Salted Sweet Cream Frozen Custard

We love our local ice cream shops and enjoy picking up a pint or two when we have a craving, but there’s something so ultimately satisfying about making ice cream or frozen custard yourself. This recipe for our Salted Sweet Cream Frozen Custard has a rich, sweet vanilla flavor that is balanced out with just the right amount of salt. It makes for a perfect, creamy bite.

This Salted Sweet Cream Frozen Custard is unbelievably delicious and not too hard to make if you have an ice cream maker. The egg yolks give the custard a luxuriously creamy texture and richness, and the salt helps balance out the sweet flavor. This frozen custard makes a great base for additional flavors, so feel free to mix in different ingredients after it’s churned! You can also enjoy it with fresh berries, chocolate sauce, or our delicious homemade salted caramel.

Ingredients for the Salted Sweet Cream Frozen Custard

To make this recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Heavy cream – we used a 50/50 blend of cream and milk for this recipe, which provides just the right level of creaminess without making it seem too dense or too rich.
• Whole milk – you definitely want to use whole milk here, and not reduced fat, if you want a creamy and not icy texture.
• Granulated sugar – ice cream is sweet, obviously, so you need some sugar to help provide that flavor.
• Egg yolks – this recipe calls for just egg yolks, so make sure to separate your eggs. Save the whites for egg cups, an egg white scramble, meringue, or a frittata! If you want your frozen custard to be less rich/eggy, feel free to use a few less, but we don’t recommend using less than 3 yolks for this custard.
• Salt – the salt is absolutely key to this recipe. Sweet things love salt, and this frozen custard is no different. The salt provides so much balance and really adds depth to the sweet vanilla flavor.
• Vanilla extract – if you have vanilla bean pods, you can use that instead, but we used extract for this recipe and thought it tasted perfect.

How to Make the Frozen Custard

Making this recipe is not too difficult if you have a little time, patience, and an ice cream maker. Here’s how you make it:

First, heat the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a medium pot over medium heat until sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes). Remove the warmed mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla. 

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs together and slowly ladle in ⅓ of the warm dairy and sugar mixture into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly. This will temper the eggs and help prevent them from curdling or scrambling.

Once the bowl with the egg mixture feels warm to the touch, pour the contents back into the pot and place over medium heat, stirring constantly.

After a few minutes, the mixture should thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. At this point, remove from the heat again and pour the mixture through a mesh sieve into a clean bowl to remove any clumps that may have formed (despite your careful, careful tempering). 

Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter to bring it to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator to cool for 4 to 24 hours. 

Once the custard has cooled, churn it according to ice cream maker instructions. We churned ours on the “gelato” setting for 30 minutes using our Cuisinart gelato/ice cream maker. 

Serve right after churning for a soft-serve consistency or freeze for a firmer texture. At this time, you can also stir in different flavors and ingredients to eat with it right away, if you want to change things up, or swirl them in when you freeze the frozen custard.