No Churn Ice Cream Guide
& a butter pecan ice cream recipe
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As it’s summer and therefore ice cream season I wanted to get into some ice cream recipes. However, I am not blessed with an ice cream maker, my mum has one, which I occasionally borrow but since I know very few people with access to an ice cream machine, I thought it would be more practical to focus on no churn ice creams.
We’re going to have a look at a few different options when it comes to no churn ice creams, get into the ingredients and take a look at what exactly inverted sugar is and why it’s our friend when it comes to frozen desserts. In this post I’ll be sharing a super easy no churn butter pecan ice cream recipe and for paid subscribers I’ve got a strawberry & matcha ice cream bomb recipe that doesn’t require any fancy equipment and can be easily made into a baked Alaska if that’s your thing!
No Churn Ice Creams
The most popular option when it comes to no churn ice creams is a really simple mixture of condensed milk and whipped cream folded together, this is wonderfully easy and is a great option if you want something fast.
Parfait is another popular one in the world of frozen desserts and with good reason, it combines whipped eggs and sugar with whipped cream to make a lovely, light frozen dessert that’s hugely adaptable, I used a strawberry parfait recipe for my ice cream bomb recipe with great success, it’s perfect if you want a lighter, more aerated texture, rather than the dense, rich texture you’ll get from a condensed milk base.
The last option that I investigated was using a regular ice cream recipe, freezing it in ice cube trays and then using a food processor to blitz the ice cream ice cubes. This technique wasn’t for me, I felt like I was going to break my food processor and it took so long to get smooth that the ice cream had started melting by the time I was done and became icy when re-frozen.
Ingredients
No churn ice creams tend to be fairly consistent when it comes to ingredients so lets look at what we’re working with and the job of each ingredient.
Sugar: As ever sugar is there to sweeten our ice cream but the quantities will also have a huge effect on the final texture. When combined with water sugar reduces the freezing temperature of water, meaning that it has to be a lot colder in order to solidify, therefore the higher the sugar content the softer the ice cream.
Inverted sugar: Invert sugar is created by heating sugar syrup with a small amount of acid. This process breaks down the sugar into glucose and fructose, reducing the size of the sugar crystals. The smaller crystals retain more moisture which slows down the crystallisation process. This makes it really handy when it comes to ice cream as ice crystals are our enemy, the less/smaller ice crystals the smoother the ice cream. Condensed milk, honey, golden syrup, corn syrup are all common examples of inverted sugars, most no churn ice cream recipes use condensed milk as it’s easy to access, inexpensive and delicious!
Alcohol: Similarly to sugar, adding alcohol lowers the freezing temperature. A 40% spirit has a freezing temperature of -27˚C/-16.5˚F, therefore it’s a good way to achieve a softer set ice cream without making it too sweet. I didn’t feel the need to add any to this particular recipe but it’s fun to experiment with.
Cream: Regular ice cream is usually made up mostly of milk, however without the churning process, milk-heavy recipes can be incredibly icy. Water is what’s giving us those large ice crystals so the less water in a no churn ice cream the smoother the end result which is why most recipes will use double/heavy cream. The resulting texture is much richer and creamier than churned ice creams, but still very delicious!
Eggs: Since I’m counting parfait as a no churn ice cream, we’re including eggs in this list. Most of the recipes I came across used just the egg yolks, egg yolks consist mostly of fat and therefore result in minimal ice crystals. I did come across a few recipes using just egg whites. Whipped egg whites can hold a tonne of air making parfait made with them incredibly light, this is delicious but I can’t really count it as an ice cream.
The Recipe
Over on my Instagram I asked what your favourite flavours of ice cream are, the general consensus was that nutty ice creams are some of the best and I have to agree. I love a nutty ice cream, this recipe uses pecans but you can swap them out for any nut you like, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, go nuts (pun intended). So what have we got in there?
Dulce De Leche: To add even more yumminess to our ice cream I’m using dulce de leche rather than condensed milk, it’s exactly the same thing but the milk solids have been cooked until brown, giving it a rich caramely flavour. I bought my dulce de leche ready made but you can make it yourself by boiling a can of condensed milk for 3 hours, just make sure not to let the water run out or the can can explode! As well as using it for our base, we’re saving some of it to drizzle throughout our ice cream so they we encounter golden pools of dulce de leche as we eat it, delicious!
Candied Pecans: I love a bit of crunch in my ice cream so we’re making some candied, buttered pecans, not only are we adding them in chunks but we’re also using them to make a praline to add even more nutty flavour to our base. This recipe makes slightly more pecans than you need so don’t be afraid to snack on some.
Salt: Any flavours involving nuts and caramel need a bit of salt in my opinion, I add a good pinch of salt to the nuts, and the ice cream base, it helps to balance out the sweetness and bring the flavours out.
Cream: We’re using double/heavy cream for this recipe, the higher the fat percentage, the less icy the final result, UK double cream contains 48%, but if you can’t find a substitute 35%+ fat will also work.
Butter Pecan No Churn Ice Cream
Ingredients - Makes 700ml
Candied Pecans
150g pecans
75g caster sugar
30ml water
1/4tsp salt
20g butter
Ice Cream Base
200g dulce de leche I use a 397g tin of carnation caramel, save the rest to drizzle
400g double cream
1/2tsp salt
Method - Candied Pecans
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
Roughly chop the nuts and spread them out on a tray lined with baking paper.
Roast the nuts for 10-15 minutes until golden brown on the inside.
Combine the water, sugar and salt in a large pan and bring to the boil.
Boil the syrup on high for 2-3 minutes then add the pecans.
Stir the pecans and syrup continuously until they start to crystallise. You’ll know when this happens because all of the water will be evaporated and the pecans will be coated in a thin layer of sugar.
When the nuts are crystallised reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook them until they start to caramelise.
Continue to stir and caramelise the nuts until they are evenly caramelised and a golden brown colour.
Syrup stage --> crystallised --> caramelised Remove from the heat, add the butter, stir and tip out onto a tray, spreading out so they don’t stick together and leave to cool.
Once cool, weigh out 100g of the candied pecans and blend them a food processor or blender until a smooth paste forms, this should take around 5 minutes, set aside until later.
For the ice cream base, combine the cream, 200g of dulce de leche, salt and 50g of pecan praline and whip until soft peaks form.
Fold in the remaining candied pecans.
Add about 1/4 of the mixture to a tub then drizzle in dulce de leche and more pecan praline, repeat until you’ve used up all of the ice cream base and add ins.
Freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight.
Enjoy the next day, and try not to eat the entire tub.
Thank you so much for reading! If you are blessed with an ice cream machine, I’d highly recommend that you check out More Than Sweet, Marie has a tonne of ice cream recipes on her page, I recently became a paid subscriber to her page and can’t wait to steal my mum’s ice cream machine and try out some of her recipes!
If you want even more ideas for no churn ice creams my chocolate mousse cake recipe also works perfectly as a frozen dessert!
