What Is Ice cream and How Can I Use It?

Wondering what to do with ice cream? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 87 recipes to put it to work.

Key Points

Churned frozen cream and milk; whipped-in air, called overrun, keeps it soft and smooth.
Use it a la mode, blended into shakes, poured over for affogato, or melted into batter.
Soften ten to fifteen minutes before scooping or mixing so it stays workable, not soupy.
Melting and refreezing grows coarse ice crystals; fully melted ice cream is a food-safety risk.
Store at 0°F (-18°C) in the back of the freezer; best texture lasts about two months.

What is ice cream?

Ice cream is the frozen dessert made by churning a sweetened cream-and-milk base while it freezes, which whips in air and keeps the ice crystals small. That air, called overrun, is why a good scoop is soft and smooth rather than a solid block of frozen milk.

In recipes it shows up two ways. Most often it is the finish, scooped alongside a warm dessert or blended into a drink. But it also works as an ingredient in its own right, melted down to enrich a batter or frozen into a pie.

Vanilla is the workhorse, the one most recipes mean when they just say "ice cream," because its plain sweetness goes with almost anything.

Ways to Use Ice Cream

The simplest use is a la mode: a scoop melting over warm pie or cake. It crowns a slice of Jumbleberry Pie, melts into Chocolate Waffles with Ice Cream, and turns Grilled Peaches & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream into a quick dessert.

Blend it and it becomes a milkshake, or pour a shot of hot espresso over a scoop for an affogato, where the coffee melts the ice cream into a creamy float.

As an actual ingredient, softened ice cream folds into no-churn and frozen pies like Best Kahlua Ice Cream Pie. Melted, it stands in for the dairy and sugar in some quick batters, which is the trick behind Quick Blueberry Ice-cream Muffins.

Firm scoops can even be battered and flash-fried for Fried Mexican Ice Cream, the outside crisp while the center stays cold.

Soften it before you mix or scoop. Ten to fifteen minutes on the counter, or a few short bursts in the microwave, makes it spreadable without melting to soup.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Vanilla ice cream is a blank canvas, so it goes with warm fruit, chocolate, caramel, coffee, nuts, and toffee. Anything warm and a little crunchy gives the cold, smooth scoop something to play against.

The number one mistake is letting it melt and refreeze. Each thaw lets the small ice crystals melt and regroup into bigger ones, and a tub that has softened and hardened a few times turns coarse and grainy and icy. Scoop fast and get the tub back in the freezer.

The second mistake involves food safety. Ice cream that has fully melted to liquid should not be refrozen and eaten, because melting warms it into the range where bacteria grow. Treat soupy ice cream like any other dairy left out, not just a texture problem.

The third is serving it rock hard. Straight from a deep freezer it scoops in shards and tastes of nothing but cold. Let it sit a few minutes first.

Substitutes

In a milkshake or a la mode, frozen yogurt or gelato steps in directly. Gelato is denser and richer with less air, so it tastes more intense and melts faster. Frozen yogurt is tangier and usually lower in fat.

For a dairy-free table, the many oat and coconut and cashew frozen desserts scoop and melt much like the real thing, though coconut-based ones carry their own flavor.

When a recipe wants melted ice cream for its dairy and sugar, you can rebuild it. Use milk or cream plus sugar and a little vanilla in roughly the same volume.

It will not aerate the batter the way the whipped original did, but it covers the liquid and fat and sweetness.

Buying and Storage

At the store, buy ice cream last and get it home fast. Even a short thaw on a warm drive starts the crystal damage that no refreezing undoes. A firm, evenly frozen tub with no ice shards under the lid has stayed cold.

Keep it in the back of the freezer, not the door, where every opening hits it with warm air. Store it at 0°F (-18°C) or below, and press a piece of parchment or plastic wrap onto the surface of an open tub to slow freezer burn.

Stored well, it keeps its best texture for about two months, though it stays safe longer. Toss it when the surface is covered in ice crystals or has shrunk away from the sides, or when it smells of whatever else is in the freezer, since dairy soaks up odors.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1/2 cup (72g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 144Calories from Fat 71

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 7.9g 12%

Saturated Fat 4.9g 24%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 31mg 11%

Sodium 57mg 2%

Total Carbohydrate 17.0g 6%

Dietary Fiber 1g 2%

Sugars 15.3

Protein 2.5g

Vitamin A 6% Vitamin C 1%

Calcium 9% • Iron 0%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find ice cream: Ice cream is usually found in the frozen foods section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Ice cream is a member of the Sweets US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 冰淇淋
British (UK) term: Ice cream
en français: crème glacée
en español: helado

How much does ice cream weigh?

Amount	Weight
½ cup	72 grams

Sweets

Butterscotch chips 89 Caramels (candy squares) 101 Chocolate unsweetened 769 Chocolate chips 694 Chocolate, semi-sweet 994 Mini chocolate chips 76 Chocolate chips (semi-sweet) 635 Chocolate, bittersweet 123 Chocolate curls 28 Chocolate 384

Recipes using ice cream

There are 87 recipes that contain this ingredient.

More ice cream recipes

List of all ingredients

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