July 19 is National Ice Cream day in the US, and almost every place that serves some type of ice cream, from Baskin Robbins to Wendy's, is offering deals ranging from free scoops to free toppings and beyond. You can even find deals in grocery stores, as Häagen-Dazs has special prices at Publix and Walmart. If you live near a Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, they are offering an Instagram giveaway for the chance to win free ice cream for an entire year.
In what may be a sign of the times, I noticed that most of the specials were only offered to customers who sign up for a "rewards" program or use the chain's app. (There's always a catch.) However, there is no catch if you use this day as an opportunity to make your own ice cream. With over 5,000 online recipes for ice cream—plus thousands more for frozen yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, popsicles, and other frozen treats—the EYB Library is a treasure trove of ideas.
If you're an ice cream fiend like me and have three different types of ice cream makers, the sky's the limit on what you can make. But you don't need fancy equipment to make ice cream as there are hundreds of "no churn" recipes that require little more than a spoon and some patience. Have a Ninja Creami? You'll find 24 online recipes to make use of that appliance.
These are some of the most popular ice cream recipes in the Library:
- The darkest chocolate ice cream in the world from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
- One-step no-churn coffee ice cream from Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson
- Orange-cardamom ice cream from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones by Kris Hoogerhyde and Anne Walker and Dabney Gough
- The best strawberry ice cream from Serious Eats
- Cereal milk ice cream from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi
- Pink grapefruit and basil ice cream from How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry
- Honey lavender from Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook by Tyler Malek and J. J. Goode
- and my current favorite, Bourbon butterscotch ice cream from Hello, My Name is Ice Cream by Dana Cree