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Blue Moon Ice Cream

Blue Moon ice cream is a nostalgic Midwest-style frozen custard with an electric blue color and a subtle fruity-almond, citrus-floral flavor. Made with a cooked custard base, then chilled, churned, and frozen until firm for scoopable scoops.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
chilling + freezing 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 35 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 520
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

custard base
  • 2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 0.75 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
flavoring + color
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 0.5 tsp raspberry extract or blue raspberry flavoring
  • 0.25 tsp lemon extract
  • 1 blue food coloring Use a few drops at a time until the ice cream is electric blue.

Equipment

  • 1 ice cream maker
  • 1 saucepan

Method
 

Make the custard
  1. Heat the heavy cream and whole milk in a saucepan until steaming, then slowly whisk the mixture into egg yolks beaten with granulated sugar to combine.
  2. Return the custard mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring, until it reaches 175F.
  3. Strain the custard and cool it slightly before moving on.
Flavor and color
  1. Stir in the almond extract, vanilla extract, raspberry extract or blue raspberry flavoring, and lemon extract until smooth.
  2. Add blue food coloring a few drops at a time, stirring after each addition, until the desired electric blue is achieved.
  3. Cool completely before chilling the base.
Chill, churn, and freeze
  1. Refrigerate the custard base for 4 hours until fully chilled.
  2. Churn the chilled base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, until it reaches a soft-serve texture.
  3. Transfer to a container and freeze until firm.

Notes

Pro tip: When cooking to 175F, stir constantly so the egg yolks thicken evenly without curdling. Refrigerate the finished base up to 2 days before churning; churned ice cream keeps 1–2 weeks in the freezer (no need to thaw before scooping at cooler room temp for 5 minutes). For a dairy-light swap, replace whole milk with half-and-half and keep the heavy cream for texture.