Nothing is better than Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream. And we have a copycat recipe that tastes just like Blue Bell at home and tips to for making the best ice cream.
There’s nothing more Texan than a big bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream straight from Brenham’s Blue Bell Creameries in the middle of July. However, you often hear when someone moves up north, the sweet taste of BB is no where to be found (and everything fails in comparison.)
So in times like these (or during a little shortage catastrophe), I’ve worked to create the best version I could of the real thing using a simple and easy ice cream maker. Don’t believe me that it’s possible?
Make it yourself, take a bite and tell me I’m wrong. (Really, I want you to!)
Never made homemade ice cream before? Think it takes tons of work? You’re wrong! You just need a few tips and an ice cream maker. Of course, there’s tons of ice cream makers out there – you just need to find the right one for you! Check out my review of several on Good Morning Texas.
While I created my recipe for Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with the old school Hamilton ice maker (no switch is even on this baby), there are other ways to create a creamy treat – even some without using dairy! Take a look at these gadgets – especially the fun ones that have you take an active roll is making you scream for your ice cream.
Hamilton Beach Ice Cream Maker
COPYCAT Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Description
Recipe created by Autumn Reo of MamaChallenge.com.
Ingredients
- 6 eggs yolks
- 2 cups white sugar
- 24 oz. heavy cream
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- Whole Milk (about 2 cups)
Instructions
- Cream eggs and sugar.
- Then add cream and condensed milk and vanilla.
- Beat until well blended.
- Pour into ice cream churn.
- Add milk until to fill line.
- Insert dasher.
- Pack cooler with layer of ice, then rock salt, and continue to repeat until full.
- It’s done when it won’t churn anymore.
Ready to dress up that ice cream? We have the best ice cream sodas!
I absolutely love Vanilla ice cream! What a delicious recipe! It is about time to pull out the ice cream maker and get some yummy treats started.
Holy fancy frozen goodness, Batman! This sounds delicious! I can’t wait to bust out the ice cream maker and give it a try. Thanks!
Oh yum! I’d love to top some homemade ice cream with some homemade caramel.
This sounds perfect to for the warmer months ahead. Sounds like the perfect way to cool of!
I have never made real ice cream at home. I would love to try this recipe
I have always wanted to try making my own ice cream. I will have to take a look at the different Ice cream makers to see which one is best for me.
With all of the problems going on in the ice cream world, I’m excited to see this recipe! Can’t wait to try it out with the kids.
Yummy! We have that ice cream ball!. It is about time to bust it our for some fun!
I love to make copycat recipes! I had no idea so many ice cream makers were available.
I Love to make ice cream at home! I use my Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment.
Mmm, Bluebell ice cream is so good. What a great recipe.
How much does it make? I’d love to make it but I don’t know if I have to increase the items for my maker or not.
Actually this is for a full container of ice cream. I used the 4 qt. Hamilton Beach Maker here –. http://amzn.to/1J01aE2 (affiliate link) and it filled it to the top!
I am making this now and hopefully it freezes, I followed the recipe but poured 4 cups of milk before I realized and didn’t make it to fill line in a 4 qt maker.
How much does it make. I have a 6 qt ice cream freezer
I was really skeptical but you were RIGHT! It tastes just like Bluebell! Thanks!!
My wife made your faux Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. It’s very good, but not BBHV. However, yours has its own unique, good taste, so that’s something to be proud of. Meanwhile, I’ll try to maintain during my BBHV withdrawal symptoms, until they start making it again. (Ours in KC comes from the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow, OK). Happy 4th! Russell Farley, Olathe KS
Nowhere does it say to cook the ingredients that contain eggs. I would think this might be a bad idea.
Actually I checked a lot of recipes, like Paula Deen’s recipe for Homemade Vanilla and she doesn’t cook hers either. If you’re concerned about that, I’d suggest using pasteurized eggs you can find at the grocery store. I haven’t been able to confirm that Bluebell does there’s with raw eggs, but I’m still checking.
Regarding the eggs and whether to cook them or not, and whether Blue Bell cooks theirs:
Blue Bell does not list eggs as an ingredient in their home made vanilla ice cream., and I would think if they did use an egg product they would list it as so many people have allergy to eggs. We use eggs in our ice cream to give it some solids, to bind it together and as a thickener, Blue Bell and other ice cream makers use vegetable gums to do the same thing , to give it stability, retard ice formation, and act as a preservative of sorts.
