Apple Pie Ice Cream is loaded with cinnamon and apples for a delicious Fall flavored ice cream! Add broken up cinnamon grahams or pie crust pieces to make it like eating a slice of apple pie in ice cream form!
We ALWAYS enjoy our apple pie served a la mode, so it just makes sense to make an ice cream version of one of our favorite desserts! And with apples coming into season while it’s still plenty hot for the summer, it’s a for sure win to enjoy a scoop of apple pie ice cream.
Of course, you can make ice cream year round, and we love seasonal flavors like Pumpkin Ice Cream and Peppermint Ice Cream. What seasonal flavor should I make next? Let me know in the comments below!
Apple season is one of my favorite times of the year! We make all the apple recipes we can, including reader favorites like Homemade Apple Fritters, Apple Crisp, and German Apple Cake.
Freaky Friday: Summer Edition
Today is Freaky Friday, which is a fun event hosted by my friend Michaela from An Affair from the Heart, where a bunch of bloggers get together and are secretly assigned somebody else’s blog. Then you cook or bake from your assigned blog and we all share on the same day.
It’s so much fun seeing what somebody else chose to make from my recipe collection and to get to know another blogger better by digging through her treasure trove of favorite recipes to pick just the right one to recreate for House of Nash Eats readers. Go check out all of my past Freaky Friday recipes after you print off this apple pie ice cream recipe!
This round I was assigned LeMoine Family Kitchen which is run by Angela. While we haven’t had the chance to meet in person at a blogging conference yet, I already feel a connection to Angela because she is from New Jersey, which is where I lived for almost two years in my early 20’s. She has an amazing site with
It made it so hard to choose a recipe from her site because I was sorely tempted by her baked ziti and Italian zeppoli (two of my favorite foods that I had never had before moving to New Jersey!). But then I found her apple cinnamon ice cream and knew it would be perfect for National Ice Cream Month!
This ice cream flavor is seriously fantastic with plenty of real apple pieces and cinnamon flavor. Although Angela didn’t call for it in her original version, I added broken up cinnamon graham crackers for a cheater “pie crust” effect. But you could also use the crumble part of my rhubarb crumble ice cream instead.
The ice cream base is no cook (well, except for the apple compote part), so there is no worrying about tempering egg yolks for your ice cream here. That makes it a little less creamy when scooped, but it’s still got a pretty wonderful mouthfeel and saves you the extra effort.
It’s a truly delicious ice cream, especially for anyone who loves apple pie already. And if you want to take things to the next level, drizzle it with some caramel sauce or pair it with some blondies, oatmeal cookies, or a scoop of toasted almond ice cream. I don’t know about you, but I ALWAYS split my scoop when given the chance.
Recipe Ingredients
- Apples: I used granny smith apples to make the apple compote that gets added to the cinnamon ice cream base, but honeycrisp, envy, jazz, pink lady, or golden delicious would all be good.
- Butter: This is used to help saute the apples and add a buttery, rich flavor.
- Cinnamon: If you haven’t tried cinnamon ice cream, what are you waiting for? I love, love, love this spice in ice cream.
- Sugar: Just enough to sweeten the ice cream and the apples without making it too sweet.
- Heavy cream & milk: Real, heavy cream with whole milk gives the richest, best flavor and mouthfeel to your ice cream creations.
- Vanilla: This staple ice cream ingredient boosts all of the other flavors and plays a strong supporting role.
- Cinnamon graham crackers: These are optional but I had some on hand so I figured why not break a few up to throw in for a pie-esque quality. They are a tasty, textural addition!
How to Make Apple Pie Ice Cream
- Prep the apples: Peel, core, and dice the apples into small pieces. They will shrink a bit as they cook down, but any large chunks of apple will actually freeze into hard icy bites in the ice cream, so it’s best to keep them pretty small.
- Cook the apples: Add the diced apples to a pan with the butter, some sugar, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring frequently, until the apples have softened and released a lot of their juices. We’ll add all of the juicy, cinnamon-sugary apple juices to our ice cream base for additional flavor. Let this all cool down COMPLETELY. It needs to be thoroughly chilled before adding it to the ice cream at the end of churning.
- Make the cinnamon ice cream base: To make this easy ice cream base, just whisk the milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla together in a large bowl for a minute or two to help dissolve the sugar crystals. Stir in the heavy cream, then your base is ready to go!
- Churn: Transfer the ice cream base to the solidly frozen bowl of your ice cream maker and insert the paddle or dash. Churn for 20-25 minutes or until thick and about the consistency of soft serve. Fair warning that this recipe maxed out the capacity of my little cuisinart, but we still made it work.
- Add apple compote: Once the ice cream is thick, add the apples and continue to churn or remove the dash and stir in the apples to evenly disperse them throughout the ice cream, along with the broken up graham crackers, if using. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and cover with plastic wrap or a lid.
- Freeze: To make this a scoopable, hard ice cream, it needs to go in the freezer for 4-6 hours to “cure”. Because this ice cream doesn’t have eggs in it and a little extra water (in the form of juice from the apples) is added, it will freeze more solidly than other flavors. Just be sure to let it sit out on the counter for 10-15 minutes before scooping and it will be just fine.
