Olive Oil Ice Cream: Drizzled or Churned, and Which Oil to Use
Olive oil ice cream comes in two quite different forms, and most recipes only give you one. The first is the restaurant trick: a scoop of good vanilla ice cream or lemon sorbet, a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil over the top and a pinch of flaky salt, done in two minutes. The second is a proper churned ice cream with the oil whisked into the base, so every spoonful carries its soft, green, faintly peppery flavour. Below you will find both, with our own churned recipe written from scratch for this article in metric and US measures, a dairy-free and egg-free churned version, and an honest guide to which olive oil to use, because in a dessert this simple the bottle decides most of the result.
For our own oil, see our Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml).
The Short Answer
- Olive oil ice cream is either a drizzle (1–2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and flaky salt over a scoop) or a churned ice cream with about 90ml (6 tbsp) of oil blended into a cold base.
- Drizzling needs no recipe and no machine, and works best on vanilla, dark chocolate or a sharp lemon sorbet.
- Our churned recipe uses an orange-infused egg custard of milk and cream, cooked to 75–80°C (167–176°F) and blended with the oil once cold.
- Our dairy-free version uses full-fat coconut milk, oat milk and cornflour (cornstarch) instead of cream and eggs, so it is also egg-free.
- Use a fresh extra virgin olive oil with a fruity, not harsh, profile; refined or "light" olive oil adds fat but almost no flavour.
- Sidr & Stone's olive oil is a single-estate, cold-pressed, unfiltered extra virgin oil from our own farm on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco, sold in 500ml dark glass.
Drizzled or Churned: Which Olive Oil Ice Cream Should You Make?
The two versions are not competitors so much as different desserts. A drizzle puts raw oil on the surface, where you taste it first and loudest; churning spreads the oil through the whole scoop, where it reads as richness and a gentle aftertaste rather than a separate flavour. If you have never tried the combination, start with the drizzle tonight and decide whether you want to churn later.
| Drizzled | Churned (classic) | Churned (dairy-free) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | 2 minutes | About 30 minutes active, plus chilling and freezing | About 25 minutes active, plus chilling and freezing |
| Equipment | A spoon | Ice cream machine, saucepan, thermometer (helpful) | Ice cream machine, saucepan, stick blender |
| Olive oil used | 1–2 tsp per serving | 90ml (6 tbsp) in the base, plus extra to serve | 90ml (6 tbsp) in the base, plus extra to serve |
| Flavour | Bold, peppery, salty-sweet contrast | Silky, rounded, gently fruity | Silky, with a light coconut note |
| Contains | Whatever your scoop contains | Milk, cream, eggs | No dairy, no eggs |
| Best for | Trying it for the first time; last-minute pudding | Dinner parties; making ahead | Dairy-free or vegan guests |
The Two-Minute Version: Olive Oil on Ice Cream
Scoop the ice cream and let it sit for a minute so the surface softens slightly. Spoon 1–2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil over each serving, then add a small pinch of flaky sea salt. That is the whole method. The cold makes the oil thicker and more viscous, so it settles over the scoop as a glossy syrup rather than running straight off.
What to put it on, in order of how reliably it works:
- Plain vanilla — the classic pairing; the oil's green notes and the salt make a simple scoop taste far more grown-up.
- Lemon, blood orange or grapefruit sorbet — dairy-free, and the citrus and olive oil flavours are natural partners.
- Dark chocolate — a robust, peppery oil stands up to cocoa better than a delicate one.
- Stracciatella or pistachio — add a few chopped toasted pistachios on top for crunch.
Use your best bottle here, not your cooking oil. In a drizzle the oil is eaten raw and on its own terms, which is exactly the use we cover in our guide to olive oil for eating raw.
Churned Olive Oil Ice Cream Recipe (Metric and US)
This makes about 900ml (roughly 1 US quart), enough for six to eight servings. It is an egg-custard base infused with orange peel and finished with olive oil once cold. Weigh where you can; the US cup measures are rounded for convenience.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk | 300ml | 1¼ cups |
| Double (heavy) cream | 300ml | 1¼ cups |
| Caster (superfine or granulated) sugar | 120g | ½ cup + 2 tbsp |
| Fine sea salt | ¼ tsp | ¼ tsp |
| Unwaxed orange, wide strips of peel (no white pith) | 2 strips | 2 strips |
| Vanilla pod, split (optional) | ½ pod | ½ pod |
| Large egg yolks | 5 | 5 |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 90ml | 6 tbsp |
| To serve: flaky sea salt and extra olive oil | To taste | To taste |
We use a vanilla pod rather than vanilla extract, partly for flavour and partly because extract is an alcohol-based ingredient: in the US, the standard of identity for vanilla extract (21 CFR 169.175) requires at least 35% ethyl alcohol by volume. Alcohol-free vanilla paste or flavouring works if you prefer not to use a pod, or leave vanilla out altogether and let the orange and oil carry the flavour.
Method
- Infuse the dairy. Put the milk, cream, half the sugar, the salt, orange peel and split vanilla pod (scrape the seeds in too) in a saucepan. Heat gently until steaming but not boiling, then take off the heat and leave for 15 minutes.