Carob gum for instance, which is also sweet..it is another name for locust bean gum.
The other predominant gum Blue Bell uses is Guar Gum. It has thickening properties far surpassing other thickening agents such as corn starch and it is what give Blue Bell Home Made vanilla it’s creamy and not icy consistency.
From Wiki:
“Guar gum retards ice crystal growth nonspecifically by slowing mass transfer across the solid/liquid interface. It shows good stability during freeze-thaw cycles. It is therefore used in egg free ice cream. Guar gum has synergistic effects with locust bean gum and sodium alginate. May be synergistic with xanthan: together with xanthan gum, it produces a thicker product (0.5% guar gum / 0.35% xanthan gum), which is used in applications such as soups, which do not require clear results.”
As a native Texan, I am a life long ardent fan of BB home made vanilla…I’m closer to 69 than 68 years old so I have eaten a LOT of it. I did survive the Great Blue Bell Ice Cream Famine of 2015, but barely.
I have now tried this recipe on July 4 2018. Thank you so much for posting the recipe!!! It is very close but still not quite Blue Bell and I do not mean that in a critical fashion. It is the closest I have seen. It will need a little tweaking.., some salt, perhaps a bit more vanilla as well. Mine did seem a lot more icy than Blue Bell, probably because the absence of the veg gums. I did use egg yolks, uncooked. Since I was making 6 qts, I increased each of the ingredients by 1/3.
I did have to temper the ice cream in my freezer after it got hard to turn. 35-40 minutes tho I do believe had I just removed the dasher, covered the churn with a rolled towel, and left the can in the icy brine. it would have firmed up nicely as well.
This might be my favorite comment ever! So glad you liked it – and together we will get an even better recipe! I’ll keep working on it but until then we have this one! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
First rule taught to students in culinary arts is that you can look at a recipe and know the art that is involved. It does say to cream the egg and sugar.
My husband and I are among those suffering from BBHV withdrawals, so we tried this recipe. VERY close! However, our freezer is a 6-quart freezer so I went with measuring the “milk to fill line” and used about 2 cups of whole milk. I also went with slightly more vanilla than you called for because we like a strong vanilla flavor. What we found when churning this ice cream in our freezer is that after about 1 hour, it had not frozen enough to stop the electric motor. My husband disconnected the electric motor, and hand-cranked for another 15 minutes or so. It never got to the firm stage. So we put it in a freezer container and put it in our upright freezer overnight (from about 9 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. the next day). Even then, it did not get to a really firm stage. It has more the consistency of a carton of ice cream that has been out of the freezer for about 10 minutes. Nonetheless, delicious!
I’m glad it was good, but sorry it didn’t turn out for you. I did churn mine for around 1.5 to get it to stop. I also put it the freezer overnight to get it to the same consistency to be able to scoop it out. I know every ice cream freezer is different so perhaps more time in it would work OR maybe we can cut down the milk ingredients?
I just made your recipe for BBHV and it tasted great! However, I had the same problem with getting the ice cream to freeze. I used two cups of milk as stated in the recipe and I also used a 6 qt container. After an hour of churning, it was still liquid. I churned another half hour and it was like soft serve. I scooped out into a storage container to put in freezer. After a few hours it had hardened more. I had a few hours more until I needed to serve. It was delicious, but still too soft, IMO. The left overs were put in the freezer until following day. By the time I was ready to dig into the left overs, it had hardened perfectly. Next time, I will make 24 hours in advance to give enough time to freeze.
I see this uses raw yolks. Is it safe to eat while pregnant? I’m about 8 months pregnant and would love to make this for my Texan husband, but I can’t have it in the house if I can’t eat it too!! Hahaha
How much milk if making this in a kitchen aid?
This isn’t a bad recipe at all, but for me its still too far off from my memory of Blue Bell vanilla. Will keep hunting.
NOTE: To be as clear as possible – this produces a very delicious ice cream! I just don’t feel it sinks up with Blue Bell at all. Its a little sweeter, a little weaker in terms of vanilla flavor.
I am making this currently and it is going on three hours and the ice cream maker is still turning! I hope the ice cream is worth the wait!
