20 Types Of Frozen Desserts, Explained

You scream, we all scream — for, gelato? It might not have the same ring to it, but we can both agree that gelato and ice cream are two delicious frozen treats that never seem to lose their novelty. But any ice cream enthusiast will be able to tell you that there is more to ice cream than just, well, ice cream and gelato. According to data from Grand View Research, the frozen dessert market in the United States alone was valued at over $30 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow by at least 5% into the next decade.

The preparation methods and the ingredients for different types of frozen desserts vary but are all arguably delicious. Here's the scoop on some of our favorite types of frozen desserts you can find at the grocery store, local scoop shop, or even make at home with the leftover whipping cream you've been meaning to get rid of.

Soft-serve ice cream (or as Vermonters call this frozen dessert, a "creemee"), is made from the same ingredients as hard ice cream. The main ingredient between the two major types of ice cream is that soft ice cream has a lower butterfat content than hard ice cream. Hard ice cream usually contained 10% to 13% butterfat, while soft-serve ice cream contains a measly 6% to 8% butterfat (via the Ice Cream Geek). The more butterfat, the richer the ice cream. The method for making soft-serve ice cream also beats more air into the ice cream; the result is a softer mouthfeel than hard ice cream.

Soft-serve ice cream comes in almost any flavor, but the most common varieties you'll see in a scoop shop are vanilla, chocolate, or chocolate-vanilla twist. Redditors theorize that this basic flavor combination is due to the popularity of the standard flavors and companies have caught on to only producing these flavors to cut operational (and cleaning) costs.

Hard ice cream has a higher fat content than soft ice cream, thus making it denser and harder than soft ice cream. Hard ice cream manufacturers use a higher butterfat content to develop the traditional hard ice cream texture and flavor with a series of mix-ins including fruit, chocolate, and candy. Polls by Instacart note that the most popular ice cream flavor in the United States is actually moose tracks: made from vanilla ice cream, peanut butter cups, and fudge swirls.

If you want to make hard ice cream, you'll need a few simple ingredients at home. You should use whipping cream to develop the high butterfat content that hard ice cream requires together. Add the whipping cream to milk, vanilla extract, and sugar, and place in your pre-frozen ice cream churner. After your ice cream has frozen for a few hours, it is ready to be scooped into your go-to bowl or waffle cone.

Sorbet is one of the treats for our dairy-free friends. Sorbet is a light, fruity dessert made from churning frozen fruit and sugar together — no dairy or eggs involved.

The ease of the sorbet's ingredients makes this frozen dessert easy for amateur home cooks. You can make strawberry sorbet by combining frozen strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar together in a blender. Although you may be tempted to leave the sugar out of the recipe, it is a vital part of catalyzing the reaction. The sugar keeps the ice from becoming too cold and freezing the sorbet rock-solid when it is placed in the freezer. You should also allocate at least two hours for your sorbet to set after it is blended.

You can eat sorbet the same way you'd eat other dairy desserts: in a cone, in a bowl, or topped with sauces and toppings. Plus, the fruit you choose to use for sorbet is versatile, so you can frozen mango, berries, or stone fruits like cherries to craft your personalized dessert.

Mochi encroach more into the category of "ice cream novelty" than other types of desserts. The mochi is a hybridized dessert between Japanese and American cultures. Balls of American ice cream are wrapped with pounded glutenous rice. The skin of the mochi is thick and chewy and originally only came in three flavors: green tea (matcha), red bean, and mango. Since mochi have surged in popularity since the 2010s, consumers can now purchase mochi in most major grocery stores in flavors including double chocolate and s'mores.

Homemade mochi ice cream isn't as difficult as it seems to make. You'll first want to wrap your balls of ice cream in the freezer so that it will be easy to handle when you're ready to form and shape the mochi. Then, a sweet glutenous rice flour (mochiko) is combined with powdered sugar and salt and microwaved. Then the dough is rolled, sliced, and cut into circles large enough to encompass the ice cream balls. After the ice cream balls are sealed, the mochi must be frozen for at least two hours before serving.

Rolled ice cream is commonly found in Thailand and is served by street vendors in major cities like Bangkok. The ice cream base is rolled on a thin, super-cold sheet into tiny, cylindrical rolls before being placed upright in a dish and served with toppings. The sheet, which is also known as an "anti-thermal cold plate" or an "anti-griddle," can reach temperatures below 10 F. The resulting ice cream cools on contact with the sheet and becomes easily pliable and foldable with time.

