What does sweet corn ice cream taste like?
Sweet corn ice cream tastes exactly like you would imagine: milk and corn. While this flavor may sound bizarre in the US, it’s popular across the world in countries like Mexico, Korea, and the Philippines. This corn ice cream doesn’t have the intense buttery toasted flavor of kettle corn, it’s closer to fresh fruit. Fresh sweet corn is a delicate flavor that is easily overpowered, so I prefer to keep it simple.
This recipe uses the whole ear of corn!
That’s right, this recipe uses the entire ear of corn. Adding too many kernels of fresh corn would introduce more starch and water, compromising the texture I was aiming for. Instead, I look to other parts of corn for flavor. That means the husks, corn silk, and cob for maximum corn flavor. In Korea, corn silk is reserved to make a healthy tea. Across Latin America, corn husks are used in a variety of cooked applications to add earthy corn flavor.
A couple of tips for success
- Don’t skip the steep. While it’s possible to immediately spin your ice cream after cooling the mixture in an ice bath, you’re missing out on major flavor. Corn is a subtle flavor that needs time to steep and intensify.
- Do not boil ice cream base. This ice cream skips the traditional tempering process that requires spooning hot liquid over egg yolks. I prefer to combine the custard and cook it together to reduce the risk of curdled eggs. That being said, the milk and eggs will curdle if you let it go all the way to a boil.
No ice cream machine?
Consider freezing the sweet corn ice cream mixture in popsicle molds for an equally flavorful creamy treat. Natural starches found in corn act as a stabilizer alongside egg yolks to reduce the size of ice crystals for a rich and creamy ice cream bar.
Just please don’t pour it in a container and expect soft scoopable ice cream without a machine. You’ll get one huge frozen corn custard cube. An ice cream machine adds a critical ingredient: air, contributing to the final scoopable texture.
More ice cream recipes
Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 ear sweet corn
- 500 mL heavy cream
- 180 mL whole milk
- 30 g skim milk powder
- 150 g sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Heat oven or air fryer to 400F.
- Remove the husk from the ear of corn, discard dry or damaged outer husks but keep inner husks. Peel off corn silk and reserve for later. Cut corn kernels off the cob, reserve both.
- Lay corn husks on a sheet pan or air fryer basket and bake at 400F for 15-18 minutes, flipping halfway. The husks should become stiff and deeply browned but not completely burnt.
- In a blender (or in a pot if using immersion blender), combine heavy cream, whole milk, milk powder, sugar, egg yolks, salt, and corn kernels. Blend until smooth and no whole kernels remain.
- Prepare an ice bath by filling a bowl larger than the pot halfway with ice and water. Transfer the blended mixture to a pot and add in the reserved corn cob, corn silk, and roasted corn husks. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until the mixture reaches 170F. Place the pot over the ice bath to cool. Once cold, transfer to the refrigerator to steep overnight.
- Fish out and discard the corn cob and corn husks. Strain the mixture into a bowl through a fine mesh strainer, pressing the pulp to release as much liquid as possible.
- Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream machine and spin according to machine directions. The ice cream should be a soft-serve consistency when done. Transfer to an airtight container and place it in the freezer for at least 4 hours to fully set.To serve, allow the ice cream to thaw slightly at room temperature for 5 minutes for easier scooping.
I made this tonight with my KitchenAid ice cream maker. One of the best recipes I’ve made yet. Thanks for sharing. I made it with one cup heavy cream and 1 cup half-and-half (instead of all heavy cream), and I also added a tablespoon of cornmeal for extra corn flavor. The corn meal soaked up some liquid and was strained out at the end before going in the mixer.
So thrilled to hear you made it work swapping some half-and-half, plus the extra cornmeal is clever!
Um- this is an AMAZING and addictive recipe. Throw a scoop on a waffle cone with a lil flaky sea salt. Life changing. Big slay.
I am so glad I got around to making this! The recipe is a lot easier than it seems at first. The ice cream is absolutely delicious. It’s so comforting and tasty. After pureeing, I added another cob’s worth of kernels to the custard. This way there are some whole kernels in the finished ice cream! They are the sweetest lil juicy kernels, and add a novelty to remind you this is totally corn ice cream! Thanks Mei for this awesome recipe. 🙂
I adore the idea of adding whole kernels. Thank you for taking the time to write a comment!
We first tried sweet corn dessert that was a wafer from Thailand and we loved it ! This Ice cream was so much fun to make and even more fun to eat , I do not have an ice cream maker so for that part I put the mixture into silicone molds in the freezer and let them sit until they were firm , blended until ice cream texture and did my final freeze !! Do not be scared to make this if you don’t have a machine this ice cream and all the aspects of it are worth the it!
I’m thrilled you found a solution for those without an ice cream machine. Thank you for taking the time to share these tips!
This was 100% worth the effort. An excellent recipe. I will be making this again.
This is so good!! I was a little worried as the corn I bought was so pale/too early in the season but it is pretty amazing. I subbed malted milk powder for the skim milk powder to add some malted flavor and it worked so well.