Pumpkin Ice Cream

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Smooth and creamy homemade ice cream made with real pumpkin, sweetened with brown sugar, and spiced with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Get your pumpkin ice cream fix any time of the year with this simple recipe!

aerial photo of pumpkin ice cream

While it can seem a bit silly to create a fall ice cream flavor since we’ve typically moved on to baking with warm spices and flavors by now, I am totally an “ice cream all year” kind of person, and maybe you are, too.

If you’re not into ice cream all year like I am, perhaps you’re wondering who the heck might want a pumpkin ice cream recipe.

But I know there are some (or maybe many) of you nodding your head right now and are dying to get some homemade pumpkin ice cream into your ice cream maker ASAP. You folks… You are my people.

a scoop of pumpkin ice cream with an ice cream scooper in the background

Welcome to your new favorite fall ice cream flavor (though I urge you to try my praline ice cream because those brown sugared pralines scattered around swirls of salted caramel sauce in vanilla ice cream are a lovelyyyy way to welcome fall, too!).

INGREDIENTS FOR PUMPKIN ICE CREAM

Homemade ice cream begins with a heavy cream and whole milk base. This is where we get all of the fat and the whole creamy base for the ice cream.

We have to tread lightly with pumpkin purée, because as we know from creating with pumpkin in the past (like, a million times), adding fresh pumpkin to a recipe brings extra moisture which can lead to extra soggy/cakey baked goods.

pumpkin ice cream in a loaf pan

Though we obviously aren’t baking this ice cream, we’ll only need 1 cup of pumpkin purée to bring just the right amount of pumpkin flavor without so we can prevent overloading the ice cream base with too much liquid.

I typically go for white sugar when I make my homemade ice creams, but since pumpkin calls for a deeper molasses pairing, we’re using brown sugar in its place for this pumpkin spice ice cream recipe.

aerial photo of pumpkin ice cream with a spoon in it

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN ICE CREAM

Since this pumpkin ice cream recipe has no eggs, there is no cooking involved. It’s as straight-forward as combining the ingredients into a large bowl or container with a spout and dumping it into your ice cream maker.

pouring pumpkin ice cream liquid into an ice cream maker

The ice cream maker takes care of the rest. All you have to do is stand there and watch it do its thing. Talk about a truly easy pumpkin ice cream recipe, am I right?

HOW TO TELL HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IS DONE

The churning process for homemade ice cream is pretty much the same across the board of ice cream maker brands, however, the time it takes to be called “done” can change drastically based on the brand, the weather, the ingredients you use, the moon, the number of times your kids ask if it’s done or not…

No but really, the best way to tell when homemade ice cream made in an ice cream maker is finished is to look for the consistency of soft serve ice cream.

I often see this consistency show up when my ice cream maker starts spilling out of the top, since there’s so much air incorporated into the mixture and it’s much larger than it was when it was just liquid.

The rest of the magic happens in the freezer, and you’ll want to freeze your homemade pumpkin ice cream for at least 2 hours, but I encourage you do leave it for more like 8 hours or overnight.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH PUMPKIN ICE CREAM

While it is absolutely, totally, 100% ok to eat this ice cream straight up, I have some suggestions for what to put on it and for what to put it on.

Toppings for pumpkin ice cream:
bourbon salted caramel sauce
homemade whipped cream
chopped nuts
crushed graham crackers
crushed gingersnaps
pumpkin pie granola
chai spiced granola
pie crust cookies

bowl of pumpkin ice cream

What to top with pumpkin ice cream:
brown butter pumpkin layer cake
pumpkin pie
chocolate chip pecan pie
no bake pumpkin ice box cake
chai cake
pumpkin bundt cake
pumpkin cheesecake brownies
pumpkin cookie cake
pear cobbler

However you choose to eat your pumpkin ice cream, I think you’re going to love how pure and simple the pumpkin flavor is.

You can really taste the true pumpkin complemented only by cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, and it is perfectly sweetened by the brown sugar with a hint of that deep molasses flavor profile you can only find in brown sugar.

And I am telling you, once you start rolling with the toppings that go with fall, you’re going to want to keep making batches and batches of this stuff.

And when you do… Invite me over for a bowl, would ya?

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Smooth and creamy homemade ice cream made with real pumpkin, sweetened with brown sugar, and spiced with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Get your pumpkin ice cream fix any time of the year with this simple recipe!
Prep Time1 hr 15 mins
Chilling Time2 hrs
Total Time3 hrs 15 mins
Recipe Author Lynn April
Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (480mL) heavy cream
  • 1 cup (240mL) whole milk
  • 1 cup pumpkin purée1
  • ¾ cup (150g) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 and ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Before beginning anything, make sure your ice cream maker is frozen and prepped!
  • Place prepared ice cream maker attachment onto stand mixer fitted with the dasher.
  • In a large bowl, combine the heavy cream, milk, pumpkin purée, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, and salt and whisk until everything is combined and the sugar starts to dissolve.
  • Turn on the mixer so dasher is rotating and slowly pour ice cream mixture into the canister. Process according to manufacturer’s directions (it should take about 20-30 minutes).
  • When ice cream is finished churning, remove the ice cream maker from the mixer, and transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Notes

  1. Pumpkin: I always measure pumpkin purée with measuring cups as the moisture content can wildly change the weight measurements, depending on the brand.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @freshaprilflours on Instagram or tag #freshaprilflours!

Nutrition Disclosure

All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 314kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 72mg | Potassium: 199mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 5693IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 110mg | Iron: 1mg

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16 Comments

  1. Sandy Larivee says:

    Sounds wonderful can I use 2% milk and my homemade pumpkin purée

    1. You’ll need full fat milk for this ice cream!

  2. 5 stars
    One of my favorite flavors of ice cream!! this is yummy!

    1. Thanks so much, Michaela!

  3. 5 stars
    Seeing this ice cream recipe I knew it was time to dust off my ice cream maker. This recipe is heavenly and I’ll be doing a repeat at Thanksgiving.

    1. Heck yes, love that! It’s great with pumpkin pie!

  4. 5 stars
    Made this for a fall party we hosted and everyone gushed about it! Loved the brown sugar notes!

    1. So so good! Thanks so much!

  5. 5 stars
    OK, this pumpkin ice cream was AWESOME. I loved the combination of flavors and my kids could not get enough.

    1. I like their style! Thanks, Erin 🙂

  6. 5 stars
    This ice cream has got all of the right fall flavors! Soooo good!!

  7. 5 stars
    It’s never too cold for ice cream in my opinion and this pumpkin ice cream is amazing! Serving it for thanksgiving!

  8. 5 stars
    Delicious ice cream recipe! Cannot wait to make again and again!

    1. Thank you so much, Mindy!