Real Ice Cream

If you are looking for an easy Ice Cream Recipe with No Eggs, you are in the right place. I'm sharing my favorite vanilla ice cream base recipe which has only 3 ingredients: cream, sugar and vanilla (also a dash of salt). It's very simple and the recipe can be altered to make lots of different flavors. My personal favorite is strawberry and we also like to churn peach ice cream made with this no-egg vanilla base. This recipe can also be made with chopped up candy bars. There's really no limit once you have the basic vanilla recipe.

I prefer ice cream with no eggs for lots of reasons. If you feel the same way, this is the recipe for you!

Photo used under Creative Commons from Flickr

Ice Cream Made with No Eggs

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• 1 quart cream
• You can use any combination of cream that you like. You can use whipping cream or half-n-half or whole milk. I like 2 cups whipping cream and 2 cups half-n-half. But you could use 1 cup whipping cream and 3 cups half-n-half or 3 cups whipping cream and 1 cup half-n-half (you get the picture). Just make sure you end up with one quart.
• A quick note:
• the ice cream base will almost double in volume when churned. I tested this recently and 4 cups (1 qt.) of the base yielded almost 8 cups of ice cream.
• Another note:
• I've just learned that the increase in volume differs with the recipe and the amount of milk fat in the recipe.
• NOTES ON USING MILK:
• Be aware that whole milk may not be thick enough to slow and then stop your ice cream maker. Normally, the machine slowing to a stop indicates that the ice cream is ready. So you'll need to keep an eye and ear out and if your machine slows down at all. Your ice cream may be done before you realize it.
• 3/4 cup sugar
• There is a little flexibility with the amount of sugar. I wouldn't go lower than 2/3 cup or higher than 1 cup. I personally like a creamier ice cream rather than a sweeter ice cream. Kids would probably like a sweeter ice cream.
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Use the real stuff.
• pinch of salt

This is your vanilla ice cream base. If you want to add fruit or candy bars, scroll down a little.

Quickest Version: If you just can't wait any longer, go ahead and make your ice cream now. Mix everything (listed above) together thoroughly and follow the directions on your ice cream maker. Your ice cream will be delicious.

Requires overnight: BUT if you want your flavors to blast into orbit, I highly recommend waiting 'til tomorrow. You'll have one more step involved (scalding) and a little more waiting, but the flavor reward will be well worth it. Here's how you do it:

• Mix cream, sugar and salt (not the vanilla) together in large saucepan.
• Cook on medium heat

  Heat the mixture, but DO NOT boil. The best way to stay safe (and not boil or burn your cream) is to just stay with it and keep stirring. When you see small bubbles forming around the edge of the pan, the mixture is almost warm enough. Keep stirring until you see a little steam starting to rise from the cream mixture. Immediately take it off the burner.

• Cool the mixture

  The cream mixture needs to cool before you add the vanilla. You could just leave the pan out to cool off, but this takes too long and I don't like the idea of leaving a milk product out on the counter for an extended amount of time. Here's what I do: get another bowl a little larger than your saucepan and add ice water to it. Gently place your saucepan into the larger pan being careful not to splash water into your ice cream mixture. Gently stirring the mixture will cool it quickly. Here's a picture.

• Stir in vanilla
• Chill mixture

  Pour mixture into a container with a tight lid and chill overnight in the fridge

• Make the ice cream

  Now that you've done all the work (and have waited patiently), follow the instructions on your ice cream maker and kick back.

• Ripen ice cream....or not

  Most ice cream makers recommend to "ripen" the ice cream right away. This will make the ice cream harder. Don't do this. This ice cream is going to be at its very best immediately after it is made. You WILL have to put what's left in the freezer but go ahead and enjoy it now. Besides, you've waited long enough.