- Whisk the yolks. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar for about a minute until smooth and slightly paler.
- Temper. Rewarm the milk until steaming, then pour about half of it into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking all the time. Pour everything back into the pan.
- Cook the custard. Stir over a low heat with a spatula, scraping the base, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and reads 75–80°C (167–176°F). Do not let it boil or it will scramble.
- Cool quickly. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl set in a larger bowl of iced water (discard the peel and pod). Stir now and then until it is at room temperature.
- Add the oil. Pour in the olive oil in a thin stream while blending with a stick blender or whisking hard, until the base looks glossy and evenly combined, with no oil pooling on top.
- Chill. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. A properly cold base churns faster and smoother.
- Churn. Give the base a quick whisk, then churn according to your machine's instructions (usually 20–30 minutes) until it looks like thick soft-serve.
- Freeze. Scrape into a lidded container, press baking paper onto the surface, and freeze for 3–4 hours until scoopable. Soften for 5–10 minutes before serving, then finish with a little more oil and a pinch of flaky salt.
On safety: the Minnesota Department of Health advises that a homemade ice cream custard base must reach 160°F (71°C), measured with a food thermometer, to kill Salmonella Enteritidis, and recommends an eggless recipe or pasteurised eggs as the alternatives. The 75–80°C target above clears that comfortably, and the dairy-free recipe below contains no eggs at all.
Dairy-Free Olive Oil Ice Cream (Churned, No Eggs)
Olive oil is a natural fit for a dairy-free ice cream, because the hardest thing to replace in a non-dairy base is fat, and the oil supplies it. This version uses full-fat coconut milk for body, oat milk to keep the coconut flavour in the background, and a little cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken the base in place of egg yolks. It makes about 750ml (just over 3 cups), four to six servings.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Full-fat coconut milk (tinned, well shaken) | 400ml (1 tin) | 1 can (13.5 fl oz) |
| Unsweetened oat milk (or another plant milk) | 250ml | 1 cup |
| Caster (superfine or granulated) sugar | 110g | ½ cup + 1 tbsp |
| Cornflour (cornstarch) | 2 tbsp | 2 tbsp |
| Fine sea salt | ¼ tsp | ¼ tsp |
| Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon | 1 lemon | 1 lemon |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 90ml | 6 tbsp |
Method
- Make a slurry. Whisk the cornflour with 4 tablespoons of the oat milk in a small bowl until smooth.
- Heat the base. Put the coconut milk, the rest of the oat milk, the sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer, whisking until the sugar dissolves.
- Thicken. Whisk the slurry in and keep stirring over a low heat for about 2 minutes, until the base thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.
- Cool. Take off the heat, stir in the lemon zest, and cool the pan in a bowl of iced water until it reaches room temperature.
- Blend in the oil. With a stick blender running, pour in the olive oil in a thin stream and blend for 30 seconds until smooth and glossy.
- Chill, churn, freeze. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, churn as above, then freeze for 3–4 hours. Dairy-free ice cream sets harder, so give it 10–15 minutes out of the freezer before scooping.
Two notes. Light (reduced-fat) coconut milk gives an icier, thinner result, so use full-fat. And for a fully dairy-free dessert, check the labels on anything you serve alongside it; finishing with a drizzle of olive oil and flaky salt keeps it dairy-free as well as good-looking.
Which Olive Oil to Use for Ice Cream
Use extra virgin olive oil, and use a fresh one. Extra virgin is the only grade that is simply mechanically pressed fruit, never refined, so it is the only one that actually tastes of olives. Under the International Olive Council's panel-tasting method, an oil must show no sensory defects and a measurable fruitiness to be graded extra virgin, and tasters describe that fruitiness as either green or ripe. Refined olive oil, and "light" olive oil (a refined oil sold on its mild taste, not a lower-calorie product, as we explain in our article on what "light" olive oil means), will make a perfectly good texture but contribute almost no flavour.
| Oil style | In a churned ice cream | As a drizzle |
|---|---|---|
| Delicate, ripe-fruity extra virgin (buttery, almond, soft) | Excellent: rounded and dessert-friendly | Good, especially on vanilla |
| Medium, green-fruity extra virgin (grass, apple, gentle pepper) | Excellent: the most interesting balance | Excellent on vanilla and citrus sorbet |
| Robust, bitter and peppery extra virgin | Can dominate; reduce to 60ml (4 tbsp) | Best over dark chocolate, in small amounts |
| Refined, "pure" or "light" olive oil | Adds fat, almost no flavour | Not worth it |
| Stale or rancid oil of any grade | Ruins the batch | Ruins the scoop |
Freshness matters more here than in cooking, because nothing masks it. Look for a harvest date on the label or the producer's product page, dark glass, and a named origin, and taste the oil on a spoon first: it should smell of fresh grass, green apple or tomato leaf, never of crayons, putty or old nuts. The words on a label are explained in our article on what "fruity" means in olive oil, and our guide to choosing a quality olive oil walks through the rest.
