Homemade Cantaloupe Ice Cream

This recipe was most definitely inspired by one of my wonderful readers, Karen, who left a comment on a previous post that cantaloupe ice cream was her favorite. It just so happened that I had some cantaloupe stashed in the freezer, so I had to give it a try!

Oh. My. Yum. Definitely a new summer favorite!



My cantaloupe was frozen, so I had to let it sit out for about 20 minutes before it was thawed enough that I could chop it up in my Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor. Fresh cantaloupe would work just as well.


Chop to your heart’s content – if you want bigger chunks in your ice cream, don’t chop as much. If you want smaller chunks, chop a bit more. It’s your ice cream, so it’s your preference!


In a medium-sized bowl, combine 2-1/4 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla.

You can use any kind of milk you want here. Heavy cream and whole milk will give you a creamier ice cream, and it will freeze faster. Using 2% milk will give you a little less creamy texture, and it will take a little longer to freeze (but you can call it “healthy” ice cream because it has less fat!). I used 1 cup of whole milk and 1-1/4 cup of 2% milk. Mix and match however you like.


Add in the chopped cantaloupe. Cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour.


When you’re ready to go, get out your counter-top ice cream maker. I’ve got this beautiful Cuisinart 1.5 quart countertop model. For me, the hardest part is to make sure that I’ve got the freezer bowl into the freezer the day before. For a while, I was making ice cream about every other day. Getting the freezer bowl washed and back in the freezer was definitely the most important part of my day! This bowl needs to freeze for at least 12 hours before it’s ready to make ice cream.


Follow the directions on your ice cream maker. For this one, everything gets assembled and turned on before the ice cream base gets added.


Fill ‘er up, and stand back!


This took less than 15 minutes to freeze. Seriously. It was finished before I got the sheets back on the bed.


How pretty is this? For some extra summery-goodness, top it off with fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries. See? More fruit – it really is healthy!



A printable recipe card for you…


Enjoy!

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? What flavors would you like to experiment with?

{Affiliate links were used in this post. Gotta feed that ice cream habit – Baby Doc loves his ice cream!}