It’s summer soon and the weather’s warming up. You know what that means – ice cream season! Our Galaxy Ice Cream is the best Cuisinart ice cream maker recipe that will win you bonus points from your kids this summer!
Our Galaxy Ice Cream is perfect for birthday parties, BBQ parties, or just any gathering with ice cream lovers! It’s a fun one to make with kids too – it’s the perfect summer activity for kids. Don’t believe me? Ask your kids to see if they’d like to make a galaxy ice cream this summer. The answer will be a resounding, “YES!” They’ll be amazed by the pops of color mixing into the ice cream and then swirling into each other, like a rainbow swirl!
The Galaxy Ice Cream recipe is also one to modify as the perfect Cotton Candy Ice Cream recipe. We’ll share a bit more on how you can transform our ice cream recipe into a brilliant homemade cotton candy ice cream – another one for the books as one of the best Cuisinart ice cream maker recipes.
Who Invented Ice Cream?
Not to give a history lesson, but it’s fascinating to know that there were several forms of frozen desserts and drinks dating back to ancient times. It’s hard to pin down who actually invented ice cream as we know it today…
…But way, way, way back in time, ancient figures like King Solomon, Alexander the Great, Nero, and Chinese emperors are noted to have enjoyed frozen desserts and drinks flavored with fruits, honey, and even buffalo milk.
Along the way, we were gifted the sherberts from the Turks, sorbet from ancient Persians, and kulfi from India as technology advanced. All these frozen concoctions, through time and innovation, birthed what we now enjoy as ice cream today!
How to Make Ice Cream
If you’ve made homemade ice cream before, you know how easy it is! Never tried homemade ice cream? Then you definitely need to try our easy Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe.
To make ice cream, you basically take a mixture of heavy whipping cream (in our simple version) and churn it with chilled tools, like an ice cream maker or even a KitchenAid stand mixer! KitchenAid stand mixers have ice cream maker attachments that are super dandy too!
Now that you know the basics of how to make ice cream, let’s get into our galactic version!
Key Elements Of This Recipe
- Heavy Whipping Cream: For the perfectly creamy consistency of store-bought ice cream, we need heavy whipping cream. Half & half doesn’t yield the same creaminess – trust me, I’ve made this mistake before!
- Food coloring: Drops of food coloring make our ice cream pop with beautiful blue, pink, and purple. Definitely a must-have for galaxy swirls!
- Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker: We need an ice cream maker to make our homemade ice cream. If you don’t have one, however, a KitchenAid works too – we’ll tell you how!
Heavy Cream vs Heavy Whipping Cream
What’s the difference between heavy cream vs. heavy whipping cream and which do you need? According to the FDA, the two are interchangeably called. Heavy cream just needs to be of 36% milkfat or greater and can be called heavy whipping cream.
This is why half & half won’t work as an alternative to our recipe. Half & half only contains 10.5-18% milkfat because it’s a mixture of milk and cream. When we tried using half & half, the ice cream was too icy and not creamy enough.
On the other hand, there is such a thing as too much milkfat! When we used heavy cream that had 40% milkfat, the ice cream left a fatty milkfat residue texture in our mouths – bleh.
In conclusion, we found regular store-bought heavy whipping cream that’s 36% milkfat works best for our ice cream recipe.
The Ingredients for Galaxy Ice Cream
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
- 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream (36% milkfat)
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Salt
- 10-15 drops Pink Food Coloring
- 10-15 drops Purple Food Coloring
- 10-15 drops Blue Food Coloring
The Equipment Needed
- Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (you can also use your KitchenAid stand mixer -they even have ice cream maker attachments)
- Stainless Steel Bowl
- Whisk
- Silicone Mixing Spoon
- Bowls for mixing in food coloring
- Stainless Steel Breading Pan or other freezer safe container for ice cream
Change Things Up as Cotton Candy Ice Cream
To make our Galaxy Ice Cream into a fun Cotton Candy Ice Cream, just add cotton candy extract! All you need to do is reduce the vanilla extract to 1/3 teaspoon and add in 1 tablespoon of cotton candy extract from our recipe – check out our Cotton Candy Ice Cream recipe for more details. Too easy!
You can also change up the colors with your little one’s favorite colors and let them swirl it around. Now, how’s that for an amazing summer activity for kids?
How to Prepare Galaxy Ice Cream
Ice cream making begins with chilled equipment! Ensure the freezer bowl of the Cuisinart ice cream maker is frozen before you begin. For best results, I like to freeze mine overnight.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to freeze the inner bowl (freezer bowl) of your ice cream maker!
The first step of our homemade ice cream recipe is to mix together the whole milk, condensed milk, heavy cream, vanilla extract, sugar, and pinch of salt. Ensure everything dissolves into the “ice cream soup” mixture.
Pro Tip: For the perfect ice cream texture, use 36% milkfat heavy whipping cream. This is the regular store-bought kind.
Once dissolved, cover the bowl of your “ice cream soup” mixture and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, or overnight. We’re making sure everything gets extra cold!
