Making ice cream can be quite the task. From separating eggs, cooking a custard to the correct consistency, chilling, churning, freezing and waiting. It’s sort of the one thing people won’t do unless they really like being in the kitchen or unless they really like a challenge. Well no churn ice cream gives you a pretty delicious product without half of the work. There is no pre-cooking, there is no custard, and the wait time is certainly less.
Here are some things to note before getting started:
The cream:
As with all ice creams, you will need to use heavy cream in this mixture. You will need to whip the cream just until stiff peaks form. Overwhipping can break the cream and make the texture grainy and uneven. Whip the cream just until it comes together. You may choose to whip the cream in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. You may also completely do this by hand with a whisk though with the large amount of cream in this recipe, that may be difficult to do.
Condensed milk:
This recipe calls for the use of condensed milk both as a sweetener and a stabilizer. Whipped cream on its own will easily fall apart over time. As most of the water is cooked off in the making of condensed milk, it also helps the texture of the dessert by softening it and making for an easier scoop.
Flavoring the ice cream:
The best thing about no churn ice cream is that once the base is made, you can flavor it with a variety of add-ins with little worry that will affect the ice cream. You can add in cocoa powder, strawberry sauce, crumbled cookies, peanut butter, caramel, chocolate syrup, jams or preserves, the list is endless. You can come away with many different variations of ice cream.
Strawberry:
Making strawberry ice cream is quite simple. You will need to cook the strawberries to bring out the sweetness in them but also so that their flavor will be bold enough to flavor the cream. Adding in fresh strawberries will do very little to color or give flavor to the cream. It is important to cook as much of the water out of the strawberries as possible. This will prevent the possibility of ice crystals forming in the cream as it sets.
Vanilla:
I actually prefer a custard based vanilla ice cream as I think the vanilla taste is a lot more potent. In an attempt to get more vanilla into the cream, I used both vanilla extract and vanilla beans from 1 vanilla pod. Without add-ins in the vanilla ice cream, it came off pretty bland and uninteresting. Adding two tsp of extract and leaving out the beans would do more to flavor this dessert.
Chocolate:
The chocolate version of this ice cream will obviously be as good as the powder. I chose a dutch processed powder which simply means it was processed in a way that gives a less bitter end product with a richer, deeper color than other processes. I went with three tablespoons in this recipe but if you desire a milder chocolatey taste, go for two.
For this recipe, you will need:
Tools:
- Hand mixer or stand mixer or whisk
- Large bowl
- 3 glass containers with air-tight lids
- Spatula
- Small saucepan
- Small blender or masher
Ingredients
- 1 pint of strawberries
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
- Juice from ½ a lemon
- 5 cups heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 14 oz condensed milk
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder, Dutch process
Instructions
- Prep strawberries by removing the tops and slicing each strawberry in 3 pieces. Place strawberries in a bowl and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, add strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Cook strawberries on low heat watching carefully. Remove strawberries from the heat once all of the water has evaporated and the mixture looks to be the consistency of jam. Do not break the strawberry pieces apart as they cook.
- Place half of the strawberry mixture into a blender or separate bowl. Blend half of the mixture until completely smooth. If you don't have a blender, use a masher to mash out the pieces in half of the mixture. Combine the pureed or mashed half with the other half of the mixture. Cover and cool completely in the refrigerator.
- In a large mixing bowl, add cream, vanilla and condensed milk. Use the mixer or your whisk to whip the cream until stiff peaks form.
- Place ⅓ of the cream into a glass container with a lid. Cover and place in the freezer. This is vanilla ice cream.
Split the remaining cream in ½ and place one amount in a separate bowl. Add in the chocolate powder in one amount of the cream and use the spatula to gently fold in the chocolate until the mixture is dark brown. Once the chocolate is fully combined, place it into a glass container with a lid. Cover and place in the freezer. This is chocolate ice cream. - The strawberry mixture should be fully cooled at this point. Scoop the strawberry mixture into the last amount of cream, leaving back about 2 tbsp. Fold in the mixture with a spatula until the cream is light pink. Once the strawberries are fully combined, place it into a glass container with a lid. Use the spatula to swirl in the remaining amount of strawberry mixture. Cover and place in the refrigerator.
- Freeze the ice creams for 6hrs to overnight. Once the ice creams are fully frozen, scoop and enjoy.
Notes
If the ice creams are super hard, allow them to sit out at room temperature until they soften naturally. Keep a watch on them so they don't start melting completely before scooping and serving.
