Learn how to make a batch of creamy and rich no churn vanilla ice cream today. Enjoy this classic, sweet vanilla ice cream with a serving of peach cobbler, or add your favorite mix-ins to create a brand new ice cream flavor.
Why make vanilla ice cream?
Flavor/texture: Cream and rich ice cream with sweet vanilla flavor.
Made with few ingredients: This recipe is made with four simple ingredients. All you need is heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, salt, and a hand mixer (no ice cream maker needed!).
Easy to customize: Always dreamt of a particular ice cream flavor you could never find in stores? Make it at home instead!
Yield: About 6 cups
Serve with: Blueberry Crisp or Peach Cobbler
More flavors: Butter Pecan Ice Cream, Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream, and Peanut Butter Ice Cream
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Ingredients and substitutions
- Sweetened condensed milk - The base of your ice cream. Sweetened condensed milk adds sweetness and creaminess. Homemade or store bought sweetened condensed milk will work in this recipe.
- Heavy cream - Necessary to make no churn ice cream. Heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream, is whipped and folded with the other ice cream ingredients to recreate the aerated texture of traditional ice cream.
- Vanilla extract - Adds vanilla flavor to the ice cream. Vanilla extract can be substituted with an equal amount of vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean. Vanilla can also be substituted with your favorite baking extract, like lemon, mint, or maple.
- Salt - Enhances the flavor of the ice cream.
How to make vanilla ice cream
- In a large bowl, add sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt. Stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to whip your heavy cream until stiff peaks are achieved.
- Add whipped cream to the sweetened condensed milk mixture and fold to incorporate, taking care not to deflate the whipped cream.
- Pour mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan and freeze until solid.
Tips and tricks
Making whipped cream - Use a hand mixer with a whisk attachment and mix your heavy cream on medium speed until stiff peaks are achieved. Once your cream begins to hold its shape in the bowl, turn the mixer off and lift the whisk out. If the tip of the whipped cream holds it shape without drooping, your whipped cream is ready.
Fold gently - Use gentle folding strokes when incorporating the whipped cream to avoid deflating it.
Add flavors to the sweetened condensed milk base - If you'd like to add other flavors to your ice cream base, like extracts, spices, jam, or cocoa powder, add it to the milk base. This ensures that the flavor is incorporated completely into the base without deflating the whipped cream.
Add mix-ins last - After your ice cream base has been prepared, add solid mix-ins last. This includes items like crumbled cookies, candy, and sprinkles. This ensures your pieces don't fall apart from excess mixing.
Mix-in ideas
I recommend adding anywhere from ½ cup to 1 cup of mix-ins to your ice cream.
- Baking chips - Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips.
- Chopped chocolate - I prefer chopped chocolate in my mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe.
- Nuts - Pecans, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios. Try candied pecans like in butter pecan ice cream.
- Sprinkles - Sprinkles go a long way, so I'd start with 1-2 tablespoons.
- Cookie pieces - Sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oreo cookies, or brownies. I added these sugar cookies into my Christmas cookie ice cream.
- Candy - Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers, Kit Kat, Heath, M&M's. A great way to use up extra Halloween candy.
- Cake pieces - Crumble a piece of cake into your ice cream - frosting and all!
- Cookie dough - I recommend making a homemade, safe to eat version like this Edible Cookie Dough.
- Nut and seed butters - Peanut butter, almond butter, sun butter. I made peanut butter ribbon layers in my Peanut butter ice cream recipe.
- Hot fudge or caramel - Try adding a ribbon of hot fudge (at room temperature) in the middle of your ice cream.
- Jam, preserves, pie filling - Mix into your ice cream completely or add in layers for a ribbon effect. I used cherry pie filling in my cherry cheesecake ice cream.
- Crunchy mix-ins - Waffle cone pieces, graham crackers, pretzels, potato chips, granola, toasted coconut, and cereal (like golden grahams, corn flakes, cocoa puffs).
- Shell topping - Makes a great crunchy chocolate layer. Try my dark chocolate peanut butter shell or peppermint magic shell as a ribbon layer.
Storage
No churn ice cream will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. Keep your ice cream tightly sealed to prevent air exposure, which causes freezer burn.
Frequently asked questions
No churn ice cream is ice cream that's made without the use of an ice cream maker or other specialized equipment. All you need is a hand mixer and a few simple ingredients. For this recipe, we're blending sweetened condensed milk together with homemade whipped cream. Whipped cream gives this homemade ice cream it's light and airy texture without the need for an ice cream maker.
A 9x5 loaf pan is the ideal size for this no churn ice cream recipe. However, any freezer safe container will work. Try using a large tupperware container with a tightly sealing container.
This depends on the temperature of your freezer. It takes my freezer about 4 to 5 hours to freeze ice cream, but it could take as long as 8 hours or overnight.
Yes, liquid or gel food coloring works well in this recipe. I recommend adding it along with the vanilla extract.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 16 ounces (454 g) heavy cream
- 14 ounces (397 g) sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add heavy cream. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, whip until stiff peaks are achieved, about 3 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, add sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir to combine.
- Fold whipped cream into milk mixture until just combined.
- Pour mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan (or any container that will hold 6 cups). Cover and freeze immediately for about 4-6 hours, or until firm.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Optional flavors: Add ½ teaspoon of spices (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice blend, ginger) or up to 1 teaspoon of extract (maple, lemon, almond) to the sweetened condensed milk mixture.
- Optional mix-ins: Add ½ cup of liquids (peanut butter, jam, chocolate sauce) or ½ to 1 cup of chopped pieces (nuts, cookies, chocolate chips) to the finished ice cream base just before pouring and freezing.
- Storage: No churn ice cream will keep for up to 3 months in a tightly sealed container in the freezer.
I made the chocolate ice cream with 1/2 cup of cocoa (I used a mesh strainer to get any lumps out of the cocoa) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla added to the sweetened condensed milk and then blended this very well with a hand mixer before adding all to the heavy whipping cream which I whipped to form stiff peaks. I don't like chocolate ice cream but this is so creamy and delicious that I could eat it everyday. Thank you for this recipe.