I want it. No I don’t. I need it. No I don’t. I crave it. No, I definitely don’t. I can’t live without it. Yes, yes okay it’s true =). Ice cream is something I will never give up! It’s just one of those things that makes life good. It makes life simple for a moment to just be able to sit back on the comfy sofa or in the warm sunshine and enjoy a generous scoop of silky smooth, perfectly sweet ice cream. I can’t explain my addiction but at least I will admit it =).
My all time favorite is Cold Stone Creamery’s Sweet Cream Ice Cream. So, of course I’ve had to figure out how to make it on my own at home. I’d have to say the recipe I created tastes exactly the same. I did make a change in ingredients compared to what they use, they use guar gum as a thickener but I didn’t want to purchase it so I used cornstarch in my recipe. The benefits of guar gum are that you don’t have to heat the ice cream in order for it to thicken, whereas with cornstarch you do. But the benefit of cornstarch is that it is a much more common house hold ingredients so you likely already have it on hand and use it for other recipes.
To explain Cold Stone Creamery’s Sweet Cream Ice Cream I would call it The Ice Cream of the God’s. Purely decadent, silky smooth, simple yet unbelievably incredible and the perfect base for any “mix-in.” My personal favorite “mix-ins” are Oreos or brownies. I also love raspberries and graham cracker crust. Oh and twix, okay okay I love them all but my top fav is Oreos. What’s your favorite mix-in? Pick your favorite and add it to this insanely delicious Sweet Cream Ice Cream recipe. I also love to eat it excluding mix-ins, it’s so amazingly good no mix-ins are needed, just a bonus if desired.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- crushed oreos
- cookie dough bites, chopped
- crushed graham cracker or graham pie crust
- berries
- diced brownies
- sprinkles
- chopped chopped candy bars
- caramel, chocolate or berry sauce
- crushed sugar cones or waffle cones
- chocolate chips
- chopped nuts
- ...basically whatever you feel like =)
Directions
- In a large saucepan, whisk together sugar and cornstarch until combine. Pour in cream, milk and corn syrup and whisk until well blended. Cook mixture over medium heat (sometimes I even cook it over medium high to speed it up a bit), stirring constantly until mixture comes just to a gentle boil. Once mixture reaches a gentle boil, reduce heat and allow mixture to gently bubble, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Cover mixture with saran wrap or wax paper, pressing directly against the surface of the ice cream base to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate mixture until fully chilled, then transfer to freezer and freeze 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours (I've found this really helps the ice cream structure when freezing post ice cream maker processing, it basically gives it a head start). Transfer extra chilled ice cream mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers directions. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until nearly firm, or freeze until firm and soften in microwave about 5-10 seconds until slightly softened. Mix in desired "mix-ins" (if you wanted to prepare just as Cold Stone does, you could freeze a marble slab then use two large spoons to fold in mix-ins using chilled marble slab, or alternately you could add the mix-ins in during the last 5 minutes of processing in ice cream maker).
grandcannon: I love sweet cream from Cold Stone!! It is the best with their chocolate ice cream and oreos. Someone I love bought it for me once and I have been hooked ever since. You are so talented! Keep up the good work. March 28, 2012 at 10:24am
Elan Dassy: Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream Ice Cream is a fabulous in test thanks for sharing :) April 3, 2012 at 12:15pm
Jaclyn: Elan – Your welcome, thanks for your comments! April 3, 2012 at 2:13pm
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious: My first job during high school was at Cold Stones Creamery so this brings me back to those old memories where I’d just stay behind the counter and sample all the mix-ins, especially the red gummy bears.
