The Best Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
This really is The Best Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe around. It's super creamy and has tons of fresh strawberry flavor. What makes it the best strawberry ice cream? It's made with the ripest of strawberries and two secret ingredients. You will LOVE this iconic summer dessert!
I've been tinkering with this strawberry ice cream recipe ever since I first shared it with you back in 2012. It was good then, but it is great now.
When I say it's the best strawberry ice cream recipe, I mean it.
Strawberry ice cream can be a bit of a beast to master. It's often bland and can easily turn icy. THIS strawberry ice cream recipe is neither of those things. It's full of fresh strawberry flavor and super creamy.
There are three things you need to master strawberry ice cream
The first thing you need is the ripest strawberries. How do you know they're ripe? You should be able to smell them from across the room, they should taste as sweet as candy, and they should be pink (not white) when you cut them in half. Farmers' markets are a great place to find ripe strawberries.
If you're making this in the fall or winter, make sure to use frozen strawberries that have been picked in season.
The other two things you need? Read on and I'll tell you all about them in the recipe …
The second thing that you need to make the best strawberry ice cream is high fat content.
To accomplish this, we add coconut oil to the recipe. It makes it super creamy.
What kind of coconut oil works best?
You'll want to use refined coconut oil in this recipe. Unrefined coconut oil will give the ice cream a coconut-y taste and can make it a little gritty.
Opt for refined coconut oil!
Ready for the last trick to making the best strawberry ice cream?
Add some vodka.
If you've ever stored hard alcohol in the freezer, you'll know that it doesn't freeze. That's exactly why we want it in this recipe.
Adding a small amount of vodka (don't worry, you won't taste it) helps keep the ice cream soft and prevents it from becoming icy.
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The Best Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 4 cups finely chopped strawberries, see notes
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¼ cup refined coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
- A pinch of sea salt
- 1 cup whipping cream
- Optional but recommended: 2 tablespoons vodka
Instructions
- Place the strawberries and ¾ cup sugar in a medium-sized pot over high heat and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, give the pot a stir and reduce the heat to a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool slightly. Pour about half the strawberries into a blender and blend on high until smooth. Add the pureed and chopped strawberries into a bowl together and place them in your fridge to cool.4 cups finely chopped strawberries
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining ½ cup sugar.4 egg yolks
- Heat the whole milk and coconut oil in a small pot over medium-high heat until steam rises from the pot. Add the vanilla and pinch of sea salt. Whisk some of the hot milk into the egg yolks to temper them, then add the egg yolks to the pot of hot milk. Place the pot over medium heat and, whisking constantly but slowly, bring the milk almost to a boil. You want the custard to thicken to the point where it will coat the back of a spoon.1 cup whole milk, ¼ cup refined coconut oil, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla, A pinch of sea salt
- Pour the custard into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve Make sure to use a sieve to filter out any little bits of cooked egg. Add the whipping cream, strawberries, and vodka to the bowl and whisk together well. Place the bowl into your fridge to let it cool completely, at least 4 hours.1 cup whipping cream, Optional but recommended: 2 tablespoons vodka
- Once the strawberry ice cream custard is completely cold, process it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer the strawberry ice cream to a freezer-proof dish and cover the top with parchment paper directly on the ice cream. Freeze until firm.
I attempted this recipe today and excited to taste test tomorrow. For the “4 cups finely chopped strawberries”, I chopped up the strawberries and then measured them to be 4 cups. Was I supposed to measure 4 cups of strawberries, then finely chop them? My ice cream base color was a lot redder than yours, so I was wondering if I did it right!
You measured correctly!
Hi! I was wondering if I can substitute the coconut oil? My daughter can have any coconut but I haven’t found a recipe for strawberries that makes curd like this one. It sounds absolutely delicious!
If your daughter is unable to have coconut oil then it’s best to simply omit it. 🙂
I tripled the receipt to fill my three quart ice cream maker
Some of the best ice cream I have had in a long time tasted great
I didn’t put in the vodka
Didn’t see that it had to chill for 4 hours, I thought that it would just take 30 minutes. Oops , other than that it was really nice, good flavor
What other oil can you use, I don’t like coconut ?
I suggest either looking for refined (tasteless) coconut oil or omitting it.
Would I be able to swap vanilla bean paste for the extract?
That will work!
I made this exactly to the recipe. It is truly delicious and very creamy with a just hint of coconut, which is different. I made it to serve on top of double fudge brownies for 4th of July, and the slight coconut (nutiva) flavor being perfect with chocolate (and a cup of coffee) it’s sure to become a favorite.
OMG! I made this recipe as is. It is delicious! The process seems long and tedious…..perhaps because this was my first home made icream…lol!
This was so successful. I am looking forward to making another flavor. My favorite ice cream is mocha almond fudge. Do you have a similar flavor profile to share?
So happy that you enjoyed the recipe! I’ll need to work on a mocha almond fudge version for you. 🙂
Best strawberry ice cream I’ve ever tasted. It’s so rich in flavour and superior in taste.
Me and my family love it.
Ive been sharing the recipe with family and friends and the feedback is amazing. thanks Kristen.
Simply delicious and creamy and a good balance of strawberry flavour! Thanks!!