One myth worth dropping while you are at it: putting olive oil in the fridge to see whether it sets does not tell you whether it is genuine extra virgin. When the UC Davis Olive Center refrigerated seven oils, including two extra virgin olive oils, at 40.5°F (about 4.7°C) for eight days, none of them solidified completely, and the centre concluded the "fridge test" is unreliable for judging either purity or quality.
Troubleshooting and Common Worries
Will it taste oily or greasy?
Not if the oil is properly emulsified. The fat in milk and cream is already dispersed in tiny droplets, and blending the olive oil into the cold base, with egg yolk or cornflour helping to hold it, adds it in the same way. If you see oil streaks after chilling, blend again for 20 seconds before churning. A greasy feel usually means too much oil for the base, so stay at 90ml unless you have tried it and want more.
Isn't it a waste to churn a good oil?
It is a fair question, and the answer is no. The oil never goes near the heat in either recipe: it is blended into a base that has already cooled, so its aroma survives into the finished ice cream. And 90ml is less than a fifth of a 500ml bottle.
It set rock hard
Home freezers run colder than shop display freezers, and homemade ice cream has none of the stabilisers most commercial ice cream uses. Soften it on the counter for 5–15 minutes. Recipes that add alcohol to keep ice cream soft are not needed here; a slightly longer rest does the same job.
No ice cream machine?
Make the drizzled version, or still-freeze either base: pour it into a shallow lidded container, freeze, and beat it hard with a fork or whisk every 30–45 minutes for about 3 hours to break up ice crystals. The texture will be a little coarser than churned, but the flavour is the same.
Why Sidr & Stone
In olive oil ice cream, the oil is one of only a handful of ingredients, and it is the one we can speak for. Sidr & Stone's extra virgin olive oil comes from one place, our own farm on the plains outside Marrakech, and we control every step from tree to bottle.
- Single-estate: Sidr & Stone's olive oil comes from our own family-owned farm near Marrakech, Morocco, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed: the trees are not irrigated; they take what the season gives.
- Organically grown: no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides are used (not yet certified; certification is in progress).
- Single harvest: each batch is small and limited, picked when the fruit is ready; once it is gone, it is gone until the next harvest.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest: to protect flavour, aroma and polyphenols.
- Unfiltered extra virgin: minimally processed, so a little natural sediment at the bottom of the bottle is normal.
- 100% natural: a single ingredient, olive oil, with nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label: 500ml bottles that protect the oil from light.
- 10% of profits to charity: a Sidr & Stone commitment across every product.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU and US.
We will not tell you ours is the best olive oil for ice cream; your own spoon is the judge of that. What we will say is that it is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that the product page carries the details of the current batch, so you can check its freshness for yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does olive oil ice cream taste like?
Rich and silky, with a gentle fruity, slightly grassy flavour and a faint peppery finish from the oil. With a pinch of flaky salt on top it becomes salty-sweet, a little like salted caramel but fresher and greener.
Why add the olive oil after the custard has cooled?
Because heat dulls the oil's aroma, and the aroma is the point. Blending the oil into a cool base keeps its green, fruity character, and the yolks (or cornflour in the dairy-free version) help hold it in a smooth emulsion.
How much olive oil should I drizzle on ice cream?
One to two teaspoons per scoop, with a small pinch of flaky sea salt. Start with less; a robust, peppery oil goes further than a mild one.
Can I use light olive oil?
You can, but there is little reason to. Light olive oil is refined, so it adds fat and smoothness without the olive flavour that makes this dessert worth making.
Is Sidr & Stone's olive oil good for ice cream?
It is a fresh, unfiltered, single-estate extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed within hours of harvest, which is the kind of oil this dessert needs. Taste it on a spoon first and adjust the quantity to how strongly you want it to come through.
Is olive oil gelato the same thing?
Broadly, yes. Gelato is usually churned more slowly with more milk and less cream, so it is denser and a little less rich; the same oil, quantities and drizzle tips apply.
Where can I buy olive oil ice cream?
Some gelaterias and supermarkets sell it, but it is easy to make at home with either recipe above, or simply drizzle good extra virgin olive oil over a shop-bought vanilla or sorbet.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
Olive oil ice cream sounds like a chef's party trick, but it rests on a simple idea: good olive oil is a fruit juice with real flavour, and cold, sweet cream is a very good way to taste it. Drizzle it tonight if you are curious; churn it when you want a dessert that people ask about afterwards; and use the dairy-free version when the table needs it. If you enjoy the result, our olive oil cake recipe is the natural next step, and the two make a fine pairing.
Whichever version you make, the oil is the part you will taste, so choose one you would happily eat on bread: fresh, extra virgin, with a clear origin. Our Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml), single-estate, rain-fed and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, is available to pre-order now, with fulfilment in the UK, EU and US.
Our extra virgin olive oil is grown organically on our own single-estate farm on the plains outside Marrakech: we control every step from tree to bottle, and no synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers are used. It is not yet certified organic — certification is in progress, and we will publish it as soon as it comes through.
Disclaimer: This article shares home recipes and general cooking information at the time of writing; equipment, ingredients and individual dietary needs vary. The classic recipe contains milk, cream and eggs; the dairy-free recipe contains coconut and oats (check oat milk labels if you avoid gluten). Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.