This sour cream ice cream is a wonderful alternative to vanilla ice cream. Great on its own or pairs beautifully with fruit desserts such as pies and crumbles.
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Sour cream is usually made by fermenting regular cream. The resulting sour cream or soured cream in the UK has a delicious creamy tang that goes equally well in both savory and sweet dishes. Its close relative creme fresh is similar but has a less sour taste (and is usually more expensive) so I do not recommend substituting sour cream for creme fresh in this recipe.
What to serve with soured cream ice cream:
This fresh and tangy ice cream is delicious on its own, or pairs beautifully with one of my baked fruit desserts such as:
- Feijoa Crumble
- Apple and Plum Crumble
- Rhubarb Crumble
- Pear Crumble
- Vegan Apple Crumble
- Apple Crisp (apple crumble)
Ingredients:
Sour cream: full-fat sour cream is best in this recipe and will give you the best flavor.
Thickened cream: I use thickened cream in Australia which has a fat content of about 34%. You could also use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream which is similar.
Milk: this recipe uses full-fat milk with a fat content of about 3.5%.
Castor sugar: white sugar is best in this recipe. You could use white sugar if you prefer. I don't recommend using other types of sugar, they will be hard to dissolve and will compete with the flavors in this ice cream.
Tapioca starch: is a natural and accessible way of both thickening and stabilizing the ice cream. If you can't get tapioca starch you can use arrowroot powder or cornflour in the same volume.
Glucose syrup (not pictured): also called confectioner’s glucose. You can get in from specialty baking shops, online and some supermarkets. A small amount of glucose syrup helps lower the freezer point of ice cream and improves the texture and scoop-ability of the ice cream. You can substitute with the same amount of light corn syrup or powdered dextrose. Measure carefully, preferably using a digital kitchen scale, and don't add to much or your ice cream will melt in a red hot minute!
To Make Sour Cream Ice Cream
Add the milk, cream, sugar and glucose syrup to a small pot. Cook on low, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Add tapioca starch, mixing in well to get rid of all the lumps. Cook on low for five minutes, stiring frequently.
Hot tip: don't skip cooking the tapioca starch. Its important to cook the starch for long enough to stop the ice cream having a floury taste and thicken it up enough.
Transfer to a heatproof container and cool in fridge for about 30 mins. Add sour cream and mix with an immersion blender on low for a few seconds until mix is well blended and no longer lumpy. You can try mixing by hand, however its very hard to mix in the sour cream and you will likely end up with lumpy mix. Add the lemon juice and mix well, either with a spoon or the immersion blender.
Chill for several hours, preferably overnight.
If using a self churning machine, turn it on about ten minutes before you churn your ice cream. Other wise take the churning bowl out of the freezer right before churning.
Pour mix into the machine and churn. In my Cuisinart this took about 20 minutes.
Eat immediately or transfer to a chilled container and freeze to firm up.
This ice cream is deliciously versatile. Great on its own or it pairs beautifully with baked fruit desserts, such as my apple crumble. A wonderful alternative to vanilla ice cream.
Have you made this recipe? Tell me how it went in the comments below and tag me on instagram so I can see your delicious creations! @keep_calm_and_eat_icecream
Looking for more yummy dessert recipes?
Why not try making
- Easy Vanilla Ice Cream
- 3 Ingredients Ice Cream (no churn vanilla ice cream)
📋 Recipe
Sour cream ice cream
Equipment
- ice cream churner
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups full fat sour cream
- ½ cup (125mls) thickened cream
- ½ cup full fat milk
- ½ cup castor sugar
- 2 teaspoons tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ tablespoon (15gms) glycose syrup
Instructions
- Add milk, cream, sugar and glucose syrup to a small saucepan. Heat on low heat, stirring frequent until sugar dissolves.
- Add tapioca starch. Stir in well, ensuring all the lumps are stirred out. Cook on low heat, stirring frequently for five minutes.
- Chill in fridge for about 30 mins.
- Add sour cream and blend briefly with an immersion blender. Mix in lemon juice.
- Chill mix in fridge, ideally overnight.
- If using a self churning machine turn on ten minutes before churning to chill, other wise take churning bowl out of freezer just before churning.
- Churn mix in ice cream machine. It will be the consistency of soft serve when done.
- Eat immediately or transfer to a chilled container and freeze until firm.
- To serve remove from freezer, scoop and enjoy! Delicous on its own or pairs beautifully with baked fruit desserts, such as my apple crumble.
Notes
Sylvie
I had absolutely no idea you could make ice cream with sour cream - and I LOVE the idea! I adore anything sour so this is the perfect ice cream recipe for me!