According to StyleBluePrint, the process of rolling ice cream is both methodical and manual. The crafter pours a liquid mixture onto the plate and moves the liquid around until it becomes slightly frozen, before being prodded, mushed, and spread flat. Then, the crafter can roll the ice cream with a spatula into the rolls before picking up the ice cream with tongs and placing it into the serving dish. Rolling the ice cream too thick, too thin, or before it is solid enough will result in the ice cream falling apart. Thus, we recommend keeping this type of ice cream for the pros — plus it's cool to watch.

Shave ice is a traditional summertime treat by pouring sugary syrup over thinly sliced shaved ice. The dessert has been popular in America because it is easily customizable to include alcohol or to add multiple flavors of syrup into a single cone.

According to Hawaiian Airlines, "shave ice" can be traced back to the island of Hawaii. Kakigori, Japanese for "shave ice," was eaten by Japanese immigrants working in the sugar and pineapple plantations on the island. The immigrants would chop pieces off a block of ice and coat the shave with juice or syrup. Eventually, shave ice began selling in small family grocery stores near the plantation. One of the most famous, Matsumoto Shave Ice sells over 30 flavors of ice with optional toppings like condensed milk, azuki beans, and ice cream.

If you're looking to make shaved ice at home, you'll want to abstain from using pellet ice or chopped ice. Unlike snow cones, shave ice is made using a fine shaving blade that creates a texture of ice similar to that of fallen snow. Shave ice purveyors used hand-cranked machines to craft a delicate texture that easily soaks up the syrup.

Semifreddo is one of the lesser-known frozen desserts out there. As the name implies, this frozen dessert is semi-frozen and crafted using a whipping technique rather than churning. This Italian dessert combines traditional ice cream ingredients like cream, sugar, eggs, and heavy cream into more of a mousse texture than typical ice cream. While some crafters of semifreddo add the whipped cream gently into the recipes, others focus on heavily beating the ingredients together to whip more air into the dessert. Once the mousse is soft and airy, it is transferred into a loaf pan to freeze. After a few hours, the mousse is sliced like a loaf to maintain its texture and shape before being garnished and served with fruit or other toppings.

Semifreddo is the perfect dessert to start learning ice cream 101. You won't have to invest in an ice cream churner (which we admit to only pulling out of the closet less than once a year) and you'll get the same flavor and texture as other types of ice cream.

Milkshakes are a nostalgic childhood beverage made by churning hard ice cream with milk. It is believed that the first versions of milkshakes were boozy and made by combining eggnog with whiskey. In 1886, a Georgia publication noted a new invention in the ice cream world made by combining sweet milk, crushed ice, and desired syrups in a container and shaking the beverage furiously. Hankering for History notes that Walgreens' employee Ivan "Pop" Coulson sought to improve the company's chocolate malt beverage. He experimented with adding the beverage to other ingredients at a local soda fountain; eventually, the addition of ice cream gave the beverage a newfound thickness that would change American diner culture from that point on.

While the most traditional flavors of milkshakes include chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, the world of milkshakes is open to many more ingredients including avocado, alcohol, cake mix, malt powder, and fruit.

Long before George Michael Bluth was selling bananas on the Newport Beach boardwalk, the frozen banana was getting its start in the American frozen dessert lexicon. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Don Phillips set up the first frozen banana stand on the same boardwalk in 1940. In 1961, the frozen banana was being dipped in chocolate and nuts and sold at the Arizona State Fair.

To make your own frozen bananas at home, you'll want to start by placing a few bananas in the freezer the day before. Peeling the banana prior to freezing is optimal, but you can also freeze in-peel and slice the peel off with a knife when you're ready to prepare your frozen banana. Dip in melted white, dark, or milk chocolate and top with your favorite mix of nuts, sprinkles, or chocolate chips.

Sugar-on-snow is a classic New England winter treat made from just a few ingredients. Some New Englanders call the treat "maple candy" while the Canadians may refer to it as "Tire sur la Neige." You'll need heated maple syrup (around 225 F) and a pile of clean snowfall — or shaved ice. The trick to making sugar-on-snow is to make sure the maple syrup is hot enough that it forms into a thick candy layer when rolled around a popsicle stick, but not so hot that it melts the ice.

Sugar-on-snow, according to Gastro Obscura, is historically eaten with apple cider donut (another New England classic treat) or pickles. The pickles are said to curb the sweetness of the maple syrup and allow for a medley of flavors in every bite.