Easy Homemade Oreo Ice Cream – Only SIX Ingredients

Cookies and Cream is one of those flavors that is just nostalgic to childhood. School lunches and birthday parties — it seemed like everyone had oreos or chocolate cream cookies. I think it is one of those great flavors that everyone likes and I think there is a reason all the major ice cream manufacturers have their own version of a Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. It is simply delicious!

I think my earliest ‘Cookies and Cream’ memory is when my mom bought me a Hersheys Cookies and Cream candy bar at the Cardington Swimming Pool snack bar…I was maybe five or six? Just like a Pizza Hut deep dish pizza reminds me of the gradeschool Bookit reading program, a Hersheys Cookies and Cream candy bar reminds me of summer afternoons in the sun with my mom and sister. Note: it does not however remind me of what I supposedly learned in those swimming lessons 😂

Maybe you are reading this and wanting to make one of your first homemade ice creams, maybe you are wanting to bring your once adored ice cream maker out of its basement retirement, or maybe you already make a rocking Vanilla Bean or Cinnamon Ice cream, but don’t know how or when to add a crunchy ingredient like an Oreo. If this is you, PLEASE watch the video below! I show you EVERYTHING as clearly as I can.

I use ONLY six ingredients, a 2 Quart Ice Cream maker and a few other kitchen essentials. The only fancy item is the ice cream maker, and I guarantee someone near you is selling one on Facebook Marketplace right now.

My ice cream is a custard based recipe–this basically just means I use eggs and I cook them together with the sugar and some dairy. We want a smooth, homogonized mixture.

For this particular recipe, I also add two Oreo cookies into the custard base as it is getting close to temp. The chocolate cookies (and cream centers) dissolve into the custard and help give the mix the classic Oreo crumbs looking color. Also–it is important to cook the custard to 165 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure the eggs are safe to eat as part of the ice cream mixture.

I always strain my cooked mixture just to ensure I don’t have any clumps of cooked egg. I add in my last cup of milk to help the mixture cool more quickly (than having cooked all the milk) and for flavor I add vanilla extract. This mixture needs to cool for at least 2-3 hours in the fridge.

While all this was happening (and for about a whole day before) I have my ice cream machine bowl chilling in the freezer. I wait to pull it out until I am ready start churning.

Something that is somewhat unique to this recipe is the very specific layers that this mixture cools to and separates to in the fridge. I have not noticed it in any other ice cream mixture. The bottom layer is most dense and unsurprisingly has the settled bits of the dissolved Oreo cookies. I think the top layer is some of the fat from the heavy whipping cream, and the middle is just sweet cream.

I whisk the custard together again and add it to the ice cream bowl and start churning 🙂

This part is painstakingly long only because I REALLY want to have a taste (or three!!!)

It takes 25 ish minutes for the machine to freeze the custard and whip enough air into it for the volume to almost double in size. This is when we add the chopped Oreos 😁 If we added them as we started churning then they would be getting beat up and be mushy by the time the ice cream is a frozen soft serve 😩

Of course as delicious as soft serve ice cream is, the goal is probably a hard, scoopable ice cream, Right? This is a patience involving step as you will want to keep your newly made ice cream in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours. I frequently will make my ice cream in an afternoon, churn it in the evening, and let it chill alllll night long!

This may sound like a lot of work for something you can buy at the store for $4 BUT IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT! This ice cream will be so flavorful and free of the preservatives and stabilizers and who-knows-what-this-ingredient-is ingredients! You will taste the difference and be so tempted that it won’t last in your freezer long enough to need any of those questionable store ingredients.

I hope you make the time to try this recipe soon! Comment below and tell me what your favorite ice cream flavor is! Maybe it will be the next recipe I post!

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 2 Cups Milk, Divided
• 3 Whole Eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 full row Oreos from the Family Size Pack – I used 13-14 Doublestuf Oreos, plus a few extra I snacked on

1. Whisk to combine Sugar, Heavy Whipping Cream, 1 Cup milk, and eggs in sauce pan on medium-medium low heat. Candy Thermometer HIGHLY recommended
2. Continue whisking and add 2 Oreos to custard base when getting close to goal temp of 165 degrees fahrenheit. Should only take 2 ish minutes to break/dissolve oreos into custard
3. Once at temp, remove from heat and strain into mixing bowl to remove any potential clumps of egg
4. Add second 1 Cup milk and vanilla. Whisk, cover, then refrigerate at least 2-3 hours
5. Once well chilled, assemble ice cream maker per manufacturer instructions, turn on and add custard
6. Attempt to have patience for the next 25 ish minutes. Fill time chopping Oreos at random and avoid snacking on too many cookies
7. When churned ice cream is frozen, airy, and overall larger in volume, add the chopped Oreos. Let churn to incorporate fully…less than five minutes
8. Work quickly to avoid immediate meltage and remove ice cream from churning bowl and put in freezer safe canisters.
9. Attempt additional patience while soft serve ripens into a hard scoopable ice cream