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Creamy, luscious, and irresistible homemade Fresh Blueberry Ice Cream is the perfect summertime treat. This easy recipe has a bright blueberry flavor and includes machine and no-churn instructions.
Fresh, bright, and tasting like sunshine, blueberry ice cream is the dessert to eat on your front porch on a summer afternoon. If you’re intimidated by making homemade ice cream, don’t be. I’ll walk you through it!
Here’s How to Make Blueberry Ice Cream:
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- Combine cream, half-and-half, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
- In a food processor blend the blueberries, extracts, and cardamom.
- Whisk your eggs, and pour a bit of the hot cream mixture slowly into the eggs, whisking the whole time.
- Return the egg/cream mixture to the pan and cook on low for another 5 minutes.
- Pour it through a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl. Add the blueberries and stir to combine.
- Refrigerate for 4 hours or freeze for 2 hours.
- With your ice cream maker running, add the ice cream base to the machine, churn until it looks like, well, ice cream.
- Transfer to a freezer-proof bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap or waxed paper pressing down on top of the ice cream until it makes contact. Cover and freeze until solid.
What Can I Use as a Substitute for Cardamom?
So you’re fresh out of cardamom or um, are like me and never bought it before? It happens! Simply mix 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ground ginger. Add a teeny little pinch of nutmeg and you’re good to go.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- The recipe as written will create a light speckled blue and purple ice cream which is gorgeous. If you want a deeper blue ice cream like what I have in the photos you would add half of the blueberries in a small saucepan with a tiny splash of water. Bring to a boil and then strain through a sieve discarding the skins. Add this mixture to the ice cream base before it goes into the fridge.
- Feel free to use frozen blueberries to get a fresh summer taste year-round. Or even stir in some Blueberry Freezer Jam.
- It’s super important in step 4 in the recipe card below to slowly add the hot cream mixture in a little at a time. This is called tempering which is a fancy term for warming up the eggs slowly so they don’t scramble. Cause nobody wants scrambled egg ice cream.
- Pressing plastic wrap or waxed paper on the surface of the ice cream will help prevent it from getting icy.
- No ice cream machine? Freeze and stir the base every hour until frozen and creamy. For more details, check out this post from David Lebovitz on how to make ice cream without a machine.
Other Delectable Ice Cream Recipes
- Mint Chocolate Ice Cream
- Peach Ice Cream
- Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
- No Churn Peanut Butter Ice Cream
- If you are looking for a dairy-free/vegan ice cream option, check out this Chocolate Vegan Ice Cream
Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream
This easy recipe has a bright blueberry flavor and includes machine and no-churn instructions.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 4 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 6 egg yolks room temperature
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, half-and-half, kosher salt, and sugar. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Do not let it boil. Remove from heat.
- In a food processor blend the blueberries, extracts, and cardamom.
- Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl, and whisk well with a fork.
- Using a 1/3 measuring cup, add some of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks, and whisk while you combine. Add another 1/3 cup - mix. Then a final 1/3 cup - mix. Whisk the egg mixture into the rest of the cream, and return the pan to the stove.
- Cook on medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat, and pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl fitted with a sieve/fine mesh strainer. Add the blueberries and stir to combine.
- Transfer to the fridge for 4-12 hours (preferably) or until completely cooled.
- Add the ice cream base to your ice cream maker of choice, churning until it has reached your preferred level of "doneness".
- Transfer to an air-tighter container, pressing a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the ice cream, ensuring it makes contact with the ice cream.
Notes
Half-and-half seems to be an American product. It is half whole milk and half cream. If you can't find it at your store, sub in 1/2 cup of whole milk and 1/2 cup of heavy cream.
Nutrition
Serving: 12cupCalories: 288kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 3gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 184mgSodium: 63mgPotassium: 125mgFiber: 1gSugar: 17gVitamin A: 925IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 76mgIron: 0.5mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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HI Sara,
Thank you for all the wonderful time and effort you put into your recipes and blog.
I tried the blueberry ice cream the other day. It was great. I didn’t strain the egg/cream mixture tho. I didn’t see the reason for it. Can you tell me why you strain it? Also, I didn’t see where I was suppose to add the rest of the sugar other than the step 1 of 2 tbsp? So I added it when I was cooking the egg/cream. I did the ice cream without a maker. But I have just ordered one and it should arrive today.
Hi Susan, thanks for catching that! I updated the recipe to reflect the fact that I made a stupid typo. You did exactly right for adding the sugar.
The straining is an insurance policy to catch any bits of eggs that might have cooked a bit when combined with the hot milk.
I can’t wait to hear how you like your ice cream maker!
That looks and sounds amazing! I make a fair amount of Indian food so always have cardamon (pods, seeds and ground) on hand. Freshly ground cardamon makes chai tea smell and taste amazing. I think the Finish use it in baking like they do in Sweden.
Oh my gosh I love chai tea. Do you have a trusted recipe you use?
I like chai tea that is less sweet and has more spices so I prefer this one when I have the time (not sure what book it came from originally as my photocopy is old and fading):
Combine the following ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring it to boil:
2c milk
1c water
1.5 Tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea
1.5″ piece cinnamon stick, broken in half
9 green cardamom pods, crushed slightly so they open (I gently press on them with the solid side of a meat tenderizer, but you are supposed to use a mortar & pestle)
7 whole cloves
1.5″ piece of fresh ginger, peeled & cut in chunks
6 whole black peppercorns
1 Tablespoon sugar.
Once ingredients are boiling, remove from heat and cover. Let steep 15min, return to boil, strain and serve hot. Makes 4-6 servings.
I make big batches of Instant Chai for my adult son and his friends using this recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/46777/chai-tea-mix/.
I use a LOT less sugar, more instant tea and more spices. Note: The ground spices don’t dissolve when you make this into tea, so you have to be fine with a little sediment at the bottom of your cup.
I keep a jelly jar of the instant chai tea in my desk at work. Whenever I make some into tea, the wonderful smell draws my coworkers to my cube :-).
This looks incredible! Cardamom is a really common flavour in Sweden, so I actually end up using it a lot now. They use it in sweet buns, like cinnamon buns but with cardamom instead of cinnamon, and in cakes and pies. I’m in the presence of a bunch of blueberry bushes AND an ice cream maker right now, so clearly this was meant to be!
Cardamom cinnamon buns sound amazing!! Happy ice cream making!