Sarah Brooks
Thank you Sylvie, sounds perfect for you! Goes great with baked fruit desserts to, I'm sure you have a few of those 🙂
Robyn
Yum! What a great idea to use sour cream in ice cream. This would work so well with hot winter desserts right now.
Sarah Brooks
Thanks Robyn, yes exactly, a lovely refreshing change from vanilla 🙂
Sandra
Certainly bookmarking this one, sounds delicious and I really like sour cream😉
Kirsten
Hey how much lemon juice? It's mentioned in the instructions but not the ingredients list. Thanks!
Sarah Brooks
Hi Kirsten, 1 tablespoon. Thank-you for letting me know, I saw this when I made it again for another recipe and forgot to update it, done now. Let me know how it goes if you make it. I'm really loving it as an alternative to vanilla at the moment 🙂
Rachel IRL
This is sooooo compelling. I've never heard of sour cream ice cream, but the concept reminds me of cream cheese frosting a bit! I definitely want to try this on an apple pie or something similar!
Sarah Brooks
It's not a well known flavour but it should be! Would defiantly be perfect with apple pie or you could try it with my apple crumble to, recipe on the blog under desserts 🙂
Bhoomika
Hi Sarah, this is a really delicious recipe that I happened to stumble open while searching for sour cream ice cream. It’s a delightfully delicious twist on the full cream recipes. I add some strawberry preserves to the batch just for fun. But it’s a versatile recipe to enjoy in lots of ways. Yummm 😋
Sarah Brooks
Hi Bhoomika, I'm so glad you loved it! Strawberry preserves would be amazing in this 🙂 Its such a versatile flavor and a lovely change from vanilla.
Toni
I am a fan of all sour cream foods. I have to try this!
Sarah Brooks
Hi Toni, it's such a great flavor and it's a bit different from the usual vanilla. Let me know how it goes if you make it 🙂
Donna Lamphere
Mine is rock hard out of the freezer. I have to thaw it out for an hour, before I can scoop any out of the container. Anybody else has this issue?
Sarah Brooks
Hi Donna, I'm sorry to hear that, it's really unusual for it to freeze that hard. Let's see if we can troubleshoot for you. The first thing is to check the temp of your freezer. I remember once all my ice cream started freezing rock hard, I couldn't understand what had happened until I realized my kids had changed the settings on my freezer. The second thing is to check your ingredients. If there have been any substitutions, less sugar, etc this can lead to firmer ice cream. Finally adding a little glucose syrup (1/2 tablespoon or 15 gms) can help keep it scoopable straight from the freezer. Cheers, Sarah
Terry
"Castor sugar: white sugar is best in this recipe. You could use white sugar if you prefer."
So...White sugar, or...white sugar? I'm not familiar with castor sugar; is it different from white sugar (e.g., extra fine) or is this a particular brand?
Sarah Brooks
Hi Terry, castor sugar is just a finer version of white sugar. It will dissolve slightly easier than regular white sugar but you can use either.
Tara L Armbruster
Do you have to have an ice cream churn to make sour cream ice cream?
Sarah Brooks
Hi Tara, you don't have to but the texture won't be as good. The simplest way to make this recipe without an ice cream churn is to whisk and freeze.
Make the base as per the recipe until you get to the churning part. Put the ice cream into your chilled container and freeze for one hour. Working quickly remove the ice cream from the freezer and whisk it, taking care to scrape the edges which will start to freeze first.
Return to the freezer for another hour. Remove and whisk again. Repeat for another two to three times or until the ice cream resembles soft-serve ice cream. Once it reaches this stage allow it to continue freezing until firm.
Lise James
I traveled to Costa Rica in the 90s. In the main city of San Jose, there was an ice cream place that reminded me of Baskin Robbins. I didn't speak Spanish, and the employee didn't speak English. I just pointed at one of the tubs that looked like Vanilla and indicated that I wanted 2 scoops in a waffle cone. It was definitely not vanilla. When I attempted to find out what this delicious flavored ice cream was the language barrier proved to be impossible. Then one of the customers spoke up and asked the girl what the flavor was in Spanish, he then turned to me and said in English, It is Sour Cream Ice Cream. After he said it, it totally made sense. That light taste with a subtle amount of tang. I had never heard of such a thing but it was the most delicious ice cream I had ever had. I finished my two-scoop cone and went right up and ordered another 2 scoop cone because I knew I would probably never have that delicious ice cream ever again. I never have. I decided to google Sour Cream Ice Cream and came across your homemade recipe. I am afraid to try as I have never made ice cream before, but it certainly is tempting.
Sarah Brooks
It's certainly unusual but very delicious, I recommend you give it a go! This recipe is made without eggs so its a bit easier than some of the other ones. It pairs perfectly with baked fruit desserts such as pies and crumbles.