Homemade Cold Stone Sweet Cream

Published March 26, 2012. Updated February 14, 2024

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Homemade Cold Stone Sweet Cream Ice Cream is the healthier and cheaper way to enjoy your favorite dessert—anytime you want it! It’s so fun to make at home with your kids, and it’s WAY better than your average scoop of vanilla ice cream. Trust me! 

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 =).

Homemade Cold Stone Sweet Cream Ice Cream
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 for it to thicken, whereas with cornstarch you do.  But the benefit of cornstarch is that it is a much more common household ingredient 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 Gods.  Purely decadent, silky smooth, simple yet unbelievably incredible, and the perfect base for any “mix-in.”  My personal favorite “mix-ins” for my Homemade Cold Stone Sweet Cream Ice Cream 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.

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4.91 from 10 votes

Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream Ice Cream – make it at home!

Copycat Cold Stone Creamy Sweet Cream Ice Cream! One of my favorite ice cream recipes!
Servings: 6
Prep10 minutes
Cook10 minutes
Chill4 hours
Ready in: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Recommended mix ins:

  • 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 =)

Instructions

  • 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).

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84 Comments

  • Nicole

    I used the ingredients mentioned, while substituting agave syrup for corn syrup and keeping the corn starch on board. All was going well while I stirred the mixture over medium heat, spotting tiny bubbles, and then the whole thing quickly turned into a THICK paste. It was so thick, I couldn’t strain it. Is this normal? Did I make Gak? Is it going to eat me in my sleep?

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      It must just have something to do with using agave in place of corn syrup because it definitely shouldn’t turn into a thick paste. Sorry that happened, next time I’d recommend sticking with corn syrup or even just adding more sugar.

      • Nicole

        Sorry to write again…what can I use in substitute of corn starch?

        I have the substitute for the corn SYRUP worked out to adding slightly more than 1/3 cup sugar and .96 tbspn water, to replace the 1/4 cup corn SYRUP.

        Now onto the corn starch. Some sites say you can use flour. Would that be weird? In this case, it calls for using double the amount of flour as corn starch for any recipe.

        • Jaclyn

          Jaclyn Bell

          I wouldn’t recommend using flour the taste and consistency won’t be the same. You could probably substitute something like xanthan gum (small amount, not sure in the exact conversion) but really corn starch is the best option here I think.

  • Copper

    It is a great recipe. Very smooth. It’s a 5 star for sure. Be aware, this is very sweet. Not sure if you want to tone down the sweetness if you add less syrup. I used the directions to the tee. However it’s even a little too sweet for my liking.

  • Christina

    I don’t have a fine mesh sieve, will skipping this step cause any problems?

  • David

    First of all thanks for the recipe. I love it. I have made it many times and feel that I have found the correct amount of guar gum. I suggest only 1/2 tsp for this recipe. I have tried as much as 1 tsp but it makes a weird rubbery/gummy texture with that much. 1/2 tsp is perfect.

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Thanks so much for the tip David! So glad you’ve enjoyed this recipe!

    • LISA

      Dave, did you use the guar gum as an addition to this recipe, including the corn starch?
      Also, when did you add it? I really like this recipe slot but it’s got a little fatty mouth-feel i would like to tone down, so was wondering about adding guar gum while decreasing cornstarch slightly.
      It’s really really good though, Jaclyn! Nice job!!

      • JS

        Lisa, the recipe says one or the other. Not both guar gym and corn starch. The only confusing part i see here is the author says when using guar gum it’s not necessary to heat. So that begs the question, is step one basically void? Does it not need to be brought to a gentle boil and then frozen if using guar gum?

  • Vania Kinney

    I made this today and it’s rich and delicious but sooooooooooooo sweet. It’ll be fantastic with fruit mix-ins!
    Thank you!

    I wonder if eliminating the corn syrup would completely alter the texture…

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Leaving out the corn syrup would alter the texture a bit. But you still could do without or you could cut back on the sugar.

  • Holmes Brad

    If you don’t have an ice creM machine, put this in a zip lock baggie and then put that baggy in a bigger baggy with ice and salt. Zip it up and gently shake until you got ice cream

  • Julie Knouse

    This recipe is amazing. Can’t thank you enough for posting. Made exactly as is except just chill overnight in fridge and then put in ice cream maker next day for perfect ice cream!