The Best Vanilla Raw Milk Ice Cream

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Made with super nourishing ingredients and oh so delicious, if you have a family milk cow or access to raw dairy near you, this raw milk ice cream is a must!

For the Love of Ice Cream

Since I was a kid, a bowl of ice cream before bed was an everyday staple in my life. It was a habit like putting my shoes on before leaving the house. As I got older, my love for ice cream never waned. Instead of a standard cake at our wedding, it was imperative that we serve ice cream. We have planned trips and gone significantly out of our way to hunt down the best, homemade, and local ice cream shops.

In more recent years, since eating a real food diet, we have found joy in making our own homemade raw milk ice cream. It’s really an ideal farm or homestead food because the staple ingredients can be produced right there on the farm or easily sourced locally: milk, eggs, honey. While ice cream is typically considered a “junk food,” I beg to differ. When packed with raw milk, fresh egg yolks, local raw honey, I prefer to think of it more as a super nutrient dense treat.

Why Raw Milk Ice Cream?

While any milk will work in this recipe, we prefer raw for a number of reasons.

1. We know where it comes from. Over the last several years, we’ve been either purchasing raw milk from small, local farms in our area or producing it ourselves once we got our family milk cow a couple years back. This is important to us because unfortunately the practices at many large-scale conventional farms are geared toward the highest production possible which often comes to the detriment of the health of the animal, consumer, and environment. 

For example, most conventional farms milk with Holstein cows, which were bred for maximum production. However, because of the properties and genetics, the milk from these cows also tends to be more difficult to digest and contains less cream and beneficial properties. We prefer milk from heritage cow breeds – we have a Jersey – which tend to be more digestible and super creamy. Whenever possible our philosophy is to source something local or do it ourselves, and it’s definitely worth the effort to consume quality milk.

2. More nutritious. Raw milk is a living food that contains more beneficial microorganisms, vitamins, and minerals. Back almost 100 years ago when technology wasn’t what it was today, it was nearly impossible to refrigerate and distribute milk in an efficient way. Because of this alongside poor hygienic conditions, raw milk was making people sick. The answer to this was pasteurization. This process heats the milk, killing all of these microorganisms in milk. Unfortunately, that means that it kills all the good stuff along with the bad. Heating milk has remained the standard practice. But when handled and stored properly, raw milk can both be significantly more nutritious and healthful.

3. It tastes better. While of course this is open to interpretation, everyone we’ve interacted with has agreed that once you are used to it, the taste of raw milk is far superior.

The Ingredients in Vanilla Raw Milk Ice Cream

• Cream. Raw cream is a delicacy around here. Everyone knows that you never start pouring from the milk jar until some of the cream has first been removed to make butter, ice cream, and all the other delicious things only cream can make.
• Whole milk. The combination of 2/3 cream with 1/3 milk makes the perfect creamy ice cream.
• Egg Yolks. Like the raw milk, we prefer using raw egg yolks in our ice cream. That being said, we’d only use raw egg yolks from chickens that we know how they are raised and their conditions. If you prefer to cook your egg yolks, you could temper your eggs with your milk/cream and then refrigerate for a few hours before blending in the rest of the ingredients and pouring into your ice cream maker. 

• Honey. We prefer to use honey to sweeten our ice cream. Both because of the health benefits of raw honey as well as its availability in our local area. Alternatively, maple syrup, organic cane sugar (or a mixture) would also work.
• Vanilla Extract. Vanilla is important for two reasons. The first is obvious – for the taste. The second is that vanilla extract helps to give ice cream a lovely, scoopable texture. Vanilla extract is made by combining vanilla beans with alcohol. Alcohol remains a liquid at freezing temperatures and therefore helps the texture of ice cream to remain soft and scoopable instead of hard and frozen.
• Arrowroot Powder (optional). For the same reason as the alcohol in vanilla extract, I find that adding 1 tbsp of arrowroot to ice cream improves the texture. Helping the raw milk ice cream to be soft and scoopable as opposed to hard and frozen.
• Salt. 

What do I need to make Raw Milk Ice Cream?

The two pieces of equipment that are helpful (but not necessary) are a blender and ice cream maker. The process of making this ice cream is so easy. Simply place all ingredients in blender. Blend until combined. Then, pour into ice cream maker and let it do its thing for 30-40 minutes until your ice cream is finished. 

Alternatively, you could mix the ingredients by hand, with an immersion blender or mixer. This is the ice cream maker that we have and find it completely worth it as we use it almost weekly. There are other old school methods of making ice cream with ice and salt that totally work too.

What about other flavors?

I love this vanilla raw milk ice cream recipe because while we normally just eat it as is, it’s also the perfect base to any other flavor you would like to create. If you’d like to add fruit, chopped chocolate, nuts, or some other mix in, just pour into ice cream maker a few minutes before it’s finished. It’s also super simple to play around with other combinations to make it chocolate, fruit flavored, or we’ve even done mint by steeping the cream/milk with mint leaves, then refrigerating until cold and continuing with the rest of your ingredients. Homemade ice cream is so fun to experiment with, try different flavors and combinations, and wow your friends and family.

Vanilla Raw Milk Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups cream
1 cup whole milk
6 egg yolks
½ cup honey
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp arrowroot starch (optional)
sprinkle of salt

Directions:

1. Measure out all ingredients and pour into blender.
2. Blend until everything is mixed.
3. Pour into ice cream maker and let churn until your have a soft serve ice cream texture (roughly 30-40 minutes).
4. Transfer to a storage container and freeze for at least a couple of hours before serving.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? We’d love to hear in the comments below! For more recipes from our home dairy check out our dulce de leche, chocolate pudding, and crock pot yogurt.

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