I followed these directions to the letter and it will not freeze in my 4 quart freezer….I have never had one do this….its been churning for 3 hours. Sorry
We prepare ice cream for the large meals/feasts we prepare for our Neighborhood Watch meetings in our home, as well as the huge family reunions at Thanksgiving or Christmas and Spring BBQs and Feasts. So far, we have made all natural Rocky Road, Mango, Blueberry, Pomegranate, Watermelon, Black Cherry, Strawberry, and numerous other kinds of ice cream, but we have been looking for a vanilla recipe that was up to our high standards. This one may do it.
We remain skeptical about using raw egg yolks, though we know the risk of salmonella is greatly reduced by eliminating the albumen, we really do not want any risk of salmonella that we serve to our family, friends, and neighbors, so we would recommend pasteurized eggs (yolks). The added cost for pasteurized eggs is tiny compared to the health of our family and others.
My girls and I just attempted this recipe and it was a fail. The consistency never thickened to anything that resembled ice cream or even soft serve. It was also so sickeningly sweet that my teenage daughters were rinsing their mouths out and running to brush their teeth! I also have my reservations about the uncooked egg yolks in the ice cream. I’m sure you CAN make ice cream without cooking, but SHOULD you?
Hi Audra,
Oh no! It is soft before freezing but after a few hours, I was able to scoop it up like Blue Bell! I’ll try to recreate again in a video to show the ease of this and that it does come out! Thanks for trying.
If the ice cream didn’t set up, you may not be using enough salt. According to Martha Stewart, one cup of rock salt is used for each 5 cups of ice.
I’m planning to do this one again to really look at the ice cream freezing issue. I didn’t have any issues, but I want to get this down pat so it only takes it one time for #BB greatness!
What do you need to change or add to this recipe as I have a 6 quart ice cream maker
Thank you i love it. 🙂
★★★★★
Yeah, turns out great, you don’t need to mix until thick just 20-25 min and then freeze. Very close to blue bell, has a nice custard hint to it, try one less egg if desired.
★★★★★
I have tried this recipe 3 times already and it’s my favorite handsdown. It’s not BBHV tasting, but it has its own taste that I love. It has this sweet/vanilla bean thing to it I guess and I love it. Like if you were to put this recipes side by side with BBVH, neither would win bc they are both so good in its own way.
★★★★★
Thank you! I’m thinking of making it again with fresh peaches! Makes my mouth water!
Thanks for the recipe! I made it last night and had no issues except that it came out very, very sweet. I think I’ll try it with half a cup less white sugar..
PERFECT!
I do NOT use all of the sugar that it requires, and it makes it less heavy.
I only use about 3/4 cup of sugar (because the condensed sweetened milk is already sweet).
STILL TASTES GREAT!
★★★★★
I love to hear this! I always formulate fully loaded and then reduce! It is rich but if you can get the taste without all the sugar, then it’s a win! Glad to hear it was great!
Great recipe! I’m not a fan of using raw eggs; I used pasteurized in shell eggs for this recipe and it worked beautifully!
★★★★★
I used to make my Moms homemade ice cream. It is good and a lot of work. I have been making this ice cream for the last several years. It is soooo easy and absolutely the best homemade ice cream EVER!!! My kids love it however I serve it but often ask for it as an ice cream sandwich with my original recipe for Monster Cookies. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!!!
★★★★★
Overall really sweet, a little too sweet for my taste. I went ahead and made this recipe with my Cuisinart ice cream churner and like the other comments said, it never actually reached the churn stop phase.
Initially most ice creams with lots of milk liquids including the condensed milk tend to take longer times to churn due to it creating smaller ice crystals and creating a smoother but less ice cream-y consistency. My bowl went up to 30 mins Reaching the beginnings of soft serve stage, so as per usual I froze over night and got it to the consistency of a frozen custard.
The juicy part is this: I went ahead and bought myself a pint of BBHV and did a taste test comparison to the batch I made with the recipe. A few things i noted that were different.
The BBHV was lighter, less sweet, less vanilla present taste, a standard in ice cream like consistency and in smoothness, and of course more balanced.
This recipe however was way too sweet, string in vanilla flavor, more custard like than creamy, very smooth, and did not essentially freeze to an ice cream state. It felt like there was a lot going on and it got tiring to eat after a few bites.
In terms of milk fat content it was of course on the high side seeing as we’re putting heavy cream, milk, and condensed milk which of course off sets the ratio of milk percentage to yolk. This may be the culprit to everyone’s observations to why this never churned stopped.
Overall, this recipe is very flavorful, and I would like to thank the author for their contribution! But alas, this can’t come close to the BBHV being tested. Onto the next recipe!
★★