Raspberry Ice Cream
This thick and creamy Raspberry Ice Cream is bursting with raspberry flavor! The ice cream is custard based (meaning we use egg yolks) which results in the extra luscious and creamy texture. To that base we stir in a rich raspberry sauce and then churn the ice cream until frozen.
If sorbet is more your thing, I have a raspberry sorbet recipe that is UNREAL! I mean, so so good. We’re talking probably better than a legit Italian gelato. Next on my list is to make raspberry bars, raspberry sweet rolls, and a raspberry galette.
There are essentially two components to this recipe, the first being the ice cream base and the second being the raspberry sauce. Both components utilize only a few ingredients.
Ingredients
For the ice cream base
- Heavy cream – must use heavy cream.
- Milk – use a higher fat percentage such as 2% or whole milk.
- Salt
- Egg yolks
For the raspberry mix-in sauce
- Raspberries – can use fresh or frozen. I like to use frozen because they’re more affordable. If using frozen you’ll need 1 – 12 oz bag. If using fresh raspberries you’ll need 2 1/2 cups worth of berries.
- Granulated sugar – you can sweeten the raspberry sauce to your liking. I like to start with just 1/4 cup and then add more if needed. Note: if using fresh raspberries, you might have really sweet berries which means you can cut down on the sugar.
- Vanilla extract – use real vanilla, not imitation. Could also use vanilla bean paste.
How to make Raspberry Ice Cream
- In a saucepan barely simmer the heavy cream, milk, granulated sugar, and salt. Remove from heat as soon as you see small bubbles appear around the perimeter. The mixture should be very warm. We will use this warm liquid to temper the egg yolks.
- Temper the egg yolks. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whil whisking, slowly pour 1 cup of the hot cream into the egg yolks. This is called tempering.
- What is tempering? Tempering is when you combine two ingredients that are two different temperatures. We don’t want the eggs to curdle, so we slowly add the hot cream to bring the temperature of the egg yolks up. If you were to add the egg yolks to the hot cream all at once, it will essentially shock the egg yolks, cook them, and then you’d have cooked and curdled eggs in your ice cream base.
- What is tempering? Tempering is when you combine two ingredients that are two different temperatures. We don’t want the eggs to curdle, so we slowly add the hot cream to bring the temperature of the egg yolks up. If you were to add the egg yolks to the hot cream all at once, it will essentially shock the egg yolks, cook them, and then you’d have cooked and curdled eggs in your ice cream base.
- Whisk the egg yolk mixture into the pot with the remaining hot cream.
- Cook the egg + cream mixture over medium-low heat until it reaches 165°F on an instant read thermometer. The mixture should coat the back of a spoon.
- Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Straining the mixture ensures there are no lumps or clumps in the ice cream. After all, we want a smooth and creamy ice cream. Once strained, cover and place in the refrigerator to cool.
- Make the raspberry puree. To a blender add the raspberries, sugar, and vanilla. Blend until smooth.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Note: you can skip this step if you want seeds in the ice cream.
- Stir the raspberry puree into the ice cream base. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or until completely chilled.
- Churn the ice cream according to manufactures instructions.
- For soft serve raspberry ice cream serve immediately. Or transfer the churned mixture to a large freezer safe container. Optional: fold in a handful of fresh raspberries. Freeze for 2 hours or until hard. When ready to serve, remove ice cream from the freezer and scoop into individual bowls. Enjoy!
Ice Cream Variations
A beautiful thing about this recipe is how versatile it is! If you want strawberry ice cream use strawberries in place of the raspberries.
This recipe will work with a handful of fruit varieties such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches. In fact, you can make a fruit medley by combining several fruits together.
If you want to go over the top, you can make my homemade raspberry sauce and drizzle it over the raspberry ice cream. Yum!
FAQ and Recipe Tips
What do egg yolks do for ice cream? Egg yolks create a super creamy ice cream. But not only that, they stabilize ice cream meaning it won’t melt as quickly and it has a longer shelf life. If you want to read the ins and outs to egg yolks in ice cream I found this article to be informative.
How do I properly store this raspberry ice cream? Store covered (to prevent freezer burn and drying out), in the freezer. Will keep for 2-3 months if stored properly.
Can I use fresh raspberries? Yes.
Can I stir fresh raspberries into the ice cream? Yes. I tried this and while it’s really delicious, just remember that the berries will freeze and harden.
If you’d like to know what churning does for ice cream, and how long you should churn it, read my vanilla ice cream post (info is towards the bottom).
More Raspberry & Frozen Recipes
- Raspberry Sorbet – so refreshing and easy to make. Also it’s super creamy (not icy at all!)
- Raspberry Sauce – Use this raspberry sauce over pancakes, ice cream, yogurt, cheesecake, or crepes. It’s so good you’ll want to eat it plain.
- Vanilla Ice Cream – one of my most popular recipes on my site! Read the many 5 star reviews and you’ll see why people are hailing this as the best ice cream they’ve ever had.
- Mango Sorbet – if you can’t visit the islands, make this sorbet instead!
- Raspberry Mojito Mocktail – a refreshing kid-friendly drink! Infused with fresh (or frozen) raspberries and mint leaves.
- Raspberry Freezer Jam – can use fresh or frozen berries.
Raspberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Ice Cream Base
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup milk - whole or 2%
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 5 egg yolks
Raspberry Puree
- 12 oz frozen raspberries - thawed to room temperature or 2 1/2 cups fresh berries
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar - more as needed (taste and test as you go)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Equipment
Instructions
Make the Ice Cream Base
- Make the base: In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, barely simmer the heavy cream, milk, granulated sugar, and salt. Stir often. Once you see bubbles along the perimeter, remove pot from heat. You don't want it to boil but the mixture should be warm.
