The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need

By Melissa Clark

Updated March 12, 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(4,961)
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
4,961 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!

Mimi

Way too eggy tasting - chucked the whole thing!

Kristen

I switched the milk and cream ratios and liked it better than the original dairy ratio. Next I’m going to try with entirely whole milk as there’s still too much fat on the tongue for our liking. I also haphazardly chopped up some decaf beans, about a quarter cup. Threw them in at the start and worked around them for tempering. This is the best ice cream I’ve ever made.

Kris

I don’t know what I did, but I ended up making horrible scrambled eggs.

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