Easy Cinnamon Ice Cream

Sweet, rich, and lightly spiced, homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream is the perfect complement to fall pies and fruit crisps.  Or just eat it as is!

Recently, I saw a cute post on FB.  It went something like this: Ice Cream season is over.  Time for Eating Ice Cream in a Coat season.  Well, count me in!

Of course, while I may eat ice cream all year, I admit the flavors do change.  Right now, it’s Cinnamon Ice Cream for fall. 

And when Christmas rolls around, I’ll be posting Peppermint Ice Cream and Mint Oreo Ice Cream–yum! (Sign up for my email list on the right if you want to be notified when they post!). 

Finally in health-conscious January, it’s frozen yogurt (and mine is just as good as ice cream!) like this Chocolate Frozen Yogurt.  And this January, I’m adding coffee frozen yogurt!

Yes, it wouldn’t do at all to give up ice cream.  Wisconsin gal here.  

Critical Factors in Homemade Ice Cream

Now while I love a good homemade ice cream, there are a number of variable involved in creating a good one—especially one that can survive a stay in your freezer without getting icy!  These include factors like fat ratio, and solids ratio, but the one that always seems most challenging to me is the freezing point.

That’s because ice cream contains a lot of water, but you don’t want it to freeze hard and icy like an ice cube.  To counter this, sometimes small amounts of alcohol are added (lowers freezing point) as well as a combination of sugars (since different sweeteners have different freezing points) that work together to get it to freeze solid but not rock hard or ice-crystal-y.

There are even on-line calculators to help you balance the ingredients!  If you’d like to read more, take a look at Dairy Science or Dream Scoops.

Why You’ll Love This!

In the end, it’s so worth it when your ice cream ends up something you love!  And this one is:

Tasty.  The cinnamon adds perfect notes for fall and the golden syrup provides caramel undertones.  Yum!

Easy.  This recipe was designed to deliver great results without any cooking—which also means no cooling period.  Easier and quicker!

Customizable.  Add ginger or cardamom to the ice cream for fun. Avoid carrageenan. Go organic—or not.  Just a warning—once you start, it can be a (really fun) rabbit hole!

What You’ll Need

I usually try to avoid exotic ingredients, but sometimes when you’re trying to emulate a commercial product while keeping things easy and natural, a person might need to buy a couple products. I explain a bit more about these products after this section.

Ingredient Notes (Details Below)

• Half & Half.  This recipe will give you an ice cream with the fat equivalent of a reduced fat ice cream, but still tastes rich and creamy.  You could, instead, use a combination of half milk and half cream.  Or you could substitute cream for some (maybe 1/4) of the half and half for a richer ice cream.
• Vanilla. This adds and mellows the flavors in the ice cream.
• Golden syrup.  This is what is called an invert sugar, a sweetener with a lower freezing point than sugar which contributes to the proper consistency of the ice cream.  And this particular syrup has caramel notes which actually add flavor as well.  While I haven’t tested it, in theory substituting light Karo (corn) syrup, which is also an invert sugar, should give you a similar consistency, though the flavor won’t have the same caramel undertones.
• Cinnamon.  This provides the cinnamon flavor.
• Nonfat Dry milk powder.  This improves the consistency of the ice cream. It’s the amateur’s “milk solids.”  Of course a little extra calcium never hurts! 
• Sugar. This sweetens the ice cream and lowers the freezing point (but not as much as the golden syrup).
• Salt. This enhances flavor and reduces bitterness.  While it can lower the freezing point, the quantity in this is very small.
• Guar gum.  This helps the final consistency and reduces crystallization.  It will produce a product with more thickness and a slight “chew” so the product feels more like ice cream rather than gelato. 

Special Tools

• You will need a blender (doesn’t need to be powerful) and an ice cream freezer.

Special Ingredients Details

The first special ingredient is Lyle’s Golden Syrup which you can get on Amazon and I hear sometimes at World Market.  While in theory (not tested) you could use white Karo syrup to achieve a similar consistency, the flavor of Golden Syrup is amazing.  It’s kind of like a toasted sugar syrup, and it adds beautiful notes of caramel to the final ice cream.  It can generally be used wherever you’d use corn syrup, so you’ll probably find other uses for it as well.  And truthfully, I think I could eat it by the spoonful. 

