Enjoy the satisfying flavors or churros without deep frying! This homemade churro ice cream is thick creamy and decadent.
This easy churro ice cream is double the fun and double the dessert, but without all the guilt. Skipping the messiness and of a deep fryer, this Churro dessert is headed straight for the creamy custard churning of an ice cream maker. Running throughout the rich cinnamon and vanilla ice cream base is a melted Churro crumb swirling its way through for a deep authentic flavor and one of my best homemade ice cream and frozen desserts.
How do you get the cinnamon and sugar taste of those beloved Churro sticks found at a state fair or amusement park without actually deep frying Churros and chopping them up for a final churn? You make a Churro crumb by combining yellow cake mix with a cinnamon and sugar streusel, then add it in during the last churning stage. The little bit of dry cake mix gives it all the needed flavor, too much and you will have cake batter flavored ice cream.
A few tips:
- Have two sauce pans ready during the custard making part. This helps to cool down the Step 4 prior to moving on to the egg addition of the custard stage. This will help to prevent the eggs from curdling.
- Whatever you do, don’t get distracted or multi-task once the eggs are added. You will need to keep stirring the eggs, or they will begin to curdle faster than you can say, NOOOOO!
- Plan ahead. Some ice cream recipes like this one require a fully cooked custard due to the eggs. You will also need to cool the cooked custard for at least four hours before adding it to an ice cream maker to churn.
For another homemade ice cream recipe of mine check out Snickers and Brownie Ice Cream.
Makes 1 Quart
Homemade Cinnamon Churro Ice Cream
Enjoy the satisfying flavors without deep frying! This homemade churro ice cream is thick, creamy and decadent.
Ingredients
Churro Mix
- 1 Cup Flour
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Yellow Cake Mix, Dry
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Butter, Cold
Ice Cream
- 2 Cups Cream, Divided Use
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 1/2 Cup Churro Crumb
- Pinch of Salt
- 3 Cinnamon Sticks
- 5 Large Egg Yolks
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Instructions
To make the Churro mix:
- 1. In a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, combine and mix flour, sugar, light brown sugar, cake mix and cinnamon. Add cold butter and mix on low until mixture is crumbly.
To make the ice cream:
- Add 1 cup of cream, milk, sugar and salt into a saucepan of medium heat. Stir mixture until sugar dissolves and tiny bubbles appear around the edge of the pan, about 3-4 minutes. Add in cinnamon sticks and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Cover the pan and let aromatics steep for 1 hour. Steep longer for a stronger flavor.
- Create an ice bath by filling a large roasting pan or casserole dish with ice water half way up. Pour remaining cup of cream into a medium size bowl and place the bowl into the ice bath and place a strainer on top of the bowl. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl; set aside.
- Reheat the steeping cream mixture over medium high heat until bubbles form along the edge once more, about 1-2 minutes. Pour reheated mixture into a new sauce pan and set aside for 3 minutes to cool. Pour reheated (cooled slightly) cream mixture into the egg yolks and whisk constantly to prevent curdling. Place the combined egg and reheated cream mixture to a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens (it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spatula and hold a line drawn through it) and temperature on an instant read thermometer reads 175 degrees F. Remove pan from heat and strain custard into the cold cream in the ice bath. Stir custard mixture to below 70 degrees over ice bath.
- Transfer custard to refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator and transfer to your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add churro crumb during the last 5 minutes of churning. Transfer churned ice cream to an airtight container and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets says
Girl your creativity knows know bounds! This is fabulous — wish I could have ataste.
Erin says
I love that picture, too cute.
Lynn says
OMG, so creative! My sons are going to love this. Just curious, why the tamale paper?
Naomi says
Lynn-This was actually intended for a recipe development assignment, but I biffed it. I thought they wanted an original recipe, but they wanted an orginal recipe that included using their product. With that was a request for unique styling. In any case, the recipe was delish and spot on for a churro flavor, so that’s why you see posted.
Maris(In Good Taste) says
Its fabulous and I agree with other posts-genius!
peabody says
Genious! I love you for this.
Lora says
This is brilliant. I have to try it. Wow.
Sarah @ pão e queijo says
Churro ice cream? This is amazing!
Kristin says
One word: AMAZING!
M. says
I think there might be some mistakes in the ingredients? The instructions say to mix cinnamon with the churro mix, but the ingredients don’t include cinnamon.
Also, my mixture needed more like 6-8 tablespoons before it got even remotely “crumbly”. With only 1.5 teaspoons, it was still just powder
Tara says
You do not need to cook churros mix? May be I am not able to understand that instructions.
Robin Erickson says
I have the same question. The crumb mixture doesn’t seem right.
Robin Erickson says
Yes, the churro crumb recipe seems incomplete. I cut 9 tablespoons of butter into the mixture, then baked it on a silicon mat at 350 for 10 minutes. Stir to distribute, then cool. This recipe made too much crumble. I only used about half in the ice cream.
I was hesitant to add the crumble at the end of the churning so I let the ice cream harden a bit in the freezer before stirring in the crumble. In the end the ice cream turned out great.
Mia Gross says
The picture of the homemade churro ice cream recipe looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing