Mistakes Everyone Makes With Homemade Ice Cream

For most of us, the only way to get a good serving of ice cream is to either buy a pint at the store or grab a scoop at a local ice cream shop. And sure, that works fine if you're not the kind of person who eats ice cream on the regular. If you are always on the hunt for the sweet stuff, though, you may be better off making it yourself. That way, not only do you guarantee that your ice cream is going to be as fresh as possible, but you also have the option of adding in whatever you want to the mix. Imagine the wildest ice cream you can think of, and you can probably make it if you churn your own ice cream.

Now, you can always do it the old-fashioned way, but these days, more and more people have ice cream makers at home. These machines are relatively easy to use, so just about anyone can whip up an amazing dessert. However, there are more than a few mistakes that are easy to make during the ice cream-making process. If you truly want to make the best ice cream possible, you'll want to avoid those mistakes if at all possible.

Just what should you be on the lookout for? We've compiled some of the most common homemade ice cream mistakes you should be avoiding. Happy churning!

When you're new to making ice cream, you may not yet know which ingredients will make the best possible dessert. And since some of these ingredients can be confused with others, it's easy to make a mistake and pick up the wrong ingredient from the store simply because you're not reading closely enough. For example, if you're making your ice cream from scratch, you're going to need to find heavy cream. Heavy cream has a high fat content, which will give you that rich, smooth texture you're going for.

However, many people will confuse heavy cream and whipping cream, but they're not the same and they definitely won't work the same way in an ice cream recipe. Heavy cream contains more fat than whipping cream, for one, which is key to making good ice cream. Whipping cream is also mixed with stabilizers that you won't want in your finished product. And since it's easier to over-churn whipping cream than heavy cream, you may be left with an ice cream that has a weird, fatty finish to it that just doesn't sit right.

So, always be sure to double-check the label of the cream you buy when you're picking up your ice cream ingredients.

When it comes to the base of your ice cream, the ingredients are relatively simple: heavy cream, eggs, and sugar. Since this ice cream base is on the simple side, it's smart to make sure that these ingredients are as high-quality as possible. If you use subpar sugar or heavy cream that's going off, you're inevitably going to be able to taste it in your finished product. This likely already goes without saying, but you're also going to want to keep that same mindset when it comes to the add-ins you choose, whether they're classic additions or more daring ice cream accompaniments.

For instance, chocolate is one of the most popular ice cream flavors, and if you're going to add chocolate to your mix, you want to make sure it's really good stuff. We think it's worth spending a bit of extra money to get the chocolate that you'd want to eat all on its own. The same principle rings true for fruit. Make sure you get fresh, ripe fruit, but also make sure you're eating fruits that are in season.  This means that a classic like strawberry ice cream is going to taste the best in the middle of the summer when the fruits are harvested at their peak.

By really prioritizing the add-ins you choose, you're going to make the best possible batch of ice cream. So, don't skimp on the quality of these ingredients.

We've already talked about how important it is to make sure you're using high-quality mix-ins. But you may not realize that there's another part of the ingredients list that you'll want to make sure is absolutely as fresh as possible: the eggs. According to King Arthur Baking, eggs add a lot of weight and flavor to homemade ice cream, so this is clearly not an ingredient that you want to skip. But did you know that it's of the utmost importance that you're using the freshest possible eggs?

Eggs also function as an emulsifier, an ingredient that helps water and fat mix together into one cohesive whole. Given the amount of water and fat that goes into ice cream, having a high-quality emulsifier is pretty key. However, the longer an egg sits in your fridge, the more the lecithin content inside declines. When this happens, it becomes a less effective emulsifier and can lead to icier and less smooth ice cream.

Therefore, when you're making your ice cream, make sure you pick out the freshest eggs possible right before you get started. You're likely to notice a big difference in the quality of your ice cream.

Have you encountered this ice cream-making problem before? It seems like you were doing everything right, at least at first. You froze your bowl and your mix ahead of time. You made sure that you don't add in your extra ingredients until you're done churning. Then you froze the finished product, and when it came out of the freezer, you're still left with super-frozen add-ins. Those ingredients have that iciness to them that you were trying to avoid at all costs. 

Sound familiar? It's a common problem, and that's because many of the add-ins you may consider using aren't actually designed to be frozen. While a Reese's peanut butter cup is delicious, the chocolate and other ingredients mean that it's not going to taste great when you break it up and put it in the freezer.

Therefore, you may want to consider simply making your own add-ins. That way, you can make them more able to stand up to the harsh environment of the freezer. For example, if you're making ice cream with bits of chocolate in it, preparing that chocolate with some coconut oil added into the mix will ensure it freezes more easily, preventing that dreaded icy texture. It may take some extra time and effort, but you'll be more pleased with the results.

When you buy ice cream from the store, it can last in your freezer for weeks. If you don't tend to eat a lot of ice cream, this is perfect, as you can always come back to it later. But when you're making homemade ice cream, you don't really have that same luxury. Have you ever made a delicious batch of ice cream only to save it for a few days and then come back to an icy, sugary mess? You're not alone.

While we wish there were a better solution for this problem, it's just a fact that homemade ice cream doesn't last as long as the store-bought stuff, as Food52 reports. Since it doesn't have all those stabilizers you'll find in commercially produced ice cream, it's not going to last for very long, even if you keep it frozen in the freezer. Therefore, the best solution is simply to eat your ice cream quickly. Can't finish it all yourself? Invite some friends over to share it with you — they'll probably be more than happy to help.

There are many different recipes out there that you can follow to get a delicious batch of ice cream. Really, it all comes down to what you want to add to the mix and what flavor you think would best complement those add-ins. But once you pick a recipe, you'll want to stick to it, especially when it comes to the amount of sugar you add to the mix. Why? Because sugar plays an important role in how the consistency of your ice cream turns out.

If you use too much sugar, your ice cream is likely to harden too much and will make for a truly unpleasant and potentially sweat-inducing experience as you try to dig into the treat. On the other hand, using too little sugar will result in an ice cream consistency that's too soft to truly enjoy. But stick with a recipe you trust, measure out your sugar accurately, and you shouldn't encounter this kind of problem.