//TASTE

3 August 2022 // 08:07 CET

Homemade Ice Cream: Summer Classics Worth Repeating

InspiredByLuxury·From the archive, freshly updated

In the summer of 2022 we shared four ice-cream recipes to help you beat the heat. Three years later, these classics are more popular than ever: matcha, lavender, honey with sea salt, and lemon sorbet. Here they are again-revised and with the insider tips that make all the difference.

Homemade ice cream doesn’t need a professional kitchen. Four recipes-two of them without an ice-cream maker – and by a hot afternoon you’ll have a scoop that beats anything from the supermarket freezer. We’ve revisited the classics from our 2022 summer feature and noted where things can go wrong in practice.

Quick Facts

• Matcha ice cream with mint and dark chocolate, creamy thanks to an egg-yolk base, requires an ice-cream machine.
• Lavender ice cream is vegan, using aquafaba instead of egg, with dried lavender blossoms for aroma.
• Honey ice with sea salt needs no machine: just whip cream and condensed milk, then freeze for six hours.
• Lemon sorbet needs no machine either; stir every 30 minutes and it’s ready in four hours.
• The golden rule for creaminess without a machine: stir regularly to prevent large ice crystals from forming.

Three years after the first article, the physics hasn’t changed – but our experience has. Back then the most common question was: why does my ice cream turn rock-hard or grainy? The answer is included in every recipe here. And by 2025 matcha ice cream is no longer a niche trend; it’s one of the most sought-after summer desserts around.

Bildquelle: Unsplash / Wesual Click

Matcha and lavender with an ice-cream maker

An ice-cream maker starts at around €40 for the basic model with cooling packs, and about €150 for one with its own compressor. The advantage: it keeps stirring while freezing, so the ice crystals stay tiny and the result is creamy. Without a machine you’ll have to stir by hand-more on that later.

Matcha ice cream with mint and dark chocolate

You’ll need: 350 ml cream, 4 tsp matcha powder, 230 ml whole milk, 4 egg yolks, 100 g sugar, 1 pinch of salt, 1 bunch mint, 100 g dark chocolate and a food processor or stick blender.

Beat the yolks with the sugar and salt until foamy. Warm the milk and slowly whisk it into the egg mixture-never the other way around, or the eggs will curdle. Gently heat the custard until it coats the back of a wooden spoon (nappe stage). Stir in the matcha powder and cream, then chill. While it cools, pick the mint leaves, place them in a sieve, briefly blanch with boiling water and immediately shock in ice water to preserve the bright green. Purée the mint with the custard, pour into the machine and freeze for 40–60 minutes. Scoop out the finished ice, drizzle with melted chocolate and freeze again until set.

Milk goes into the eggs, never the eggs into boiling milk. Stick to this order and you’ll never have scrambled eggs in your ice cream.

Lavender ice cream (vegan)

You’ll need: 200 g soy milk, 250 g soy cuisine, 1 tsp dried lavender blossoms, 1 tsp lemon zest, 15 g lemon juice, 125 g inulin, 220 g aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas), 200 g powdered sugar.

Simmer the lavender with the soy milk and soy cuisine for a minute, then remove from the heat and steep for ten minutes. Strain through a sieve, stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and inulin, and let cool completely. Whip the aquafaba in a stand mixer for eight minutes until stiff-it behaves like egg whites and replaces them one-to-one. As it thickens, add the powdered sugar, fold everything into the lavender milk and refrigerate for one hour. Freeze in the ice-cream machine for about 45 minutes. The inulin binds the mixture and keeps the ice creamy even without fat.

Honey ice and lemon sorbet without an ice-cream maker

No appliance? No problem. Both recipes below replace the machine with patience. For the sorbet you stir every 30 minutes; the whipped cream in the honey ice prevents large crystals from forming in the first place.

Honey ice with sea salt

You’ll need: 450 ml whipping cream, 300 ml sweetened condensed milk, 85 g honey, ½ tsp fleur de sel.

Whip the cream with a hand mixer for about two minutes, gradually increasing the speed. Gently fold in the condensed milk, honey and fleur de sel with a spatula so the air stays in the cream. Transfer to an airtight container, drizzle a little extra honey on top and freeze for at least six hours until solid. This no-churn trick works because the sweetened condensed milk lowers the freezing point while the air bubbles in the cream keep the texture silky. Serve in cups or waffle cones.

Lemon sorbet

You’ll need: 2 lemons (1 organic), 3 limes, 6 lemon-balm leaves, 90 g fine sugar, 200 ml mineral water, a stick blender.

Scrub the organic lemon under hot water, dry and finely zest. Juice all the lemons and limes. Wash, dry and slice the lemon balm. Whisk the juice, sugar, zest and balm leaves until smooth. Stir in the mineral water, pour into a metal bowl (metal conducts cold better than plastic) and cover. Freeze in the freezer for about four hours, stirring at least every half hour. That frequent stirring is the trick that replaces the ice-cream machine.

What makes the difference

Three dials determine whether your ice cream stays creamy or turns rock-solid. First, fat and sugar-both lower the freezing point and keep the scoop smooth. Second, air, whether whipped in by an ice-cream machine or folded into whipped cream. Third, movement while freezing, so crystals stay tiny. Once you’ve got this down, you can tweak any of the four recipes: swap basil for mint or rosemary for lavender.

Craving more summer vibes? Our unusual summer cocktails pair perfectly with a scoop of sorbet, and if you’d rather fire up the oven, our sweet baking ideas will stock your next afternoon snack stash.