Learn how to make homemade no churn ice cream today. No ice cream maker needed – this creamy and sweet ice cream is made with just three ingredients and is easily customized to make your favorite flavors.
Ice cream has long been a summertime favorite dessert. It’s cool, sweet, and comes in an endless combination of flavors. Want to make your own from home? It’s easier than you think.
Learn how to make homemade ice cream today – it takes literally ten minutes of prep before your ice cream is in the freezer. No ice cream maker needed! A hand mixer will make the process easier, but can be made with as little as a whisk and some elbow grease.
When I first heard of no churn ice cream, I was hesitant. How can you possibly make a creamy and rich ice cream – with THREE ingredients – that tastes as good as anything at the store? Once I made a batch of my own, I was hooked.
This ice cream is rich, creamy, and can be customized to make just about any flavor imaginable. My first ice cream recipe? No Churn Double Peanut Butter Ice Cream. Yes, I am a peanut butter fanatic! After that came a few more ice cream recipes: Christmas ice cream, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and strawberry ice cream.
After making a few fun batches of ice cream, I decided it was time to make a detailed post about how to make basic no churn ice cream. I’ll show you step by step how to make a batch of no churn ice cream in your home today.
Plus, I’ll give you several tips on how to customize your ice cream.
The no churn method of making ice cream is incredibly easy. In fact, it’s almost too easy. Whipping up a batch of sweet, rich, and satisfying ice cream in less than ten minutes?
This may be dangerous for my waistline. Just remember – everything in moderation.
How to make no churn ice cream
First, you’ll want to measure out your heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk in separate bowls. Add vanilla (or another flavor of extract) to your sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine.
At this point, you can add flavors to your ice cream. Think of this as the overall flavor base of the ice cream, not including your mix-ins. Ingredients like extracts (vanilla/mint), jams, peanut butter, and cocoa powder are a few options. See below for my full list of flavor ideas.
Once you’ve flavored your sweetened condensed milk, set it aside.
Next, you’ll whip your heavy cream to create whipped cream. Using a hand mixer with a whip attachment makes this a cinch. For me, this takes about 2-3 minutes, sometimes less.
A few tips – your heavy cream needs to be very cold and straight from the refrigerator to whip up easily. If your house is hot, you may want to refrigerate your bowl and whip attachment/whisk for a few minutes. This ensures everything that touches your heavy cream is nice and cold.
See the photo below – you want your heavy cream to have stiff peaks. When lifted up with your whisk, the cream should stand straight up and not droop. Drooping would be considered “soft peaks”, which means you’re not quite there yet.
Once your heavy cream is whipped, it’s time to add it to your sweetened condensed milk. Add a little at a time, and fold the whipped cream in slowly. This way, you don’t beat out the air you just whipped into your cream.
Eventually, you’ll have a creamy, smooth mixture.
Adding mix-ins to your ice cream
Adding mix-ins to your ice creamThis step is where you can add in any mix-ins you’d like in your ice cream. You can add ingredients like chocolate chips, swirls of hot fudge, crumbled cookies, or chopped candy. See my full list below for mix-in ideas.
If you have any mix-ins, I recommend starting with 1/2 to 1 cup of mix-ins. Gently stir into your ice cream mixture until combined. Add mix-ins until you are happy with the amount (honestly, can you really go wrong here?)
Once your mixture is ready, pour into a 9×5 loaf pan. You can also use any six cup container you have available. Cover and freeze for 4-5 hours until firm. Then, scoop and enjoy!
If you have any leftovers, I suggest scooping into a sealed container for prolonged storage. If you have a sealable loaf pan, even better!
Homemade ice cream flavors and mix-ins
Homemade ice cream flavors and mix-insWant to know how to customize your ice cream? No worries, I have plenty of ideas for you.
The measurements are suggestions, use your best judgement when adding flavors to your ice cream. Remember – you can always add more! Start with a small measurement, then do a taste test.
Ice Cream Flavors
Ice cream flavors are added to your sweetened condensed milk, before being folded into the heavy cream. Here are a few ideas:
- Extracts – Like vanilla, mint, lemon, maple, or almond. Try 1 teaspoon or more.
- Spices – Try cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla bean, or ginger. Try 1/2 teaspoon or more.
- Jams & Preserves – Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, apricot, cherry, or pineapple. Add 1/2 to 1 cup. I used jam in my No Churn Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream.
- Cocoa Powder – Add 1/2 cup.
- Butters – peanut, almond, cashew, nutella, or even cookie butter. Add 1/2 cup.
- Hot fudge/chocolate sauce – Start with 1/4 cup and add more as needed.
- Food coloring – while not a flavor, this is the step where you’d add food coloring if desired. Remember, the color will lighten when the heavy cream is added.
No Churn Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
Ice Cream Mix-Ins
Mix-ins are the most fun part of making ice cream. Mix-ins are extra bits like cookies, chocolate chips, chunks, or ribbons that can be found in your ice cream. Try picking a mix-in that is complementary to the flavor you chose for your ice cream. Or, come up with something totally new.
I recommend adding anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 cup of mix-ins to your ice cream. You can also sprinkle more to the top for visual appeal.
- Baking chips – chocolate chips (I like mini chocolate chips), white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips.
- Chopped chocolate – like in my No Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
- Nuts – pecans, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios.
- Sprinkles – sprinkles go a long way, so I’d start with 1-2 tablespoons.
- Cookie pieces – sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oreo cookies. I added these sugar cookies into my No Churn Christmas Cookie Ice Cream.
- Candy – Reese’s peanut butter cups, Snickers, Kit Kat, Heath, M&M’s, Cookies and Cream – you get the idea! A great way to use up extra Halloween candy.
- Fresh fruit – strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cherries, banana slices.
- 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.
- Peanut butter – or any other nut butter. I made peanut butter ribbon layers in my No Churn Double Peanut Butter Ice Cream recipe.
- Hot fudge -try adding a ribbon of hot fudge (at room temperature) in the middle of your ice cream. See my peanut butter method above.
- Jam/preserves – jam can be mixed in thoroughly to offer a consistent flavor, or added in thin layers for a ribbon effect.
- Waffle cone pieces
- Pretzels or potato chips
- Brownie pieces
- Pie filling – cherry, apple.
- Cereal – golden grahams, corn flakes, cocoa puffs.
- Shredded coconut
- Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Shell Ice Cream Topping or Peppermint Chocolate Ice Cream Shell Topping as a ribbon layer.
- Caramel – in bite size pieces, or melted and spooned into a ribbon layer.
- Granola
- Graham crackers
- Mini marshmallows
As you can see, the options for flavors and mix-ins are practically endless! Have you made your own homemade ice cream yet? What flavors and mix-ins did you use? Tell us about it in the comments below!
How To Make No Churn Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks are achieved, about 3 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract. Fold whipped cream into milk mixture until combined.
- Pour mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan (or any container that will hold 6 cups). Cover and freeze immediately for 4-5 hours or until firm. Enjoy!
Notes
- Extracts – Like vanilla, mint, lemon, maple, or almond. Try 1 teaspoon or more.
- Spices – Try cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla bean, or ginger. Try 1/2 teaspoon or more.
- Jams & Preserves - Add 1/2 cup or more.
- Peanut butter, nutella, or cookie butter. Add 1/2 cup.
- Hot fudge/chocolate sauce – Start with 1/4 cup and add more as needed.
- Food coloring – while not a flavor, this is the step where you’d add food coloring if desired. Remember, the color will lighten when the heavy cream is added.
- Baking chips
- Chopped chocolate
- Nuts
- Cookie pieces
- Candy pieces
- Fresh fruit
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