Cranberry Ice Cream
Delicious and creamy homemade Cranberry Ice Cream. Tart cranberries make an ice cream with a bright flavor and gorgeous color. Add white chocolate chips for a sweet contrast to the tangy berries.
Why you’ll love this recipe
First of all, you’re not likely to find Cranberry Ice Cream in your local market. But you can make it yourself.
The first step in making a great fruit-flavored ice cream is to consider the amount of water in the fruit. Too much water dilutes the flavor and excess water creates an icy, crystalized texture.
Luckily, cranberries don’t have much water. Cranberries have especially thick skin and lots of pectin so they make a fabulous addition to ice cream.
For this ice cream, we replace the milk in a basic ice cream recipe with a tasty cranberry compote.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Cranberries – You can use fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe.
- Orange & Cinnamon – These are classic flavor partners for cranberries.
- Egg Yolks – Homemade ice cream made with egg yolks has a luscious custardy texture and it melts more slowly than ice cream made without eggs or yolks.
- White Chocolate Chips – Creamy, sweet white chocolate is the perfect contrast for tangy cranberries.
How to make Cranberry Ice Cream
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Combine the cranberries, half of the sugar, the cinnamon stick, orange zest and juice in a small saucepan.
- Bring the juice to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium.
- Cook until most of the berries have popped and the sauce is thickened. Transfer the cranberries to a bowl to cool.
- Whisk together the yolks and remaining sugar.
- In the same pan from the cranberries, scald the cream.
- Pour the cream into the yolks and whisk.
- Return the custard to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
- Cook until the custard coats the back of the spatula.
- Remove the orange zest and cinnamon stick from the cranberries.
- Combine the custard and the cranberries.
- Stir the mixture together. Cover the chill until very cold.
- Churn in your ice cream maker. Just before removing the ice cream from the machine, add the white chocolate chips.
- Transfer the ice cream to a container. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface. Cover the container and freeze until the ice cream is firm.
More Cranberry Recipes
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review.
Cranberry Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 large orange
- 12 oz cranberries (fresh or frozen)
- 12 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups, divided)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 12 oz heavy cream (1 ½ cups)
- 5 egg yolks
- 6 oz white chocolate chips (1 cup)
Instructions
- Use a potato peeler to peel strips of zest from 1 large orange, trying not to get too much of the white pith. Juice the orange. You should get about 1/2 cup of juice.
- Combine 12 oz cranberries, orange zest and juice, half of the sugar and 1 cinnamon stick in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Cook about 5 minutes until most of the berries have popped and the juice is boiling thickly. Transfer the berries to a bowl and set it aside to cool.
- In the same pan, heat 12 oz heavy cream over medium high heat until scalding hot. While the cream heats up, whisk 5 egg yolks with the rest of the sugar in a small bowl.
- Once the cream is scalding hot, pour it into the bowl with the yolks and whisk to combine
- Return the entire mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly. Cook the custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spatula or wooden spoon. Do not allow it to come to a full boil. Remove from the heat and strain the custard back into the bowl from the yolks. Remove the orange zest and cinnamon stick from the cranberries then stir them into the custard.
- Cover the bowl and chill until very cold. At least 4-5 hours or over night. This makes a fairly large batch so if you have a smaller ice cream maker you might want to run 2 batches. Freeze according to the directions for your ice cream machine. Just before removing the ice cream from the machine, add the white chocolate chips.
- Scoop the ice cream into a container and smooth to an even layer. Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface, cover tightly and freeze until firm.
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