Crystallized ginger adds unexpected zip to frosty peaches, raspberries and ice cream.

Mini Peach Melba Ice Cream Cake

This ice cream is dead-simple, but plan to make it a day ahead: The salty peanut butter slows down the freezing. It’s soft but edible at 8 hours, fully scoopable at 24.

No-Churn Peanut Brittle Ice Cream recipe.

This super-easy homemade ice cream topping doesn't harden quite as fast as that magical store-bought stuff, but it packs a lot more chocolate flavor. Plus, it's totally customizable with different flavors of chips! Store it in the pantry to zap in the microwave whenever you want to crack your spoon into something delicious.

Ice Cream Chocolate Shell

A crust of crushed sugar cones holds two frosty layers: chocolate ice cream studded with chopped banana and strawberry ice cream bejeweled with pineapple.

Banana Split Ice Cream Torte

Inspired by the classic drink at Indian restaurants (and, conveniently, made with frozen mango), this subtly tangy churned fro-yo is laced with cardamom and gets a golden boost from turmeric.

Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt recipe.

This treat, which starts with giant waffle ice cream cones, is easy to make but impressive to serve. It's a sweet ending for any special dinner.

Ice Cream Waffle Sundaes

The coffee-chocolate blend in this drink is refreshingly cool, especially when topped with scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Jana Beykirch of Pittsburg, Kansas, doubles this recipe to make a summer punch. The amounts we give will make about 10 individual floats.

Mocha Floats

The taste of childhood birthdays, encapsulated in one dessert. Yes, there are a lot of steps. But the ice cream is from the store. The batter is quick. And that classic fudgy crunch layer? Nailed it. To serve, just drizzle with hot fudge and pile on the whipped cream.

Mint-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake recipe.

Quickly warm pineapple in butter and brown sugar, then spoon the softened fruit over crumbled pound cake and dulce de leche ice cream.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Sundaes

Our chewy, saucer-size cookie is delicious by itself, but for a warm-weather treat, it makes generous ice cream sandwiches when filled with tiny scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Biggies

Several states claim to be the birthplace of the ice cream sundae. Since the Buckeye State makes a good case, we created the Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Sundae Cake as a tribute to Ohio. Four layers of baked white cake get sandwiched in ice cream layers in favorite sundae flavors: strawberry, pineapple and chocolate-banana. A whipped topping frosting crowns the cherry-topped dessert.

Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Sundae Cake

A combination of pureed and chopped peaches gives this ice cream nice color and fruit flecks. Be sure to use half-and-half or light cream; if you substitute whole milk, the mixture will be icier.

Peach Ice Cream 

Stirring crushed root beer barrels into sugar-cookie dough adds irresistible sparkle and spot-on float flavor—especially when you add scoops of vanilla ice cream between two cooled cookies.

Root Beer Float Ice Cream Sandwiches

Here's one recipe with three fruit versions to choose from: blackberry, raspberry or peach. For our photo, we made one of each, froze them in 15x10x1 inch pans lined with foil, then cut them into geometric shapes to stack. We topped them with purchased fruit sauce.

Choose-A-Fruit Ice Cream

Whip up this sweet and juicy sauce for the perfect ice cream or pie topping.

Blueberry Sauce

You can make the ice cream sandwiches up to a week before you serve them; just freeze the sandwiches in an airtight container. When it's time to eat, just take a few minutes to heat up the sauce for this treat.

Ice Cream Sandwich Sundaes

This recipe comes from Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. Red maraschino cherries, cream, brown sugar, vanilla and pecans combine into a rich blend for your ice cream freezer.

Prairie Dunes Cherry-Nut Ice Cream

Layer ice cream with a mixture of cookie crumbs, chocolate pieces and pecans to make this striped frozen dessert.

Triple-Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Sweet and nutty, this rich sauce is best served warm over ice cream or yogurt.

Praline Sauce

Cake and ice cream go together like peanut butter and jelly—so why not combine them in one sweet scoop?

