Extra Cinnamon Ice Cream
Do you love cinnamon? I do! This Extra Cinnamon Ice Cream highlights the flavor in 3 ways: 1. Cream is steeped with cinnamon sticks. 2. Cinnamon syrup is layered with frozen custard. 3. Crumbled cinnamon cookies intensify the cinnamon flavor, and add textural interest. This cinnamon-y frozen custard is a cinnamon lover’s delight!
👩🏻🍳 Tamara Talks – About Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
My favorite dessert is ice cream… homemade ice cream and frozen custard especially. My Christmas dessert recipes have focused on trifles, puddings, and mousses. I really wanted to do a Christmas ice cream recipe. I didn’t get it done in time for Christmas 2024, but I threw caution to the wind, and began working on it in January (when I should’ve focused on “healthy” recipes🙃).
A custard-style ice cream mix is my “go to” because I grew up with amazing custard-style homemade ice cream. My mom made the ice cream mix, and my Dad and the kids took turns churning. So, here we are with a made-for-Christmas homemade cinnamon ice cream recipe. It features crumbled Mexican canela (cinnamon) cookies and a cinnamon ribbon in a creamy vanilla base. It is so luxurious!
Of course you can enjoy this extra cinnamon-y ice cream year ’round, but keep it in mind to top your favorite apple pie when the holidays roll around!
📋 Ingredients Notes
Here is a quick look at the ingredients in the recipe – it’s handy to use at the grocery store or as a summary of what you need. Skip to the recipe for quantities.
- half and half – Half and half is easy, but you can use some combination of milk and heavy cream if you prefer.
- sugar – I like turbinado sugar, but white sugar is fine as well.
- fine sea salt
- egg yolks
- vanilla
- cinnamon syrup – I make this cinnamon syrup recipe, but substitute brown sugar for white or turbinado. Alternatively, you can use a commercial cinnamon syrup.
- cinnamon cookies – Cinnamon (aka canela) is an important Mexican ingredient, and there are many Mexican cinnamon cookies like these Ricanelas, and these cinnamon sugar cookies (I’ve tried both). I like the latter best, but both are great! Amazon has a similar cinnamon cookie.
- cones – Cones are always optional, but I do LOVE waffle cones with homemade ice cream!
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🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
- Warm the half and half – To a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the half and half, sugar, sea salt, and cinnamon sticks. Whisk until hot, but DO NOT BOIL. The sugar and salt should be dissolved.
- Slowly add the hot half and half mixture to the beaten egg yolks (about 2 tablespoons at a time). NOTE: I use a ladle to add about 2 tablespoons (+/-) to the beaten egg yolks which gradually raises the temperature.
- Cook the custard – When the egg/half and half mixture is warm (around 160℉), add it back into the saucepan. Reheat slowly to avoid curdling. NOTE: If you do get some curdling, you can put it (carefully) into the blender then strain it. Heat to about 170℉ until slightly thickened. The mixture should thicken and coat the back of a spoon.
- Step 4 – Remove from the heat. Add the vanilla to the custard mix. Stir to combine. Chill thoroughly before freezing!
- Step 5 – Freeze the cinnamon ice cream according to manufacturer’s instructions. In the last 5-10 minutes, add the broken cinnamon cookie pieces. NOTE: Don’t worry if the pieces don’t completely incorporate. You can smush them when you take the mixture out of the freezer.
- Step 6 – Layer frozen cinnamon custard with the cinnamon syrup. Freeze until ready to serve. NOTE: It will be hard to scoop. Thaw in the refrigerator as noted below. Enjoy!
❓FAQ
Most people keep their freezers at zero or below, and that is actually too low for scooping ice cream. The high fat content, and low volume of air in good quality ice cream makes it really hard to scoop. See tips below.
I like these double-walled ice cream storage containers. Shelf life is pretty subjective. I find the ice cream develops ice crystals and graininess after a few days. We try to finish it within a week or two. The colder the freezer is, the longer it will last. See Ice Cream Science for more information.
Tempering eggs is a culinary technique used to gradually raise the temperature of eggs to prevent them from curdling or scrambling when they are added to a hot mixture. This process is particularly important in recipes that require the eggs to thicken sauces, custards, or other mixtures without forming lumps.
💡 Tips
If you’ve ever pulled ice cream from the freezer only to find it far too hard to scoop, you know how frustrating this is. Since making homemade ice creams, frozen custards, sorbets, and sherbets requires an investment of your time, it is worth having some tools to deal with rock-hard ice cream! 3 Tricks for Softening Rock-Hard Ice Cream in a Hurry has great information.
- Thaw the ice cream in the refrigerator. 45 to 55 minutes in the refrigerator should bring it to about 8 degrees (good for scooping). I prefer this method.
- Slice it into pieces. Using a sharp knife run through hot water to cut the ice cream into slices. Then run an ice cream scoop under hot water before scooping.
- Thaw the ice cream in the microwave. This is my desperation method when I have guests and can’t scoop the ice cream. It can result in a melted mess if you’re not really careful. Try 20% power for 30 seconds. Check before proceeding another 30 seconds. My microwave is high power, and 30% will melt it.
Dip your ice cream scoop in cold water before each scoop. Ice cream is likely to stick to a dry scoop, but it will slide off of a wet scoop.
If your half and half and egg tempering doesn’t go well, and the mixture “breaks,” blend it on high in a blender, and it should be okay.
I do adore homemade ice cream, especially custard-style homemade ice cream. I’ll be working on an “ice cream” category, and hope you will try many of the recipes!
Extra Cinnamon Ice Cream Recipe
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Ingredients
Cinnamon Syrup*
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar - I like brown sugar
- 4 cinnamon sticks
Cinnamon Custard Ice Cream
- 1 cup cinnamon syrup
- 3 cups half and half
- 4 egg yolks
- ⅓ cup sugar - I like turbinado
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- cinnamon cookies - ie. Gamesa Ricanela
Instructions
- Heat the half and half, sugar, salt, and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Do not boil!
- Temper the eggs.** See Notes below. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the hot cream mixture at a time until the egg mixture is warm.
- Add the tempered eggs into the remaining hot half and half. Reheat slowly to avoid curdling. Again – DO NOT BOIL. The mixture should thicken. Remove from the heat, and add vanilla.
- Freeze the custard according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Add ⅓ of the custard to a loaf pan or ice cream storage container. Drizzle syrup over top. Add another layer of custard, and drizzle more syrup. Cover with the remaining custard. Freeze until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
NOTE: Macronutrients are an approximation only using unbranded ingredients and MyFitnessPal.com. Please do your own research with the products you’re using if you have a serious health issue or are following a specific diet.
The cinnamon flavor really comes through in this ice cream recipe. The trick of putting the ice cream into the refrigerator for a half hour or so before trying to scoop it really works. The Ricanela cinnamon cookies are a lot like cinnamon flavored graham crackers. I suspect the other kind of cinnamon cookies mentioned here (pan de polvo) wouldn’t hold up as well (but they are really good).