No Churn Ice Cream (Tastes Like Soft Serve!)

So, my ice cream machine motor has slowly been dying. My little 2 quart maker is still going strong. I am talking about my 6 quart maker. I was pretty sad about this. We tried making ice cream earlier this summer and it simply would not freeze because the motor wouldn't turn the tub fast enough. So, I need to look for a replacement.

In the meantime, however, I found this recipe for ice cream that doesn't require an ice cream maker, so I thought I would give it a try. It has very few ingredients, and it is so fast and easy to make. It doesn't taste like my favorite homemade ice cream (old-fashioned vanilla ice cream and all of the variations you can make with it), but it still tastes very yummy. I couldn't put my finger on where I had tasted it before...until I had some in a cake cone and then it struck me...this stuff tastes exactly like soft serve ice cream!

I am a huge fan of soft serve, so I was happy to make this discovery. The texture is different than soft serve (not as soft and shake-like), but because of the sweetened condensed milk, the ice cream stays soft--you don't have to let it defrost on the counter to soften. Just pop it out of the freezer and scoop it up. Eat fast though, because this stuff melts fast.

Oh, sweetened condensed milk, is there anything you can't do?

No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon, optional (I didn't use this, see notes below)
2 cups cold heavy cream

Directions:

In a medium bowl, stir together condensed milk, vanilla extract, and bourbon, if using. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream on high until stiff peaks form, 3 minutes. With a rubber spatula, gently fold whipped cream into condensed milk mixture. Pour into a 4 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch loaf pan. Freeze until firm. 6 hours.

Source: Martha Stewart Everyday Food. You can find it here.

Notes: I didn't use the bourbon. Instead, I added the seeds of one vanilla bean in addition to the vanilla extract. Maybe their recipe used the bourbon to max the soft serve flavor of this ice cream. However, you could do a lot with this recipe. One of these days, I want to try mixing chocolate syrup into the sweetened condensed milk mixture to see if I can make chocolate ice cream. You could fold in crushed berries, candies, or cookies when you fold in the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream too.

This recipe was great. No substitute for my ice cream maker, but an awesome, quick, and easy recipe to know and have on hand!

 

Above: I topped this with some strawberry freezer jam (I will post that easy recipe soon). This would also be awesome with sprinkles, mini M&M's, crushed cookies or candy, or any of your favorite ice cream toppings.