Easy Homemade Ice Cream
Truly delicious homemade ice cream is refreshing summertime treat, but it can be quite a pain to make. Luckily, I’ve got an equally tasty recipe for no-churn ice cream that’s just as satisfying as “real” ice cream with a fraction of the work and time (much like my no-bake cheesecake). This recipe is easy (and eggless!) with no ice cream maker or cooking required. It’s a fun and super customizable lazy-day ice cream that’s great to make with young kids (Luke loves helping me!). I’m sharing three flavor bases today, and you can make just one or all three! We love to experiment with different variations; Luke’s favorite is vanilla with chocolate chips, sprinkles and crushed Oreo cookies. And don’t forget the whipped cream and hot fudge sauce!
What You Need
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for your homemade ice cream base. Feel free to sprinkle in any add-ins you like (I’ve got a few suggestions further down in the post)!
Sweetened condensed milk. Not only is this our sweetener, but it also helps the rest of our ingredients become ice cream! Sweetened condensed milk replaces the custard base that traditional ice creams have. Make sure you use sweetened condensed milk and not evaporated milk! Vanilla bean paste. This adds flavor and beautiful flecks of vanilla to the ice cream. If you can’t find paste, the seeds from a vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract will also work!Sea salt. Just a pinch brings out the flavor and balances the sweetness of the ice cream.Heavy cream. Whipping cream or double cream will work too. We’ll be whipping our cream to stiff peaks, so it should be very cold!
SAM’S TIP: If you’ve struggled with whipping cream to stiff peaks in the past, try using a metal bowl and freezing it 15 minutes before you need it. This will encourage your cream to whip up nicely. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make It
More No Churn Ice Cream Flavors
Cookies & Cream: Stir 7-8 Broken Oreo cookies into vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Mint Chocolate Chip: Add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract, ½ cup mini chocolate chips, and green food coloring (if desired) to the vanilla ice cream. Cookie Dough: Make a batch of my edible cookie dough and roll into small balls, then stir them into the vanilla ice cream along with some mini chocolate chips. Note: you won’t need all of the edible cookie dough, so enjoy the leftovers with a spoon!Raspberry White Chocolate: Swap the strawberry in the strawberry ice cream recipe for for raspberries and stir in a finely chopped white chocolate bar.Key Lime Pie: see my recipe for key lime pie no churn ice cream!
I’d love to hear about any other flavor combinations you come up with! Leave them in the comments below 😊 If your ice cream is hard to scoop, just let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes, or use a warm ice cream scoop–so easy! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook