Name: No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Global
Ingredients: 1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (How to make your own); 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 cups heavy whipping cream

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

No ice cream maker? No problem. This no-churn vanilla ice cream only requires 3 ingredients and 5 minutes of hands-on time to make, and produces a rich, flavorful, hard-scoop ice cream. Enjoy it plain, or use it as a base for flavored ice creams.

Make Vanilla Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Maker

If you were to make a vanilla ice cream base, and just stick it in the freezer, you’d end up with a hard, unscoopable block of flavored ice. To make high-quality ice cream, you need a way to whip air into your ice cream base, so it freezes into a light, scoopable consistency.

This no-churn vanilla ice cream recipe uses a mixer (or elbow grease) to whip air into the heavy whipping cream and a freezer to freeze the ice cream.

No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

This recipe makes 1-1/2 quarts of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

(1) 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk ->Here’s how to make it
2 tsp vanilla extract -> Here’s how to make your own
2 cups heavy whipping cream

For the best vanilla flavor, use real vanilla extract. Here’s how to make your own for less than what you’d pay for the imitation stuff.

Tools You’ll Need:

You don’t need anything fancy to whip up a batch of no-churn vanilla ice cream. Just round up these kitchen basics, and you’ll have everything you need.

A large bowl
A rubber spatula
A stirring spoon
A 9-by-5-inch loaf pan, 8- or-9-inch cake pan or 9-inch pie pan
A whisk, hand mixer or stand mixer
Aluminum foil or plastic wrap

What You Do:

Combine Sweetened Condensed Milk and Vanilla

In a large bowl, mix together the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract. Set aside.

Whip the cream, using a whisk, a hand mixer or a stand mixer, until stiff peaks form. This takes about 3 minutes in an electric mixer, longer by hand.

Pro Tip

Whipping the cream by hand? Stick the bowl and whisk in the freezer 15 minutes before you start, so your cream whips faster.

Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk mixture.

If you’d like to add mix-ins, fold them in to your vanilla no-churn ice cream base now.

Transfer No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream to Pan

Transfer the ice cream mixture to a metal loaf pan, a cake pan, or a pie pan. Cover, and freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove ice cream from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving, so it’ll be easy to scoop.

Scoop your vanilla ice cream; top with your favorite ice cream toppings, and enjoy!

Store any leftovers in the freezer. Unlike many homemade ice creams, this one holds up beautifully in the freezer, and has a long shelf life.

Use This No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream to Make Other Flavors

Start with this no-churn vanilla ice cream recipe, and use it to create any flavor you’d like. It’s easy to do. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Replace the vanilla extract with another extract (mint, almond, coffee, orange, etc.)
Stir up to 1 cup of your favorite mix-ins into your vanilla ice cream base (mini chocolate chips, candy pieces, crushed cookies, fruit, etc.)
Add food coloring to change the color of the ice cream.
Drizzle caramel, marshmallow sauce, peanut butter, chocolate sauce or jam over the finished mixture to create ribbons throughout the ice cream

Having a go-to vanilla ice cream base makes it easy to create new flavors on the fly.

Toppings to Add to Your No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream