This blueberry ice cream recipe is sweet, creamy, and bursting with pure berry flavor! Whip up a homemade batch to impress everyone.

If you love fruity ice cream, here’s the flavor that’s stolen our hearts: blueberry ice cream! It’s sweet and creamy, with a pure fruit flavor that tastes like an elevated version of this humble berry. Mix up a homemade batch and it stays creamy in the freezer for weeks! The bright fuchsia color makes it stand out, and it’s the best sweet treat for a summer evening. (Our son can’t get enough!)

Ingredients in blueberry ice cream

This blueberry ice cream features a traditional ice cream custard base mixed with a sweet blueberry puree. You’ll simply cook down blueberries with sugar and strain, then whisk it into the creamy vanilla base. This recipe is great when you have a bunch of blueberries to use up, whether they’re store-bought or picked up at a U pick or farmers market. Here’s what you need for this recipe:

Blueberries, fresh or frozen
Granulated sugar
Lemon juice
Cornstarch
Whole milk
Heavy cream
Vanilla extract
Kosher salt

Can you use frozen blueberries?

This blueberry ice cream recipe works with fresh or frozen blueberries. You don’t even need to defrost the berries if you’re using frozen! The heat from the pan will quickly defrost them and the timing should be essentially the same as using fresh berries.

Ice cream is a great way to use frozen blueberries (versus a baked good like blueberry muffins, where frozen berries can bleed and turn the batter purple).

Churn it in an ice cream maker

This is a classic blueberry ice cream recipe, so you’ll need an ice cream maker! It’s a great investment that works for making sorbets, sherbet and ice creams all year round. Here are two types of ice cream makers you can find on the market:

Freezer bowl ice cream maker: This type of maker is the most inexpensive and requires freezing overnight before making the recipe (store the bowl in the freezer). We use this 2 quart freezer bowl ice cream maker; it’s very durable and has held up well over the years.
Automatic ice cream maker: This automatic ice cream maker is larger and more expensive, but great if you make ice cream often. It requires no pre-freezing, so you can make ice cream any time you please!

How to make homemade blueberry ice cream

To make blueberry ice cream recipe, you’ll make a berry puree, mix it with a custard made of milk and cream, and then churn it an an ice cream maker. Then you’ll freeze for 4 hours or overnight for the best scoopable hard ice cream texture. Here are the basic steps:

Make the puree: Simmer blueberries with sugar until broken down into a syrup, then pass through a fine mesh sieve to strain out the skins and seeds.
Make the custard: Simmer the cornstarch, whole milk and sugar 4 to 5 minutes, taking care that it doesn’t boil. Then add in the heavy cream, more milk, vanilla, and salt.
Cool the custard: Transfer the mixture to a large metal or glass bowl and place the bowl in a smaller bowl of ice water for 1 hour. Or, place the bowl in the refrigerator and wait for 3 hours or until the temperature drops to 40°F.
Churn (25 minutes): Churn the ice cream in the ice cream maker. After 25 minutes, it makes a soft serve texture you can eat immediately.
Freeze or “ripen” for hard ice cream texture (4 hours or overnight): We recommend freezing the ice cream for 2 to 4 hours for a scoop-able, hard ice cream texture (as shown in the photos).

Storage note

Store this blueberry ice cream in the freezer for up to 2 weeks: it stays creamy and scoopable for the entire storage time! Note that many of our homemade ice cream recipes become slightly hard and need to be set out at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. However, this blueberry ice cream doesn’t require it! It’s very soft because of the fruit syrup addition, and you can scoop it out right from the freezer.

Variations

Want to add some pizazz to this blueberry ice cream? Here are a few ideas for how to change it up:

Chocolate: Make blueberry chocolate ice cream by adding the chocolate chunks per this Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe.
Graham crackers: Make Blueberry Pie Ice Cream by adding crushed graham crackers (like this Strawberry Cheesecake flavor)
Vanilla cookies: Make Blueberry Cobbler Ice Cream by adding crushed vanilla cookies
Blueberry cheesecake ice cream: Make this Cheesecake Ice Cream, then after churning swirl in the blueberry puree and graham crackers similar to in Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

More blueberry recipes

Got more berries? Here are few more of our favorite blueberry recipes for using them:

Bake up Blueberry Cobbler or Blueberry Pie
Try easy Blueberry Pie Bars
Go for Banana Blueberry Muffins or Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Make Blueberry Lemonade or a Blueberry Vodka Smash

This blueberry ice cream recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.