Recipe Tips
- Cool the apples completely! Be sure to leave yourself enough time to let the cooked apples cool all the way. You don’t want to add warm apples to freshly churned ice cream. You could make this part of the recipe a day or two in advance and just store it in the fridge until you are ready to churn.
- Storage: Because this ice cream has no preservatives, it won’t keep for as long in the freezer as store-bought ice cream. After about a week it will start to develop ice crystals, so it’s best to enjoy it fresh within the first few days after making it.
- Caramel Apple Ice Cream: I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m pretty confident that you could skip the graham cracker or pie crust pieces and instead layer half of the ice cream into your container, then add a generous drizzle of caramel sauce, followed by the rest of the ice cream and even more caramel sauce. Give it at gentle swirl with a knife to make caramel apple ice cream!
More Ice Cream Recipes
- Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
- Southern Blackberry Cobbler Ice Cream
- Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag
- Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
- Maple Walnut Ice Cream
- Graham Canyon Ice Cream
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Apple Pie Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
Apples
- 2 Granny Smith apples peeled and diced small
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons salted butter
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Ice Cream Base
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 5 cinnamon graham crackers broken up into pieces
Instructions
- In a medium skillet, combine the apples, sugar, butter, and cinnamon over medium-low heat. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes until the apples have softened and released their juices. Cool completely, then chill thoroughly in the fridge.2 Granny Smith apples, 1 ½ Tablespoons salted butter, 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Whisk the milk, sugar, and cinnamon together in a large bowl for 2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.2 cups whole milk, ¾ cups granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 cups heavy cream, 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Add the ice cream base mixture to the frozen bowl of an ice cream maker and churn for 20-25 minutes until the ice cream is thick and frozen to about the consistency of soft serve.
- Add the apples and graham cracker pieces and churn for a few more minutes (or turn off the machine and stir them in be hand), until evenly incorporated.5 cinnamon graham crackers
- Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and place in the freezer for 4-6 hours until completely firm. Let sit out for 10 minutes before scooping to soften slightly.
Notes
- Caramel Apple Ice Cream: Try omitting the graham cracker pieces and instead layering half of the ice cream into the container, then drizzling with a generous amount of your favorite caramel sauce. Add the remaining ice cream and more caramel sauce, then swirl and freeze.
Nutrition
Take a look at all of our 2021 Freaky Friday Summer Edition Recipes:
- An Affair from the Heart – Simple Tiramisu
- Aunt Bee’s Recipes – Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
- Devour Dinner – Pepperoni Bread
- Fresh April Flours – Bananas Foster Cake
- The Fresh Cooky – Old Fashioned Lemon Squares
- Hostess at Heart – Kentucky Butter Cake
- LeMoine Family Kitchen – Grilled Peach Burrata Arugula Salad
- Lemon Blossoms – Strawberry Cake
- Life, Love & Good Food – Bruschetta with Tomato
- Off the Eaten Path – Fresh Garden Salsa
- Sue Bee Homemade – Jalapeno Popper Dip with Bacon
- The Speckled Palate – Lemon Zucchini Bread
- Take Two Tapas – Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
Hello Apple Pie Ice Cream! Holy cow, I want to eat the entire pan and if I could grab it through this screen, I totally would. You knocked it out of the park, Amy!
It looks so creamy and full of flavor. I just want a big bowl of it right now.
Oh, thank you for your kind words! I had completely forgotten about this recipe! You did a beautiful job with it and now I want to go make it again! Gorgeous photos too!
Amy, this ice cream looks so amazing and simple too, the apples alone I could eat by the spoonful, it’s like a creamy apple pie in one delicious scoop!
Apple pie ice cream sounds fantaztic! I mean the two things just go together perfectly. I cannot WAIT to make this, HUGE fan of apples over here! 😉 And ice cream of course!
What a PERFECT ice cream! I’d have never thought to take apple pie flavors in this direction, and I’m so glad that you did because YUM!
My family absolutely LOVE this recipe! It’s a huge hit!
What ice cream maker do you use to churn and where do you get the ice cream containers? They look like loaf pans. Thank you
I have a cuisinart ice cream maker that is a 2 quart with 2 freezer bowls and it’s my favorite. I have also used the kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment which works well. And yes, these are loaf pans! They are the perfect size for a batch of ice cream and I love them!
I want to make man go vice creme. And ideas of recipesfor my cuisinart?
Yes! Use my peach ice cream recipe except replace the peach with mango!
Hi! I was wondering what the serving size is – just trying to plan what container to use! Thanks!
A serving size is about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of ice cream.
This sounds delicious, my husband loves apple pie and ice cream. We make Ice-cream a lot. I stated making custard base Ice-cream, but it was just too time consuming. A trick I discovered when just using milk and cream was to add 1 or 2 heaping table spoons of pudding mix to my base. When you add pudding you can switch your ratio to 2 milk and 1 cream without getting crystals in your Ice-cream and it is very creamy. You can also use the pudding as your base flavor… vanilla, chocolate and on and on. Will definitely be giving this recipe a try.
That’s a great tip! Thanks! I will have to try it.
Okay this ice cream was AMAZING! I honestly had some doubts going in, but I told my fiancé that this might be one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had! AND it was really easy!
Wow! What a compliment! Thank you! Yes it might seem like a weird flavor but it is so good!