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!
Table of contents
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!
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
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
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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Other recipes you may like
- No Bake Strawberry Pie
- Guava Cheesecake Bars
- Smores Hot Chocolate Float
- Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream Brownie Cake
Recipe
Equipment
- Ice cream maker
- Large mesh strainer
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.
This was delicious in taste but not creamy at all, it was very icey. Not sure if I did anything wrong but I followed the recipe.
II made this today. It is absolutely delicious! A perfect ice cream for the hot summer!
I was wondering what all soda pop and you make ice cream with I am trying to find out if you can make Sprite ice cream
Hi Dillon, I have never tried to make sprite ice cream but it sounds like it would be an interesting flavor. You could try making a lemon lime flavored ice cream using this recipe https://www.giverecipe.com/tangy-lime-ice-cream/
Hi Jade,
Is it better to make the hot egg mixture the night before for plenty of time to cool? Thank you (:
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!
Oh, my goodness! Who knew that you could make watermelon ice cream. It was delicious. And, I just finished using the rind for pickles.
I love watermelon and this sounds fabulous!
hi thanks alot dear
i want make this ice cream but i don have machine
how can i make pls help me
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!
I made watermelon sorbet not so long ago and it was delicious, so I can imagine ice cream version will be tasty too. Looks great!
I’ve never had watermelon ice cream before…it sounds good!!
This looks delightful!
Thank you Michaela! It is such a nice change of pace for ice cream.
Wow this looks excellent! I would never have thought of watermelon ice cream. I think my family will love this.
It’s definitely unique! I hope you and your family enjoy it!
This sounds wonderful. I love ice-cream, especially homemade. I am pinning. Thanks for sharing & linking up at the Tasty Tuesday linkup
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.
Summer is just around the corner Erlene. 🙂 It’s never to late to start up again.
This is right at the top of my to-make list! 🙂 Thanks for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday.” I look forward to what you will share this week. http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com/2014/05/try-new-recipe-tuesday-may-20.html
Yum, I have had watermelon sorbet before, but I don’t think I have ever had watermelon ice cream. I too have a small ice cream maker. I would love to try this recipe pared down to a more manageable size!
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. 🙂
Cannot wait to try this! Thanks so much for posting it on Food Is Love Fridays! What a Great Post!!!!
I love the way you serve this! So summer-y.
Thanks for sharing on Hump Day Happenings!
Oo this sounds amazing!