Easy homemade ice cream made with only 3 ingredients and no ice cream maker needed.
I come from a long line of ice cream lovers. Growing up, we always had ice cream in our freezer and made frequent trips to the local ice cream parlor. But we never made homemade ice cream. As an adult, I’ve tried making all kinds of different ice creams. I even have a nice Cuisinart ice cream maker. I’ve tried making homemade ice cream using eggs – and got scrambled eggs. I’ve tried non-dairy recipes with marshmallows. Nothing really could come close to store bought ice cream. In fact, I read somewhere that homemade ice cream could never be as good simply because ice cream makers have very high end machines that are hard to replicate in the home kitchen. What’s a girl to do? I gave up.
Then the weather got warmer and I ran across a recipe on Pinterest that used only a few ingredients, looked light and smooth and didn’t require an ice cream maker. I had to give it a try. I’ve read about a million different “no churn” ice cream recipes in the past few weeks. It seems to all point back to Nigella Lawson and her no churn recipe. It didn’t really require much to try, so I did.
I decide to start with basic vanilla. All you need is whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract. I’ve mentioned my love of Trader Joe’s shelf stable whipping cream and you can add their organic sweetened condensed milk to that list. No can! Organic! I’m truly sorry if you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s. My vanilla is homemade so this pretty much worked out to an organic vanilla ice cream for pennies.
It took me about 10 minutes to whip the ice cream up. And then another 6 hours to let it harden. Start by whipping your whipped cream in a stand mixer or just using a hand held mixer.
While the cream whips up, mix together the condensed milk and the vanilla. I mixed up in a Tupperware Wonderlier bowl that I was using to freeze the ice cream in. No need to dirty more dishes! Once the cream is whipped, pour the condensed milk mixture in with the whipped cream. Gently gold the two together.
Pour the mixture in to a freezer proof container. Can you see how light and fluffy it is? Yum! Try not to lick the spoon because you’ll want to eat this ice cream before it freezes. Gently place the ice cream in the freezer and let it freeze for at least 6 hours. That’s it! It’s ready to go once it’s frozen. I notice that homemade ice cream needs to be eaten sooner rather than later. This makes a small batch so if you need a lot, double it for certain!
If you are dairy free, or just love chocolate, make sure to check out my dairy free chocolate gelato recipe! And “Fried” Ice Cream for a Crowd (no frying required) is always a hit at potlucks!
3 Ingredient, No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Turn 3 pantry ingredients into delicious ice cream with this easy no church vanilla ice cream recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whip the heavy cream in the bowl of a stand mixer until stiff peaks form.
- In a small bowl, stir together condensed milk and vanilla to combine.
- Gently fold the condensed milk mixture into the whipped cream.
- Pour the mixture into a freezer-friendly, air-tight container.
- Freeze for at least 6 hours.