Final Verdict

The Midnight Scoop Ergonomic Ice Cream Scoop (view at Amazon) is your best bet if you have to scoop a lot of ice cream or if you’re working on trying to keep your lifestyle as ergonomic as possible. Meanwhile, the MOMA Dip Ice Cream Scoop (view at Food52) is useful, interesting, and beautiful.

What to Look for When Buying an Ice Cream Scoop

Scoop and Handle Shape

If not thoughtfully designed, an ice cream scoop can cause wrist and hand strain. If you’ll be scooping ice cream often, you’ll want a shape that conforms to the hand comfortably and feels light in your palm. A slightly curved handle is easy to grip and allows you to use your arms and shoulders for leverage into hard ice cream rather than relying on your wrists. Weighted handles add a nice touch but might be too heavy for some people to use effortlessly.

Left-handed people should also consider ice cream scoops that are ambidextrous since many are tailored to people who are right-handed.

Scoop Size

Ice cream scoops aren’t large tools, but they should be sizable enough to scoop ice cream in just a couple of swipes. Ice cream scoop sizes are measured by diameter, and they do vary in size, from a teeny 2 teaspoons (1.12 inches in diameter) to a full cup (3.6 inches in diameter). Paying attention to size is especially important if you plan on buying a disher-style scoop that can also be used for cookies, rice, and other foods. You’ll need to know how much a scoop holds in cups or fluid ounces to perfect any baked recipe.

Most scoop-style ice cream scoops will hold between 2 and 3 ounces of ice cream. A small scoop just means more trips back to the carton, though it can be easier to use and more comfortable to hold. A large ice cream scoop can be heavy and difficult to use since they require more force but will, naturally, result in larger scoops of ice cream.

Maintenance

When using your ice cream scoop, you don’t want to wet it first, whether that water is hot or cold. That wetness will leave behind moisture in the ice cream that will harden into ice crystals when you put it back in the freezer. If you need to avoid cross-contamination, ice cream scoops are easy to clean. Simply rinse with soap and water and let it air dry or dry with a kitchen towel. While some are dishwasher-safe, hand-washing is gentler on your ice cream scoop.

FAQs

How many ounces are in a standard scoop of ice cream?

A scoop is subjective. Some consider a scoop of ice cream to be a third of a cup or about 2.7 ounces. This will roughly give you a 0.5-cup to 0.66-cup serving size with two scoops. For kids, the average size is about 3 ounces. Of course, your ice cream portion depends on the ice cream scoop you use.

Should you dip your ice cream scoop in warm water?

Dipping your ice cream scoop in warm water can make it easier to scoop hard, frozen ice cream. However, this can add moisture to the ice cream and interfere with its consistency. The leftover moisture will cause crystallization in the freezer, which translates to an icy texture—or worse, freezer burn. Both will ruin your ice cream, and ice cream is a terrible thing to waste.

How do you scoop hard ice cream?

Using a pointed ice cream scoop makes it easier to scoop hard ice cream. You can also wait a few minutes for it to soften. Unless you’re standing in a walk-in freezer or outside in below-freezing temperatures, the air temperature will quickly warm up the ice cream to an easier-to-scoop consistency.

Why Trust Simply Recipes?

Karen Resta is a New York City-based writer specializing in food culture and history, cooking, pastries, restaurants, and particularly ice cream. A former executive chef who began her professional journey as a pastry chef, she travels around the globe as a photographer and writer, always finding the best authentic food and pastries along the way. She spends a lot of her free time in her kitchen and is passionate about finding quality within your given budget. Having the right tools and knowing how to use them makes all the difference in baking, cooking, and eating, and she curated this list with that in mind.

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