• Store what's left (if there is any)

  Homemade ice cream is very dense when frozen. After all, you've used the purest ingredients available with no fillers. And the ice cream hasn't been whipped to a fluff with air simply to create more volume. Very dense=very hard. Soften by placing in the fridge for 10 minutes before serving your next round. And be sure to check out the ice cream containers when you scroll down.

Use the Vanilla Base - This is ohhhhhh so Easy

Add 2 cups of fruit puree (use a food processor) stirred with one teaspoon lemon juice to the ice cream base.

If you're making the ice cream right away, just add the fruit puree right in with all the other ingredients.

If you're scalding the cream mixture and chilling the mix overnight do it this way: add the fruit puree when you add the vanilla (after the mixture has cooled).

Used under Creative Commons from Flickr

Helpful Notes for Making Ice Cream with No Eggs

into Fruit Ice Cream

For strawberry:

You'll need about 1.5 pounds of strawberries (pre-cleaned weight from the grocery or farm). Wash, remove stems and chop them up a little. Now get your food processor out and give them a whirl. The amount of processing depends on how big you like the pieces of strawberry in your ice cream. I don't like huge hunks in mine so I give it several whirls. Add one teaspoon lemon juice and stir.

Peach:

You'll need about 2 pounds of peaches (pre-cleaned weight from the grocery or farm). Wash, peel, and remove peach stone. Depending on what kind of peaches you have, you may need to remove some of the red, hard fruit from the center of the peach too. Chop prepared peaches into approx. 1/2" pieces. Using your processor, give them a whirl. The amount of processing depends on how big you like the peach pieces in your ice cream. Don't use huge peach chunks in your ice cream - they will be hard as rocks and hard to eat. Add two teaspoons lemon juice and stir.

NOTE: Peaches will turn brown soon after peeling and handling. To avoid this, clean and prepare them immediately before adding them to the base.

Give this a try

Another fun idea is to chop up a candy bar (or two) into your ice cream. I recommend Snickers or Milky Way.

If you're making the ice cream right away, just add the candy bar chunks in with all the other ingredients.

If you're scalding the cream mixture and chilling the mix overnight do it this way: go ahead and chill the mix overnight and add the candy bar chunks to the base just before adding the base to your ice cream maker.

Used under Creative Commons from Flickr

Some ice cream salt and ice too

An ice cream maker is also referred to as an ice cream freezer, but that word "freezer" causes some confusion sometimes, so I call it an ice cream maker. There are lots of options, but just for the record I use a Rival brand I've had for about 10 years and it works great.

There are some newly designed ice cream makers that do not require you to use ice and salt. The trade off is that you chill a gel-filled canister in the freezer for several hours.

Because it has no eggs

By definition, Ice Cream is a mixture of cream, sugar and flavoring. This simple mixture is sometimes referred to as Philadelphia Style ice cream. When you add eggs, you're actually making a frozen custard. Custard is defined as a sweetened mixture of milk and eggs. However, it has become widely accepted to use the term "Ice Cream" when using eggs.

I'm not knocking custard. In fact, most recipes for ice cream do call for eggs. However, what my heart longs for is that creamy goodness that comes from the 3-ingredient base.

Now there's a solution

Storing leftover ice cream has been a challenge to folks who make homemade ice cream since the beginning of time. Until now the best we could do was put the remainder of the ice cream in a plastic container with a lid and store in the freezer. The results were not good. I've broken plastic containers every time I've done this. And the ice cream suffers too.

Thankfully you can now buy a product made especially for the home user. Available from Amazon. See the link below.

IC Lovers, here's the answer to your prayers

Plain White Pint Size Frozen Dessert Containers

Amazon Price: $10.95

Awesome!!! Sweet Bliss Containers is now offering smaller containers in a nice pack of 25. These white pint size containers are PERFECT for sharing your ice cream. I know - I shared some with relatives. I dipped out a pint full of coffee ice cream and sent it home with my cousin. These containers are hard (or impossible) to find locally.

The good folks at Sweet Bliss also offer quart size containers.