Pumpkin Ice Cream

Wouldn't you know that Edy's (Dreyer's in some parts of the country) changed the vast majority of their flavors last year (including pumpkin) to New! "Fun Flavors!" with whey as the first ingredient? Yes, whey. Not milk, not cream - a processed additive! Mmmm, "Fun!" indeed!

Johnny had a major craving for pumpkin ice cream a few months ago. Since we can't buy a whey-free version at the store, he came up with his own by adapting The Perfect Scoop's sweet potato ice cream recipe to be a pumpkin ice cream recipe!

This was the third or fourth time Johnny made the pumpkin ice cream this year. He usually uses canned pumpkin, but when he made it for Italy Night, he used fresh pumpkin. Wow, let me tell you, it made a WORLD of difference. The canned version tasted a little tinny to me, but Johnny gobbled it up. The fresh version was velvety goodness and I gobbled it up!

15 oz. can of pumpkin (or about 2 cups fresh pumpkin, which I recommend)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk (we used 1%)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
a few drops lemon juice (we used the bottled concentrate)

Combine all of the ingredients (except the lemon juice) in a blender and mix for about 30 seconds. It will taste great at this point, but trust me and add just a few drops of lemon juice and re-blend. It should allow all of the other ingredients to just POP and become brighter, not add any citrus qualities.


Freeze in your ice cream maker according to instructions. Serve immediately in a more soft-serve texture, or freeze to serve later! Please note, however, that homemade ice creams freeze "harder" than commercially aerated versions. You'll need to take them out about 5 minutes before scooping.