Now I can make my own little Cold Stone Creamery right at home with this homemade version of sweet cream ice cream :) April 5, 2012 at 11:18pm
Anonymous: Jaclyn ~ wow, I just found your blog and everything looks so delicious! Can’t wait to try many of your recipes. Thank you for sharing! A question tho… what kind of ice cream maker do you use? I have thought about buying one but the reviews are so mixed on many of them. Your ice creams look perfect. Thanks!! April 13, 2012 at 8:47am
Jaclyn: Anonymous – I purchased a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker from Williams Sonoma because it came with an extra freezer bowl which I love and it really has come in so handy because I make a lot of ice cream. Here is the link: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cuisinart-ice-cream-maker-extra-freezer-bowl/
If you don’t want an extra freezer bowl you can find it I think for around $20 cheaper online. Hope that helps! April 14, 2012 at 8:12am
Anonymous: If one were to use guar gum how much would you suggest June 25, 2012 at 9:31am
Jaclyn: Anonymous – I haven’t officially tried guar gum in this recipe yet (although I’m thinking of doing it next time as I wouldn’t have to cook the base), I would recommend starting out with 1 tsp then adding very gradually to reach the desired thickness you’d like (I would recommend making it a bit thicker than most normal ice cream recipes though, I think this is a key to cold stones thick ice cream). This link here may be helpful to you:
http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/12777/is-there-a-magic-ingredient-that-keeps-ice-cream-soft June 28, 2012 at 11:47am
Amie Wills: Yay! You are my hero for posting this. =) Thank you, thank you! I can’t wait to try this tomorrow at my church’s annual Ice Cream Social.
http://www.tccnaz.com July 27, 2012 at 1:09pm
Anonymous: Thank you so much for sharing this, I really appreciate it. This may be a dumb question since we’re talking about ice cream but if one was to modify this to be less fat/sugar do you know how much the taste/texture would be compromised by using 2percent or skim milk? Or using stevia besides sugar? A corn syrup substitute? Im just curious if there’s a way to make this reasonably as healthy as possible without sacrificing too much of the texture/taste, since my wife is a health freak! haha. Thanks! September 21, 2012 at 2:45pm
Jaclyn: Anonymous – I would say you can go down to 2% milk in place of the whole, I definitely wouldn’t use skim. It will taste a lot different with Stevia but you could try it. I would say rather, slightly reduce the amount of granulated sugar. I would also leave the corn syrup, they use it in their ice cream at Cold Stone. It improves the texture. If you want it to taste just like Cold Stone’s Sweet Cream ice cream I would say make it as listed but if you don’t mind the taste of few healthier modifications then go for it =). Hope that helps! September 21, 2012 at 5:59pm
Susan Gomez: Thank you … DH and I have recently gotten hooked on Cold Stone. I’m looking forward to trying this soon. December 6, 2012 at 11:40am
Hannah: Hello, I was just wondering if you need an ice cream maker to make this recipe and what does the ice cream maker do for this recipe? January 6, 2013 at 4:45pm
Jaclyn: I would say that yes an ice cream maker is a must for the recipe. It just prevents ice crystals from forming as it slowly churns it while freezing it. If you don’t have one and are interested in purchasing one, I’d highly recommend the cuisinart 1.5 quart this here:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICE-20-Automatic-2-Quart-Cream/dp/B00000JGRT
I’ve loved mine and I think it definitely a fair price. January 7, 2013 at 11:01pm
Jonathon: Thank you, thank you, thank you! My favorite flavor, and you did an awesome job of creating it. I made it today and just enjoyed a bowl. As good as the store, and a fraction of the price. March 7, 2013 at 6:31pm
Jaclyn: I’m so glad you made and enjoyed this ice cream. It’s one of my all time favorites. I can never get enough of cold stones sweet cream so I figured I may as well make it at home and stop spending so much money there =). March 8, 2013 at 5:05pm
Vicki: I see where you say this yields 4 servings. How much is that? I have a 2 quart ice cream maker and was wondering if I could double this, etc. without it being too much. I would like to make at least 2 quarts. Thanks April 21, 2013 at 8:57pm
Jaclyn: I don’t know in cups how much I actually ended up getting but I have a 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker and this recipe nearly fills it so I would say you could add like 1/3 more. Hope that helps! April 25, 2013 at 6:59pm