We've been talking ice cream all week (it's Ice Cream Week at The Kitchn!) but let's take a step back here for a minute and get down to basics. If you've never made ice cream at home but want to give it a try, start here. This is a tutorial for making plain vanilla ice cream, from start to finish, showing you your options for recipes and churning methods along the way. And let me be very clear: When you make vanilla ice cream at home, with good milk and cream, and real vanilla bean, it's anything but plain! More

What if you could turn banana pudding into ice cream? Or pie? Even better, what if you could turn banana pudding into ice cream pie? Well guess what, it's your lucky day! More

What would a discussion of ice cream sundaes be without a serious nod to good whipped cream? And while we're all certainly familiar with that basic vanilla-flavored recipe, a whole other world of flavors beckons. More

One of my all-time favorite ice cream guilty treats is Magic Shell. You know this stuff, right? The chocolate sauce that hardens on your ice cream? It's expensive and has hydrogenated-thingummies, so imagine my delight when I found out it is very easy to make — with only two simple ingredients. More

My mother's first job, at age 14, was as a soda jerk at her local ice cream shop. It was there she picked up a super simple tip for scooping ice cream that produces perfect scoops and saves a little torque on your wrist. Read on for her pro tip! More

We don't often think of celebrities being inventive, let alone coming up with the idea for a summertime staple like soft serve ice cream, but that's exactly what happened. Can you guess which political celebrity invented everyone's favorite hot weather treat? More

I've always preferred eating ice cream out of a bowl, and not just at home. I like the little spoons at ice cream shops, how they enable me to dig in and get a few flavors in one mouthful. I like not worrying about catching all the drips. But I'll admit: it is a little bit of a letdown when I get to the bottom of my non-edible bowl and my companion (say, my husband) is just starting to crunch into his cone, getting ever closer to what we both know will be that last taste of melted ice cream puddled in the bottom tip. Oh, sweet, sweet ending. So, in my effort to stave off any more anti-climactic ice cream experiences, I went looking for the best of both worlds: edible ice cream bowls! More

The number of things that can be mixed into ice cream is nigh without limit. (I once saw a lady at a Cold Stone add Gummi bears, cherries, peanut butter, and caramel sauce.) The sheer volume of possibilities makes me feel doubly sorrowful over the things that should be delicious ice cream mix-ins, if not for their tendency to lose structural integrity when dunked, like my ice cream-making white whale: Pop Rocks. More

Since it's Ice Cream Week here on The Kitchn, it seemed a proper time to celebrate the brilliant marriage that is coffee and ice cream. From refreshing affogatos to rich ice cream cakes, I'm pretty excited about this 'to-make' summer line-up. More

Waiting in a line that curves around the block is practically part of the experience when you go to San Francisco's beloved Bi-Rite Creamery. Luckily, you are usually with friends, or else you tend to make friends as you collectively wait your turn. The conversation meanders, as it will, but eventually it always comes back to, "What are you going to get?" For anyone who has waited in that line and then been forced to choose — oh, the agony of indecision! — this book is for you. More