How to Make Galaxy Ice Cream
After the mixture has had time to chill, bring out your Cuisinart ice cream maker. Place the freezer bowl into the ice cream maker, also inserting the paddle. Pour the “ice cream soup” into the freezer bowl and turn on the machine. Let your Cuisinart ice cream maker churn the mixture for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, the ice cream will be a soft serve ice cream texture. Spoon the soft serve into 3 bowls.
Now for the fun part and where the kids will want to participate!
Into each bowl, drop in the 3 different colors of food coloring and mix until the white soft serve ice cream changes color. One will be pink, other will be purple, and the last will be blue.
Pro Tip: Start with a few drops of food coloring and add more as desired.
Once you have your desired colors for each bowl, pour them into a bigger freezer-safe container. Then use your whisk or fork to swirl the colors in.
Pro Tip: Don’t swirl too much, or else the colors will combine together to form a darker brown or black.
After swirling the mixture, cover the container and place it in the freezer overnight to let it harden.
Once hardened, scoop your galaxy ice cream into a bowl, cone, or even a black chocolate chip cookie to create a galactic ice cream sandwich! Serve immediately and enjoy!
How to Enjoy Galaxy Ice Cream
To make the most of your space-tacular galaxy ice cream, try to make it into a spaceship! We took inspiration from a popular Netflix series, Gabby’s Dollhouse! Simply take a couple of black chocolate chip cookies and make an ice cream sandwich – it’s out of this world!
Other great ways to enjoy it would be to sprinkle some “stardust” or to simply scoop it into your favorite cone!
If you liked this recipe, you’ll love these too:
Equipment
- Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, (you can also use your KitchenAid stand mixer – they even have ice cream maker attachments)
- Bowls, (for mixing in food coloring)
- Stainless Steel Breading Pan, (or other freezer safe container for ice cream)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
- 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream, (36% milkfat)
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Salt
- 10-15 drops Pink Food Coloring
- 10-15 drops Purple Food Coloring
- 10-15 drops Blue Food Coloring
Instructions
How to Prepare Galaxy Ice Cream
- Pro Tip: Don’t forget to freeze the inner bowl (freezer bowl) of your ice cream maker!
- Mix together the whole milk, condensed milk, heavy cream, vanilla extract, sugar, and pinch of salt.
- Ensure everything dissolves into the "ice cream soup" mixture.
- Pro Tip: For the perfect ice cream texture, use 36% milkfat heavy whipping cream. This is the regular store-bought kind.
- Once dissolved, cover the bowl of your “ice cream soup” mixture and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, or overnight.
How to Make Galaxy Ice Cream
- After the mixture has had time to chill, bring out your Cuisinart ice cream maker and place the freezer bowl into the ice cream maker, also inserting the paddle.
- Pour the “ice cream soup” into the freezer bowl and turn on the machine.
- Let your Cuisinart ice cream maker churn the mixture for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, the ice cream will be a soft serve ice cream texture. Spoon the soft serve into 3 bowls.
- Into each bowl, drop in the 3 different colors of food coloring and mix until the white soft serve ice cream changes color. One will be pink, other will be purple, and the last will be blue.
- Pro Tip: Start with a few drops of food coloring and add more as desired.
- Once you have your desired colors for each bowl, pour them into a bigger freezer-safe container.
- Use your whisk or fork to swirl the colors in.
- Pro Tip: Don't swirl too much, or else the colors will combine together to form a darker brown or black.
- After swirling the mixture, cover the container and place it in the freezer overnight to let it harden.
- Once hardened, scoop your galaxy ice cream into a bowl, cone, or even a black chocolate chip cookie to create a galactic ice cream sandwich! Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
FAQ
What is galaxy ice cream?
Galaxy ice cream has a dreamy, outer space look with its pink, purple and blue swirls. It looks like it will taste like shooting stars, but has a vanilla flavor.
What if I don’t have an ice cream maker?
If you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, you can use it instead of an ice cream maker! Chill your mixing bowl and paddle in the freezer, then churn the mixture in the stand mixer! Otherwise, use rock salt, Ziploc bags, and lots of shaking to create your galaxy ice cream!
What’s the difference between heavy cream vs. heavy whipping cream?
According to the FDA, the two names are use interchangeably. Heavy cream just needs to be of 36% milkfat or greater and can be called heavy whipping cream. This is why half and half will not work for our ice cream recipe.
Jennifer
Love the colors in this. Will try out with kids. 🙂
Umamiologist
I hope you enjoy it! Try out the Cotton Candy Ice Cream after this one too!
Melanie
I can’t believe you have galaxy ice cream. My daughter is obsessed with Gabby’s Dollhouse!
Umamiologist
Hoping to bring a bit of magic to the little ones too!
Gene
I like that you didn’t use black food coloring but still created the galaxy feel.
Umamiologist
Glad you like that part, Gene!
Jill
oh my kids will love this!
Umamiologist
Yes! It’s meant to be a fun activity for the kids too!