- In a medium bowl whisk the egg yolks. While whisking, slowly pour 1 cup of the hot cream into the egg yolks. Now, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the pot with the remaining hot cream.
- Place the pot over medium-low heat and cook until it reaches 165°F on an instant read thermometer, the mixture should coat the back of a spoon.
- Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Cover and place in the refrigerator to cool.
Make the Raspberry Puree
- Make the puree: in a blender puree the raspberries, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add more sugar as you see fit. But remember, you'll be adding the fruit puree to the ice cream base (that's sweet). Optional: if you want to remove the raspberry seeds (I did), pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
- Stir the puree into the ice cream base. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or until completely chilled.
- Remove the raspberry ice cream mixture from the fridge. Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufactures instructions.
- For soft serve raspberry ice cream serve immediately, or transfer mixture to a large freezer safe container. Optional: fold in a handful of fresh raspberries. Freeze for 2 hours or until hard. When ready to serve, remove ice cream from the freezer and scoop into individual bowls. Enjoy!
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32 Comments on “Raspberry Ice Cream”
I had an inspiration: I’m going to make the America’s Test Kitchen raspberry bars recipe and crumble some into this raspberry ice cream recipe. I’m going to the store tomorrow for the ingredients. 😋
YUM that sounds amazing A!! Please let us know how it goes!
I have no idea how this recipe is. I tried printing it and after an entire ink cartridge I ran out of ink before the recipe even was printed.
Sorry your printer is being funny! Works on my end.
how many quarts would this recipe make?
Hi Chris! It makes 1.5 quarts.
This has surpassed homemade butter pecan as my very favorite homemade ice cream! If you are using a Cuisinart 1.5 quart ice cream maker, this will NOT fill it. Next time I make this, I’m going to add a 6 ounce package of fresh raspberries to the 12-ounce frozen package, increase the number of egg yolks to 7, and increase the quantity of all other ingredients by 40%, which I think should fill the 1.5-quart bowl. It’s a shame to only make 6 servings of this incredibly delicious ice cream. Thanks for the recipe!!!
So glad you loved it, Laurie! Thanks for the 5-star rating!
Hi, this recipe looks amazing. It says 6 servings but what is the serving size? If I’m serving cake with ice cream, would this be enough to serve 12 people?
Hi Laurie! If you can see in the photos, it fills a regular-sized bread pan almost to the top (with about an inch left at the top). So hopefully that will give you an idea of how much ice cream it makes. I would say probably a scoop and a half would be 1 serving size, but it really just depends on how big you want the servings to be. If you are serving the ice cream with cake, then I would probably say 1 scoop per person and you may get 12.
PUT THE MEASUREMENTS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS
Why do these recipe site make it so difficult? I don’t care about your anecdote and why you love it.
Why can you not just make it easy to follow? Combine the cream, milk, sugar.. how much? Gotta scroll up, scroll down scroll up, scroll down.
Good God woman.
Because it is a blog with recipes, people express things on a blog. Good God Joe
Just click on “jump to recipe” to skip the background discussion.
And of course the recipe lists the quantities first, and then tells you what to do with each ingredient, nobody wants to search through the instructions to find the ingredients and quantities that they need. Good God man – if you don’t want to scroll, buy yourself a cookbook and stay off of websites.
How do I make design on the raspberry ripple ice cream??
I use the back of a spoon.
After making your chocolate ice cream and loving it, I had to try the raspberry one. It’s just as good, and I’m a chocolate lover.
Thanks for coming back to leave a comment Pat. I love chocolate ice cream too! Glad you gave this raspberry recipe a chance!
This is THE BEST homemade ice cream recipe ever!! Perfectly creamy without cream stuck to the roof of your mouth. I used this with frozen raspberries and it was delicious. My family loves this ice cream!
Made this with Purecane no calorie confectioner sweetener. A fraction of the calories and no added sugar! Tastes amazing! Wow!!
Could you substitute Almond milk?
I’m not sure. I’ve never experimented with almond milk in ice cream. I know there are specific Almond Milk Ice Creams though. Maybe use one of those recipes and then add the raspberry puree to it. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I have, in the past, made ice cream with coconut milk. Pretty good.
Hello. I’m curious about the small amount of milk in this recipe. I’ve made several different ice creams and they usually call for a combined milk/cream amount of around 3 cups, so I was expecting at least a cup of milk. I’m assuming this makes a creamier and lesser amount of finished product? I look forward to trying this.
Regards,
Brittany
Yes just makes it creamier. You’re welcome to add a bit more milk to the recipe if you’d like!
What is the volume? Sorry if I missed it.
Wish there was more details about when you combine base and fruit. Our 1st time making it…..
I rearranged the instructions to make it easier to follow. But it shouldn’t be too confusing, once you’ve made the raspberry puree you stir it into the ice cream base. (As noted in step #2 under “Make the Raspberry Puree.”
Let me know if you have any other questions!
I have mine chilling in the fridge already but have come to find out the same thing 🤣 as the custard base was heating I made the raspberry puree, so I added it as soon as I had finished heating the base. As it says to chill the base, I’m not sure if I was meant to let that cool before adding the raspberry puree? I’m hoping it turns out and I didn’t add the puree too soon 🤞🤞
Really creamy, loved it and a bit easier than some comparable recipes. We ate it all in one sitting – no leftovers!
So glad you loved it Angela!
This ice cream is amazing! Very creamy and the raspberry flavor was prominent too. Will be making this again!
Yum! This sounds delicious! I pinned this so I can try once our raspberries are ripe!