Vanilla Cake Batter Ice Cream

We created Ice Cream Cookie Cake in honor of Indiana, the top ice cream-producing state in the Midwest. You can mix and match cookies and ice cream to make this frosty, no-bake treat that's also an easy make-ahead dessert.

Ice Cream Cookie Cake

Puree berries, peaches or mangoes to make vibrant "syrups" for swirling with ice cream and sparkling water. (Or skip the ice cream to make refreshing fresh-fruit sodas.)

Fresh-Fruit Ice Cream Sodas

The vanilla ice cream recipe uses just four ingredients for a rich homemade dessert. If you prefer chocolate, stir in 1 cup chocolate-flavored syrup before freezing. These vanilla and chocolate ice creams are the base for variations on the following slides.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream recipe

Make the chocolate ice cream that's a recipe variation of vanilla (previous slide), and add these ingredients for a fun dessert. Pictured, from front to back: Chocolate-Mint Ice Cream, Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream and Chocolate-Rocky Road Ice Cream.

Our variations recipe also tells you how to make Chocolate Mocha Ice Cream, Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Chocolate Toasted-Almond Ice Cream, Chocolate-Toffee Ice Cream and Chocolate-Truffle Ice Cream.

Chocolate Ice Cream Variations

Chocolate and peanut butter were meant to go together! Spoon this sauce over ice cream, puddings or waffles for an indulgent treat.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sauce

A dip cone made with good-quality vanilla ice cream, bittersweet chocolate and salted pecans is a revelation—both nostalgic and completely new. But that’s just our favorite. Pretzels? Pistachios? You do you.

DIY Dip Cones recipe.

Make the basic vanilla ice cream recipe, then add these ingredients for new flavors. Pictured: Vanilla-Lemon Cream Ice Cream. Our recipe also tells you how to make seven other varieties, including Vanilla-Spiced Honey Ice Cream, Macadamia-White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Peach Ice Cream, Dark Roast Coffee Ice Cream and Peanut Butter-Fudge Ice Cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream Variations

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream recipe

Flamm Orchards is a major peach producer in southern Illinois. The Flamm family likes to churn peach ice cream on the Fourth of July. The whole group gets involved in ice cream prep, then eating.

Flamm's Peach Ice Cream

This cool treat gets a triple dose of lemon: lemon peel, juice and puckery lemon-drop candy. It's a favorite from the recipe collection of a West Des Moines, Iowa, reader.

Lemon-Drop Ice Cream

Look for matcha, or powdered green tea, at specialty stores or online. It looks a little like eye shadow and gives this ice cream its gorgeous color and subtle tea flavor.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Staff at Silver Dollar City churn dozens of ice cream flavors at Hannah's Ice Cream Factory. For a sweeter ice cream, use more sugar. Look for black walnut flavoring, which pairs with nuts to give this cool treat its flavor, in large supermarkets.

Black Walnut Ice Cream

You can use fresh black raspberries, blackberries, red raspberries, strawberries or blueberries in this rich gelato.

Black-Raspberry-Chip Gelato

Combine cream cheese with strawberries, whipping cream, milk, sugar and flavorings for a rich dessert that chills in your ice cream maker.

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Ice Cream

Yes, this ice cream is dairy- free, but it's also a creamy, not- too-sweet delight for anyone who loves coconut.

Vegan Coconut Chip Ice Cream recipe.

We won't lie: This recipe takes some effort. But if you're willing to commit to a longish weekend cooking session, you won't be disappointed. It's absolutely delicious.

Raspberry Ripple with Oat Crunch Ice Cream recipe.

A close relative to Rocky Road, Heavenly Hash has marshmallow creme, almonds and chocolate chunks swirled into a fudgy, churned chocolate base.

Heavenly Hash Ice Cream recipe.

The ice cream in this gooey, campfire-worthy extravaganza is store-bought, so you can focus your kitchen wizardry on making the amazing toppings from scratch (although, we won't judge if you swap in purchased hot fudge or marshmallow creme).

S'more Sundae recipe.