The Easiest Homemade Ice Cream

The perfect ice cream sundae is actually really easy to make. I know some of you like chocolate ice cream, some of you like vanilla. So just to please all of us, I thought we'd make the classic Neapolitan trio of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. And we're going to start by making our strawberry ice cream. First, by using a paring knife to hull a few fresh strawberries. The goal here being not just to remove the stem, but also that more bitter white part that goes down the center of the strawberry. And once that's done, we'll pour them into a bowl, and give them a gentle toss until fully coated. What we're making right now is a strawberry puree that's going to be the base of our strawberry ice cream. Once your strawberries are fully coated, spread them evenly across a parchment lined baking sheet, and then toss them in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit to concentrate the flavor and caramelize the sugars. Roasting your strawberries like this will give you much more of a strawberry flavor. And even though it may not sound like it, it is so much better than using fresh uncooked strawberries. Once they've cooled off to room temperature, add them to a blender, along with all of that beautiful flavor-packed strawberry syrup, and then we blend. This is the incredible base to our strawberry ice cream. Make sure you get every last drop. We'll let this chill for an hour while we make the rest of our strawberry base. While that cools, we'll add some whole milk, as well as some heavy cream into a pan, and then heat this up over medium heat until it begins to lightly steam. While that's happening, I'm going to add some egg yolks and sugar to a heatproof bowl. Now whisk until sugar is dissolved. By now, our milk should be warm enough, so I'm going to very carefully temper about a quarter of the milk mixture, all while whisking constantly so I don't make scrambled eggs. Pouring just a bit of the milk mixture here allows us to gradually raise the temperature of those eggs instead of turn them into scrambled eggs. Now, back over the heat, we're going to add in that egg mixture to our milk. Whisk constantly until the egg mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon like this. Strain the mixture into a bowl, then add the zest of one whole lemon. This really helps to brighten things up in terms of the strawberry ice cream's flavor, as well as some vanilla extract and a sprinkle of salt. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge while we make the rest of our ice cream bases. Moving on to make our vanilla ice cream base, we're going to be using real vanilla bean. Since they're really expensive, if you don't want to use vanilla bean, you can also use vanilla extract. This here is my six-year-old bottle of vanilla extract. His name is Charles, but as much as I love him, he simply won't have as much flavor as a fresh vanilla bean like this one. To open the vanilla bean, I'm going to carefully cut all the way down the center, then I'll flip my knife upside down, and carefully but firmly run it all the way down the vanilla bean to remove all the little seeds. I'll add this vanilla to the exact same base of milk and cream that we use for our strawberry ice cream. And then same thing again, we'll heat this over medium until we get that light steam. And while that's happening, same exact process here with the eggs and sugar until eventually we can carefully temper in some of that milk, then back over the heat until we get that exact same coating over the back of our wooden spoon. Except this time, we can see all those beautiful little particles of vanilla. To finish, we'll strain, then back in with that vanilla bean so it can continue to steep, then add plastic wrap and label, and into the fridge it goes. Before we move on, I left my pot on the stove, and you can see that egg on the bottom scrambling a little bit. This is what will happen to your ice cream base if you're not constantly whisking. Our last ice cream base is chocolate ice cream, and that starts with some cocoa powder, along with some sugar and a sprinkle of salt. Now, with the heat off, whisk everything together until no clumps remain, then add in your milk and heavy cream, and whisk until everything looks dissolved and fully combined, then turn on your heat, and while that heats up, whisk up your eggs. This time, without any added sugar since it's already in the milk. Once the milk is steaming, temper it into the egg mixture, then pour the egg mixture back to the pot, and for the last time, we'll heat up our ice cream base while whisking until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Strain your liquid. This one actually smells just like freshly baked chocolate brownies or a molten chocolate lava cake. Then add in your chocolate chips, a little vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt, and whisk until all of your chocolate has melted. I've always liked vanilla ice cream better than chocolate ice cream, but I have to say, the chocolate ice cream base smells better than the other two combined. It makes me want to like chocolate ice cream more than I do. Cover it up with plastic wrap, and after giving it a label, with probably the worst looking chocolate bar I've ever drawn, toss it in the fridge, and then we can make some of our toppings. As you know, ice cream sundaes come with all kinds of toppings, and you should make whatever toppings you want, but the first one we'll make is honeycomb candy. All we do is add some honey to a pot, along with some sugar and a tiny sprinkle of salt. Turn