Question. . . I plan on trying this tomorrow. . . Your instructions say, “Place the strawberries and 3/4 cup sugar in a medium-sized pot over high heat and bring it to a boil.” How do strawberries and sugar alone, with no liquid, come to a boil? Seems like there’d be burning of straweberries and/or sugar, no?
The sugar will start to melt and the strawberries will release their liquid. Seems odd, I know, but that’s what happens. 🙂
I would have to say this is the best strawberry ice cream I ever made. Had to use frozen strawberries but it made no difference.
I was thinking of trying your recipe soon however I am diabetic. If I substitute Splenda in place of the sugar will this adversely effect the ice cream? And if not how much Splenda for one cup of sugar ?
I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with splenda. If the directions on the package say it can be substituted in most recipes then I would think it would be safe to try. 🙂
10/10 would definitely make again! My wife was skeptical about strawberry ice cream, because store-bought is usually “meh”, at best. I decided to try it because strawberries were on sale. The recipe is easy to follow and the result was delicious. I used gin in place of vodka, seemingly to no negative outcomes.
help.made ice cream do i use the juice from the strawberries as well or just strawberries.thank you
I’m assuming you’re using frozen thawed strawberries? The juice will be icy when frozen so I would discard it.
Hi! Your recipe looks amazing, going to try it with the kids tomorrow. Quick question, can we scale the recipe up and double the amounts of everything?
Thanks!
Just make sure you have an ice cream maker large enough to handle the double batch! If not, you can double the recipe but only churn half of it. The other half can stay in your fridge for a day until you can churn it. 🙂
Do you think I could make the base ahead and chill in the fridge overnight to make the next day? Thank you!
Absolutely you can!
fantastic!!
I followed this recipe exactly and my ice cream came out very icy. Also, it’s not sweet enough! In my opinion this recipe requires a lot more sugar. Just came out icy and bland.
Hi! I’m currently chilling the strawberry ice cream base I made with your recipe and I’m excited to try it! I have a silly question. I was just wondering, by adding vodka to this ice cream to prevent it from becoming icy, is it okay to give children this one or any ice cream with added vodka?
Thank you!
Because it is such a minuscule amount per serving, it’s not something that I worry about when sharing this with my daughter. But ultimately that’s something you’ll have to decide if it is ok for you and your family. 🙂
Best strawberry ice cream! My whole family loves it. I was wondering if I could substitute raspberries for the strawberries and make raspberry ice cream.
I think you could totally use raspberries! Yum!
I’m trying this recipe as the first ice cream I make with my new ice cream maker! Just wondering if you need to thaw the frozen strawberries first?
No need to thaw them first. 🙂
I love this recipe. It’s become my go-to food gift this year. I was thinking of adapting it for cranberries, adding orange liqueur instead of vodka. Since cranberries are more tart than strawberries, how much sugar do you think I should add?
I think cranberry ice cream is a great idea! Since you’ll sweeten the cranberries in step 1, I would simply taste test until they are sweet enough. Maybe try adding 1 cup of sugar and then add more until it is nice and sweet. 🙂
This is by far my favorite ice cream recipe. It turns out perfect every time and is far better than any store bought strawberry ice cream. My question is, can I skip the strawberry part and just make it vanilla?
You could definitely use the base of this recipe and add any flavors you like. Vanilla would be dreamy!
Just added a hint of lemon juice before putting the mixture in the machine. Perfect! Thank you
This REALLY is the best strawberry ice cream ever!! Thank-you so much for sharing this with us. I gave this to a real strawberry ice cream connoisseur and he said it’s the best he’s ever tasted!!
Awww that is so great to hear! Hooray!
I have just given this amazing recipe a good try with refined coconut oil and vodka. I have no ice cream maker so I am just going to put it in the freezer and give it a stir every 30 mins for 1st 4 hours and maybe a stir every hour after that. Do you think that will suffice? Any tips for those without an ice cream maker please? My mum made ice cream when I was younger and she said she just gave it a stir half way through the freezing process and it was always creamy. That being said, her recipe was very different and involved egg whites beaten to soft peaks.
Just wondering, when you mentioned adding the cup of whipping cream, is that a cup of regular full milk cream that I whip to soft peaks, or a cup of dollop cream or something else? I’m in Australia so we don’t have ‘whipping cream’ here. Thanks in advance for your advice.
I think it should work well to freeze it as you’ve written. While I haven’t tried it with this recipe, I’ve done it with others in the past with success.
Whipping cream (sometimes called heavy cream) is 30-36% fat content and is what you use to whip into soft peaks. But instead of whipping it, just use the thick cream as is.
This is the best ice cream I have ever made!!! It is so creamy, my ice cream churn just kept going. I thought something was wrong. It came out ready to eat!!! I am going to try the same recipe with peaches next weekend!! The two secret ingredients really do make a difference! Thank you
The very best Strawberry Ice Cream. Wonderful with strawberry on top. Would tell everyone to make it.
I’ve been using this recipe for strawberries, blackberries, peaches and am thinking about trying figs! This is the best ice cream I’ve ever made so thank you! I would suggest one could dial back the sugar and it’s still amazing.