The nonfat dry milk powder can be found in most grocery stores (even in my small town) and you’ll be able to add it into other recipes to increase your calcium intake if you don’t make enough ice cream.  And per the NIH, 42% of Americans are deficient in calcium intake.

The final unusual ingredient is guar gum which is a stabilizer derived from beans.

Now since certain ice cream stabilizers such as carrageenan are sometimes accused of being inflammatory (see Medical News Today), I wanted check out Guar Gum before adding it to my recipes. 

What I read is that “Guar bean has been cultivated in India as a protein source for hundreds of years. Look up traditional Indian recipes for cluster beans, another name for guar. They eat it by the bowl. We’ll be using it by the milligram.” per Underbelly, a “Brooklyn-based culinary research project, supper club, and consultancy.”

As mentioned, Guar Gum slightly thickens the ice cream and makes it less prone to crystallization.  But in my broad (but not with this recipe) experiments you can get away with leaving it out if you want to eat up the ice cream faster and don’t mind a thinner, more gelato-like consistency.

Step by Step Overview 

Combine dry ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, dry milk powder, guar gum).

Combine liquid ingredients in blender (half & half, golden syrup, vanilla) and blend on low until combined.  This may take a couple minutes for the golden syrup to dissolve into the mixture.

With the blender on low, gradually add the dry ingredient mixture and blend until combined.

Freeze according to your ice cream freezer’s directions.  When ice cream is “done” transfer to another container and freeze in the freezer overnight to finish hardening. 

How to Serve

There are so many things to do with Cinnamon Ice Cream! 

First, ice cream may be the ultimate dessert topper!  Top pie, cake and even brownies! And if it’s flavored with cinnamon, it is perfect for fall desserts like apple pie or pumpkin cake!

And consider sandwiching a scoop between a couple snickerdoodles or applesauce cookies for a special fall ice cream sandwich!

Of course, in the end, it’s also good all by itself!

Variations and Special Diets

I am working on a sugar-free or at least a reduced sugar recipe but haven’t gotten it quite right yet.  But stay tuned—it’s coming!

Leftovers

Store your cinnamon ice cream in the freezer and try to use up within a month or so.

Tips & FAQs

This will work in any type of ice cream freezer. 

If you have an ice cream freezer with a compressor (one that doesn’t require pre-freezing), consider running it briefly before pouring in your ingredients to get it pre-cooled.  I have found that this shortens my freezing time by as much as 10 minutes.

And for more Fall Flavors, check out:

• Pumpkin Seed Cranberry Biscotti by Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Warm Apple Crisp with Oat Topping by Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
• Creamy Garlic Chicken by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Carrot Cake Blondies by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Cheesy Butternut Squash Pasta by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Old-Fashioned Skillet Goulash by A Little Fish in the Kitchen
• Sweet Potato Sodhi by Magical Ingredients
• Octoberfest Stew by Cheese Curd In Paradise
• Apple and Spinach Salad by Palatable Pastime
• Brussels Sprouts with Honey Vinaigrette by The Spiffy Cookie
• Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte by Our Crafty Mom
• Cinnamon Apple Cheesecake by That Recipe

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Sweet, rich, and lightly spiced, homemade Cinnamon IceCream is the perfect complement to fall pies and fruit crisps.  Or just eat it as is!

Author: Inger

5 from 3 votes

Print

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Freezing Time 8 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 6

Calories 194 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups half & half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup golden syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 T dry milk powder
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon guar gum

Instructions

 

• Combine dry ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, dry milk powder, guar gum).
• Combine liquid ingredients in blender (half & half, golden syrup, vanilla) and blend on low until combined. This may take a couple minutes for the golden syrup to dissolve into the mixture.
• With the blender on low, gradually add the dry ingredient mixture and blend until combined.
• Freeze according to your ice cream freezer’s directions.
• When ice cream is “done” transfer to another container and freeze in the freezer overnight to finish hardening.

Nutrition

Calories: 194kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 3gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 29mgSodium: 111mgPotassium: 153mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 24gVitamin A: 341IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 120mgIron: 0.1mg

I am not a health professional and nutrition data is calculated programatically. Accuracy may vary with product selection, calculator accuracy, etc. Consult a professional for the best information.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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