No Churn Key Lime Ice Cream
I originally shared this Key Lime Pie Ice Cream over on Spend With Pennies, but wanted to share it with you here, too!
Today we’re taking classic key lime pie and turning it into a frozen, summer-friendly treat. This no-churn ice cream has all the flavors of key lime pie: a bright (but not over-powering) pucker of key lime, a creamy, sweet-tart base, and a crisp and buttery rumble of graham cracker crust swirl.
Even better, this recipe requires absolutely no ice cream maker, eggs, or cooking on the stove. Instead, we’ll take just stir together a handful of simple ingredients, fold in some homemade whipped cream, and pour it all into a bread pan. You will have to freeze it for all of eternity (6 hours), but all of the real prep takes less than 30 minutes.
What You Need
It might be hard to believe we’ll get such tasty results from just 7 ingredient’s, but it’s true! Here’s what you need:
Sweetened condensed milk. This is an essential no-churn ice cream ingredient. It’s what mimics the custard base in most traditional ice creams, and it’s also a classic key lime pie ingredient! Make sure you use sweetened condensed milk and not evaporated milk; while the cans look similar and are sold next to each other, they are not the same thing. Key lime juice. I don’t have access to fresh key limes where I live, so I usually buy bottled Nellie & Joe’s key lime juice from my grocery store. Several of you have asked if you can substitute this for lemon juice; I haven’t tried it myself, but I think it would work just fine! Heavy whipping cream. Double cream or heavy cream will also work. We will whip this to stiff peaks and then gently fold it into our ice cream base. Graham crackers. You want to crush these into crumbs, but make sure to leave some small, bite sized pieces too for a little texture. We will combine these with a little melted butter (salted or unsalted, it’s such a small amount either works fine) and sugar to create that classic graham cracker crust. Vanilla. Just a splash in our graham cracker swirl adds such a nice flavor. Homemade vanilla extract would work nicely here!
SAM’S TIP: Want some extra lime flavor? Add some lime zest into your ice cream! Just make sure you don’t zest too far down into the pith of your lime (the white papery part), as that can be bitter. 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
Graham Cracker Swirl
Key Lime Ice Cream
Assembly
SAM’S TIP: If you struggle with whipping cream to stiff peaks, try using metal bowl and beaters and placing them in the fridge or freezer to chill for a few minutes beforehand. The cold bowl and utensils will help tremendously. If you love the sweet-tart tropical flavors here, you’ll definitely want to check out my key lime pie cookies or key lime cheesecake next! 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
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