the heat to medium, then stir until everything is fully combined, and heat to exactly 295 degrees Fahrenheit, also known as the hard crack stage. While we let that heat up, I'm going to come over here and sift our baking soda, because there can't be any clumps remaining when we go to add that to our honey mixture. Once the sugar comes to temp, I'm going to immediately add in my vanilla extract and my baking soda, then give it a quick stir to combine, and after it's risen, I'll pour it onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I'm not normally a sweets person, but this is one of my favorite all-time things to make in the kitchen, and if you've never tried it with ice cream, now's the time. While that's cooling down, and just wait until you see us break it all apart, we're going to make some caramel sauce by adding some sugar, water, and cream of tartar to a pot, stirring occasionally over medium heat, and also making sure to scrape down the sides of the pot as needed to make sure no sugar crystals sit above the liquid. Once it's boiling, reduce the heat and cook for about six to eight minutes, swirling occasionally as needed until it becomes a deep amber color, then turn off the heat and add your butter one tablespoon at a time, and once fully mixed, add in your room temperature heavy cream and stir until smooth. And with that, our caramel sauce is ready to go. The last topping we have to make is our incredible chocolate sauce. Into a pot, I'll add some cream, brown sugar, agave, butter, and water. Now, cook over medium heat, whisking until the sugar is fully dissolved. I know you want to get to making the ice cream, so I promise this will only take a few more seconds. Cook this over medium high until the mixture comes to a boil, then continue cooking, swirling the pot occasionally until the mixture reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it reaches 220, pull it off the heat, then add your chocolate and stir until fully melted and silky smooth. Now, back on the heat, bring it back to a boil and cook for one minute, constantly scraping the bottom so you don't burn the chocolate, then turn off the heat, move it off again, add in your cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt, and whisk until everything is fully combined. Now, we'll strain this off and then whisk in a tablespoon of water at a time until it's silky smooth. Use your best judgment here. Everyone's chocolate sauce is going to be a little different, but everyone's is going to taste incredible. Our caramel and hot fudge are done, which means you can break the honeycomb. So the question is, should I break it like this, or should I break it like this? Oh, I didn't think it was going to break that much. I'm going to clean this up. We'll be right back. All of our toppings are done and all of our ice cream bases have cooled down, so let's turn it into ice cream. First, we'll remove our plastic wrap. We'll add that strawberry puree, as well as a few chopped strawberries, and then mix this up until fully combined. We want to combine these just before making the ice cream. Now, since strawberries are always going to taste different, I'll take a little taste. I think we need just a little more acidity from that lemon juice. And now, we'll pour them all into our ice cream makers. First, our strawberry, then our vanilla. Oh, don't forget about the vanilla bean. And finally, our chocolate. You can see this one's noticeably thicker than the others. I'll get those lids back on, and now we wait. The ice cream maker's job is to mix and freeze at the same time. This creates lots and lots of tiny ice crystals that give you nice, smooth, and creamy ice cream. When the ice cream first comes out, it'll often look and taste a bit more like soft-serve, which is exactly why I'm going to toss it in the freezer to firm it up before we plate. Sometimes, I do like eating it straight like this, and in fact, as a kid, I used to have this lemonade stand that I would run in front of my house, and I'd make the ice cream homemade and keep it in this soft-serve form because of how much I love it. But when you're trying to make an ice cream sundae with all these fancy toppings, that doesn't really cut it. Uh-oh. The strawberry ice cream has definitely been the most complicated part of this video, and it's not getting any easier. And here's the thing. I don't even like strawberry ice cream that much. I only made it because I feel like this is the classic trio, and because I'm sure it's the favorite of at least some of you watching, but if it were just me, I would have just stuck to the vanilla. You know what would be fun is if everyone wrote in the comments down below your favorite ice cream flavor. These are going to go to the freezer, and I'm going to clean up. Let's just get to plating. First thing when it comes to plating ice cream, keep your bowl in the freezer. That's how you get it nice and frosty, like that. There's really no rules here. I'm just going to grab some vanilla, pop it in. Then I'll grab one more scoop of vanilla. Put that right here. Nice. Now some strawberry. That's going to go on this side. There's our chocolate. Ooh! And now I'm going to wedge some of that honeycomb into the sides. Honeycomb is so good with ice cream. It's insane. Then I'll drizzle on some caramel, some hot fudge, some whipped cream, some rainbow sprinkles, and of course, the cherry on top. Big bite. I usually don't really like ice cream. I waited till the end to tell you that. But that's delicious. And that is how you make an ice cream sundae. That's the first time I've had ice cream in a while.