Scoop your homemade vanilla ice cream onto one of my tasty desserts like this giant chocolate chip skillet cookie, Mountain Dew apple dumplings, or fresh peach cobbler, warm out of the oven.
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★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
Yes, you can make ice cream at home without an ice cream maker! It's easy, tastes great, and you only need 3 ingredients.
This homemade ice cream is rich, creamy, and has the perfect texture. All made without a churn.
Just 3 ingredients!
This recipe does not get any easier. You need just 3 ingredients to make vanilla ice cream. For other flavors, just add in a few extra ingredients. Get a list of ideas below.
Quick and Easy
Who knew. It's entirely possible to make delicious homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker! It's just as easy if not easier than making homemade butter from heavy cream.
No eggs. No churn. No machine.
No ice cream maker needed. The only machine you need to make this ice cream is a hand mixer. No eggs. No churn. No problem.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
There are truly just THREE! This recipe follows a simple formula and all you need to do is mix in extra ingredients to make infinite flavors!
The formula for this easy homemade ice cream is pretty basic. It looks like this:
Heavy Cream + Sweetened Condensed Milk + Vanilla Extract
1. Heavy cream. You can't use milk or even half and half because you need the whipping properties of heavy cream. By whipping heavy cream you'll add air to your ice cream giving it that perfect ice cream texture you know and love.
2. Sweetened Condensed Milk. This adds all the sweetness you'll need, no additional sugar needed. No worries about grainy sugar. Or using overly sweet powdered sugar. This handy bakery staple does all the jobs in one easy step.
3. Vanilla Extract. This creates your base flavor. If you love vanilla ice cream, you can stop here. It's a deliciously easy, 3-ingredient ice cream recipe!
★ Build More Flavors ★
If you're caving something beyond vanilla, no problem. All you need to do is add in some extra ingredients. You can make any ice cream flavor you can dream up.
The recipe below details making a yummy yet basic homemade vanilla ice cream. You can simple add to this to create lots of other flavors. You'll still include the vanilla extract as it provides a nice base flavor to build upon.
Vanilla extract goes well with almost any flavor so you can opt to leave that in plus add additional ingredients to create new flavors, or leave it out completely if you don't want that added vanilla flavor. Your choice. This does not affect the recipe other than taste.
Flavor Ideas + Add-ins
Here are some flavor ideas you can try! You truly can't go wrong adding in whatever flavors you want if you go with what sounds good to you.
Mint Chocolate Chip
Add 1 teaspoon mint extract + ½ cup mini chocolate chips + couple of drops of green food color (optional)
Birthday Cake
Add 1 tablespoon cake batter extract in place of 1 tablespoon of vanilla + ½ cup rainbow sprinkles
Strawberry Ice Cream
Add ¼ cup strawberry syrup
Chocolate Ice Cream
Add ¼ cup chocolate syrup
Raspberry Cheesecake
Add ½ cup no-bake cheesecake filling then swirl in (don't fully mix in) ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
Caramel Swirl
Lightly swirl (don't fully mix in) in ½ cup caramel syrup right before freezing
Butter Pecan
Add ¼ cup molasses + 2 tablespoon browned butter* + ½ cup chopped pecans
*Brown butter in a pan on the stove over medium heat just until you get an aroma of nuttiness and you see little brown bits form within the butter. Immediately remove from heat, transfer carefully to a dish and let cool before adding to ice cream mixture. (pop in the freezer to speed up cooling)
Cookies and Cream
Add 1 cup Oreo cookie crumbles
Cookie Dough
Add 1 cup edible cookie dough chunks - Get my edible cookie dough recipe here or use store bought cookie dough as long as its labeled "edible"
Peanut Butter Cup
Add 1 cup Reese's peanut butter cup chunks
Banana Foster
Mix in 1 mashed banana + 1 teaspoon cinnamon + 2 tablespoon rum extract then swirl in ½ cup caramel syrup
Create Your Own Flavor!
There are so many other possibilities!
Just remember to start with the base vanilla flavor and stir in whatever sounds good to you. It's actually that simple.
If you try some extras that you love, please leave a comment and let us know what you added in!
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Storing Ice Cream in the Freezer
This homemade ice cream can last in the freezer for about 2 weeks. However, the texture and flavor may start to degrade after the first week due to ice crystal formation and freezer burn. To maintain its quality:
Store in an airtight container: This helps prevent ice crystals from forming and keeps the ice cream from absorbing odors from other foods in the freezer.
Cover the surface with plastic wrap or parchment paper: This provides an extra layer of protection against freezer burn.
After two weeks, the ice cream is still safe to eat, but it might not taste as good as when it was freshly made.
To add a swirl, layer the ice cream then sauce then ice cream as you transfer it to your storage container. Use a spoon or knife to gently swirl the sauce into the ice cream without fully mixing it in.
Just freezing cream won’t give you the smooth, creamy texture of ice cream — it’ll turn icy and hard instead. Not yummy!
Sweetened condensed milk pairs perfectly with cream to offer that scoopable, velvety texture.
No churning is needed for this 3-ingredient recipe made sweetened condensed milk. Using a simple hand mixer adds enough air to the mixture before putting in the freezer, without the need to continually churn it as it freezes.
You do not need eggs to make ice cream. You can use sweetened condensed milk in place of eggs to get smooth, scoopable ice cream — without the need to churn so no ice cream machine is needed either.
★ More Recipes You'll Love ★
Check out these other 3-ingredient recipes:
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This easy homemade ice cream recipe (made without a machine) was featured on South Your Mouth!
Easy Homemade Ice Cream (without a machine)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat on high speed heavy whipping cream until thick, stiff peaks form.
- Add sweetened condensed milk and extract and beat on low until combined.
- Stir in optional ingredients as desired like nuts, chocolate chips, caramel syrup, candy bar chunks, etc!
- Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe contain with lid and freeze for at least 2 hours. 3+ for a more solid ice cream.*
- Scoop and serve!
Anne-Marie Coates says
Omg I’m never buying shop bought ice cream again So so glad I came across this recipe. I made the caramel condensed milk recipe and today trying a peppermint and chocolate so will see tomorrow as needed to leave overnight. I topped with nuts and sauce so yummy
Nb says
How long does this stay good in your freezer. It is super amazing great recipe
Angela G. says
So glad you like the recipe! It will store well for about 2 weeks, possibly longer if you layer a piece of plastic over top to prevent ice crystals from forming.
Priscilla says
I made this last year, it was the birthday cake variety & SO YUMMY! I made it again tonight & while it all tastes the same, it leaves a thick, weird waxy texture in our mouths, eek! Any idea what might have caused this? Maybe the sprinkles?
Angela G. says
Hi Priscilla, it's hard to say, but my guess would be the sprinkles. Could be the variety of sprinkles, or the sprinkles could have been old?
Christine says
Did you beat it too long and it started to turn to butter...not enough that you could see it, but sounds like it started to form butter fat globules.
pri says
Can I substitute whole milk for the condensed milk and add some sugar separately ?
Angela G. says
Hi Pri, I have not tried this but I am not sure it would work well as you want the sweetened milk to be condensed so it's thick. If you want to try it, you could search a recipe for homemade sweetened condensed milk and use the milk and sugar according to the recipe instructions and that might give you good results. Let us know if you try it!