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Watermelon Ice Cream

Make your own creamy watermelon ice cream at home with this is easy recipe that only needs 4 ingredients! Surprise everyone with this unique flavor that is a perfect way to celebrate summer!

scoops of watermelon ice cream in a white bowl with a spoon on a white table next to a striped napkin and a cutting board with watermelon slices

There really is such a thing as creamy watermelon ice cream! Using basic ice cream skills you can get deliciously smooth ice cream full of watermelon flavor. Of course looking online I couldn’t find any actual watermelon ice cream recipes. Everything was for watermelon bombes. Not what I wanted.

I did find a recipe once upon a time which is from Emeril Lagasse. It’s a bit of work, but is so worth it! I changed it up a bit and took out the chocolate chips that he added and didn’t carve out a watermelon to put it in it, seriously who has time for all that?

This recipe has you make a simple custard base that you mix with pureed watermelon. Easy peasy!

4 bowls with various ingredients in them on a white background, ingredients shown are watermelon, eggs, sugar, and heavy cream

Ingredients you need

  • watermelon
  • heavy cream
  • sugar
  • egg yolks

Use the leftover egg whites for meringues or a cake!

Note: if you choose to substitute the heavy cream for milk the resulting custard will be thinner and the ice cream will be more icy. If you are going to substitute it I would not substitute it for anything less than heavy milk. Higher fat content means creamier ice cream.

How to make this

a 4 photo collage showing the first steps for making the custard base
top left: heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan, top right: whisking the sugar and cream together and heating until simmering. bottom left: whisking the egg yolks together, bottom right: tempering the cream mixture into the eggs
  • In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine heavy cream and sugar. Bring the mixture up to a simmer. Remove from heat.
  • Whisk the egg yolks until smooth and temper into the hot cream mixture. To temper, slowly pour or add a few spoonfuls of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks as you whisk. If you stop whisking or add in too much hot cream it will curdle the eggs. Go slowly!
4 photo collage showing the second set of steps to making the ice cream
top left: pouring the egg and cream mixture back into the pan to cook, top right: pouring the finished custard over the watermelon, bottom left: using a hand blender to puree the watermelon cream mixture, bottom right: the blended watermelon ice cream base
  • Cook the egg mixture for four minutes or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat. 
  • Pour hot cream mixture over watermelon pieces and mix thoroughly. Cool to room temperature.
  • Using a hand held blender, puree the mixture until smooth.
a 3rd 4 photo collage showing the final steps to making the ice cream
Top left: straining the ice cream base through a strainer, top right: pouring the ice cream base into the ice cream maker, bottom left: the churned watermelon ice cream in the machine, bottom right: spreading the churned ice cream into a metal loaf pan
  • Strain the watermelon custard through a mesh strainer.
  • Pour the ice cream base into your prepared ice cream maker and follow the machines instructions.
  • Once the ice cream is churned, spread the mix into a freezer safe container and chill in the freezer for 2-3 hours until firm set.
an ice cream scoop being used to scrape a scoop of the pink-orange ice cream from a loaf pan

Top Tips

Equipment

I used my trusty old ice cream maker that gets tons of use during the summer! This is an absolute must each summer if you love ice cream.

I also really like these two scoops for scooping ice cream, this one gets nice big scoops that are really easy to get out of the scooper. The second one is your more traditional spring loaded scoop that I also like because I can use it for making cookies or scooping muffin batter.

Tips for scooping

I think we have all had trouble scooping ice cream right out of the freezer. One of my favorite tricks, which is what ice cream parlors do, is to have a cup of hot water that you keep the ice cream scoop in. This helps you to get nice scoops out of the frozen ice cream.

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Recipe

watermelon in ice cream cones. The cones sit in glass cups.

Watermelon Ice Cream

There really is such a thing as creamy watermelon ice cream!  Using basic ice cream skills you can get deliciously smooth ice cream full of watermelon flavor.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Freeze time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 251kcal
Author: Jade Jones

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 4 cups watermelon with juice about 1 quart
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 egg yolks

Instructions

  • Split the watermelon in half, reserving the other half for a later use. Using a large spoon, remove the fruit from the halved watermelon. Using your hands and knife, remove all seeds from watermelon and discard.
  • Dice watermelon into 2 inch pieces and put in a large bowl with the juice.
  • In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine heavy cream and sugar. Bring the mixture up to a simmer. Remove from heat.
  • Whisk the egg yolks until smooth and temper into the hot cream mixture. To temper, slowly add a few spoonfuls of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks as you whisk. If you stop whisking or add in too much hot cream it will curdle the eggs. Go slowly!
  • Cook the egg mixture for four minutes or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat.
  • Pour hot cream mixture over watermelon pieces and mix thoroughly. Cool to room temperature.
  • Using a hand held blender, puree the mixture until smooth and strain through a mesh strainer.
  • Add the ice cream mixture to your ice cream machine and follow the ice cream machine directions.
  • Pour the set ice cream into a freezer safe container and chill in the freezer for 2-3 hours until firm set.

Notes

The ice cream will keep in a freezer safe airtight container for 2-3 months.
If you choose to substitute the heavy cream for milk the resulting custard will be thinner and the ice cream will be more icy. If you are going to substitute it I would not substitute it for anything less than heavy milk. Higher fat content means creamier ice cream.

Nutrition

Calories: 251kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 119mg | Sodium: 19mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 1246IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1mg
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24 Comments

    1. Yes, if you make the custard the night before that will help a lot when it comes to actually making the ice cream set faster. You can add the watermelon to it as well and chill it over night!

  1. Oh, my goodness! Who knew that you could make watermelon ice cream. It was delicious. And, I just finished using the rind for pickles.

    1. The best way is to use an ice cream mixer but you could also use the old school method. You would need to make only 1/4 of the recipe. Place 1 cup of the mix in a quart size freezer ziploc bag. Seal the bag shut tightly. Place the quart bag in a gallon ziploc bag and fill the gallon bag with lots of ice and ice cream salt. Seal that bag shut tightly. Then shake for 10-15 minutes until ice cream has set. Good luck!

  2. This sounds wonderful. I love ice-cream, especially homemade. I am pinning. Thanks for sharing & linking up at the Tasty Tuesday linkup

  3. My family is a big watermelon AND ice cream eaters. I pinned this to try since I haven’t used my ice cream maker in some time. Thanks for sharing on Merry Monday.

    1. Yeah, I really need to revisit this one and pair it down for a normal sized ice cream maker. Thank goodness summer is just around the corner! I’ll let you know when I do update it. 🙂

  4. I love the way you serve this! So summer-y.

    Thanks for sharing on Hump Day Happenings!

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