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Bright, citrus ice cream with just a hint of banana, this is the ultimate creamy cold treat on a hot summer day.
This is the ice cream that I remember from summers spent at my grandparent’s house.
The original recipe makes a huge amount, far too big for the average ice cream machine today.
Six Threes Ice Cream is such an easy recipe to remember; once you make it a couple times, it will be in your memory forever.
(3) bananas, (3) oranges, (3) lemons, (3) cups of cream, (3) cups of milk, (3) cups of sugar = Six Threes. Easy as can be!
I’ve adapted my grandmother’s recipe for a basic 1.5 quart ice cream maker and added the pinch of salt and the vanilla that it seems I just can’t skip.
Family and friends all LOVE this ice cream. My youngest son cheers without fail every time we make this.
Six Threes Ice Cream Recipe
- Stir together the mashed banana, orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and vanilla.
- Stir in the milk and cream and pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.
- Freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- Serve immediately for soft-serve ice cream or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours prior to serving.
Shortcut Tip: Combine the banana, juices, sugar, salt, vanilla, and milk in the blender. Puree for just a few moments until combined.
Add the cream and pulse to combine. Pour into the ice cream maker from the blender.
Six Threes Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 banana mashed
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice, about 1 orange
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, about 1 lemon
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 a scraped vanilla bean
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Stir together the mashed banana, orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Stir in the milk and cream and pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.
- Freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately for soft-serve ice cream or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours prior to serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 6/17/13 – recipe notes and photos updated 5/18/21}
Well, I have already memorized the recipe in one go. You have explained every step so nicely. I am definitely going to try this one out.
I hope you love the ice cream, Kate!
This was delicious and I am decidedly NOT a banana fan! Thumbs up from my husband, too, both before and after churning. 😂 Love how fresh-tasting it is plus super creamy. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad that you loved it, Valerie. I’m the same way about bananas and this is a fantastic ice cream!
I have made and enjoyed this ice cream for many years and funny you mention about it being a lot for most machines. I wrote on my recipe Six Two’s…..to fit my ice cream machine. BUT I have a question. I don’t have orange juice, would it be okay to substitute pineapple juice? I kind of think it would work, but wondering if there would be something about acidity or any thing else that would react to the other ingredients? What do you think?
Hi, Mari! You should be able to substitute pineapple juice; it’s slightly more dense, but not enough to be make a real difference. Enjoy the ice cream!
I made this with a can of evaporated milk because I didn’t have cream on hand. The evaporated milk was 12 oz, so I decreased the whole milk to 4 oz. It came out fantastic! My husband said it tasted like an orange creamsicle.
I’m so happy to hear it was a hit! I’ve never tried it with evaporated milk. I’m glad it worked out for you!
We’ve made this my entire life (well over 50 years) and it’s my family’s favorite! Like another commenter, we always used 3c (2 – 12oz cans) of evaporated milk plus 3c of whole milk. Back in the day, I was the little kid who had to sit on the churn to hold it down while the older kids cranked!
A few of my own tips:
1. You can really control how heavy the banana flavor is with the ripeness of the bananas. If they’re getting a little dark already, the banana flavor will be much stronger.
2. I haven’t tried this in a small churn yet, but in a larger churn (e.g. my White Mountain with multi-piece dasher), I’ve found that it’s nice to just put the bananas in without really cutting them up much, broken into about 3-4 pieces each. The churning action mashes and blends them well enough but you still get the occasional wonderful little chunk of soft-frozen banana.
3. If you find that your churn tends to overflow, just add the milk last, or at least a part of it, and hold back a little if you need to shrink the batch a bit.
It’s nice to see that this recipe lives on!
I love this whole comment, Bill! I love that you have such fun memories of this ice cream too. I’m picturing you sitting on top of the churn now. Have a wonderful week!
Six Threes has been our family since ce cream since I was a kid in the 1970s! I had to adapt my mom’s friend’s recipe for our smaller machine. It’s the only recipe we ever use. People look at me funny when I tell them the name, but they never forget it!
I love hearing this. It’s a family favorite forever.
This is one of my go-to recipes for ice cream, and it is a rare day when I do not have it in my freezer. I use fresh-squeezed lemon and mandarin orange juices and homemade vanilla. It has a light and refreshing taste.
I’m so happy to hear that it’s a favorite!