Homemade (No-Machine, No-Churn) Ice Cream

If you’ve ever met me, been to my house, or even to my Instagram, you know I love cake. What’s not immediately apparent is how much my family loves ice cream. What the rest of them lack in cake appreciation, they more than make up for in ability to pack away quantities of ice cream. So it only made sense to start making our own.

I’m kind of an ice cream snob after working summers in my neighborhood ice cream parlour as a teenager. Not only did I make lifelong friends (true story), but I developed an appreciation of gourmet ice cream, the kind that’s hard to find, hard to agree on a flavor to buy and hard to pay for.

I’ve tried to make homemade ice cream before: once with a friend’s machine (didn’t work: never froze), once using the churn-it-yourself method (didn’t work: not delicious enough to be worth the effort), and even a few times with the banana “ice cream” method (didn’t work: isn’t ice cream).

So finding this method has been a game changer. Not only is this real ice cream, but it’ll be the easiest thing you’ve made in a long time. It’s as simple as whipping a bunch of cream with a tiny bit of sweetened condensed milk, adding a bunch of things, then plopping it into a big tupperware and freezing it. My only gripe is that it freezes much harder than store-bought ice cream, so it means you have to wait about 15 minutes before you can dig in. (If you’re like me, though, and tend to head to the freezer with a spoon “for just one bite,” this isn’t necessarily a bad thing: you’ll be denied.)

Now ice cream is so much perfect than it’s ever been, there are no more compromises. It’s “Almond, Coconut, Cocoa & Protein Powder” for our resident weight-lifter, “Nutella Chocolate Swirl” for our kids, “Banana Oreo” for me and “Lemon Curd, Raspberry Jam & Biscuits” for also me.

HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

This recipe is so forgiving. The quantities are pretty approximate – the more sweetened condensed milk you add, the sweeter it will be, obviously, but remember that a little goes a loooong way. I recommend you start with just a splash, then keep tasting and adding until it’s exactly as sweet as you like it. Don’t skimp on the extra ingredients, and don’t be afraid to really mix them in with a heavy hand, it won’t change the consistency of the ice cream. 

• 2 cups (600 ml) double or heavy cream
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (to taste)
• Optional (for vanilla base): 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Optional (for chocolate base): 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, to taste
• Optional: your favorite ice cream flavor additions (see below)*

In a large bowl, whip the cream with a handheld mixer for a few minutes until peaks form. Whip in a little bit of the sweetened condensed milk at a time, tasting as you go, until it’s as sweet as you want it. Add any extract (and/or cocoa powder) you’re using and whip the mixture until it’s really stiff.

Now fold in whatever you want to add. Scoop your mixture into an old ice cream carton or a large tupperware with a lid (or anything you can fit in the freezer). Freeze for at least 4 hours. That’s it!

NB: This ice cream freezes really hard so I recommend you take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before serving.

* Flavor ideas:

For one batch, we added a whole bunch of chopped up and blitzed Oreo cookies (maybe 30), then I swirled in some huge dollops of homemade hot fudge. We did this again but instead of hot fudge, we put in 6 puréed bananas. Heaven.

For another batch, we added some cocoa powder then swirled in huge dollops of Nutella. 

For another (amazing) batch, we did a tiny bit of lemon extract, crumbled up digestive biscuits, then swirled in raspberry jam and lemon curd.

cocoa powder + ground coffee + chocolate chips

strawberry sauce + white chocolate chips + sweetened coconut flakes

vanilla extract + cookie dough chunks

lemon extract + marshmallow sauce + cake pieces

vanilla extract + chopped amarena cherries + dark chocolate chunks + hot fudge

butterscotch sauce + white chocolate chips + pecans

mint extract + M&Ms + hot fudge

cocoa powder + Nutella + hazelnuts

chopped peanut butter cups + peanut butter + chocolate chips

Lemon extract, crumbled digestive biscuits, lemon curd and raspberry jam!