What if I told you that you don’t need to buy a fancy appliance to make your own homemade ice cream?? Not only is this simple homemade ice cream delicious, but you can make so many different flavors and it’s just a super fun summer project. This year we took advantage of some of the season’s fresh strawberries to make this dangerously delicious, no-churn strawberry ice cream, and it might be my favorite flavor yet. So make sure to bookmark this recipe for this weekend. You’ll be so happy to have some homemade ice cream stashed away in your freezer later. ;)
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What Does No-Churn Mean?
No-churn simply means you don’t need an ice cream maker to make this INSANELY easy dessert. The ice cream base doesn’t need to be continuously stirred as it freezes to stay soft and fluffy, and you don’t need to stand over a stove gently simmering and stirring eggs, cream, and sugar into a smooth custard. Halleloo! Whipping the ingredients together before freezing helps keep the ice crystals small and the ice cream smooth and delicious.
With just five ingredients and a hand mixer, this recipe will give you delectable, velvety results. This ice cream is so good I make a double batch because I know that despite my best efforts, I will devour most of it in one sitting.
How Do You Flavor Ice Cream?
There are two ways to flavor your no-churn ice cream. You can flavor the ice cream base or you can swirl flavorful ingredients into the whipped ice cream just before freezing. To keep this recipe simple, we flavored the base with just a touch of vanilla, then swirled in strawberries and strawberry syrup just before freezing.
If you don’t have fresh strawberries or don’t want to make your own strawberry syrup, you can swirl in a little thinned-out strawberry jam. Simply loosen up the strawberry jam by stirring in a little warm water until it is just loose enough to run off a spoon. Then swirl it in as we did with the strawberry syrup below.
What Keeps No-Churn Ice Cream Soft?
Ice cream made in an ice cream maker is slowly churned as it freezes, which incorporates air into the mixture and keeps the ice crystals really small as they form. With no-churn ice cream, the mixture is whipped before freezing to incorporate the air, and the high fat and sugar content of the base helps prevent large ice crystals from forming as it freezes. It’s so incredibly easy and the results are so fantastic, you’ll be glad you didn’t drop $$$ on that ice cream machine.
Love no-churn ice cream? Try these other no-churn ice cream flavors: Balsamic Peach Ice Cream or Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
No-Churn Strawberry Ice Cream
Servings 7 1 cup eachIngredients
Strawberry Syrup
- 1 lb. fresh strawberries, divided ($1.99)
- 1/3 cup sugar (granulated) ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract ($0.06)
- 1 pinch salt ($0.01)
Ice Cream Base
- 1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk ($1.59)
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream ($2.39)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.50)
- 1 pinch salt ($0.01)
Instructions
- Make the strawberry syrup first. Wash the strawberries and remove the green tops. Dice the strawberries into ¼-inch pieces. Reserve half of the chopped strawberries to fold into the ice cream later.
- Add the other half of the diced strawberries to a sauce pot with the sugar. Stir and cook over medium heat until the strawberries release their liquid and form a syrup in the saucepot.
- Let the strawberries simmer in the syrup, stirring occasionally until they break down and lose their shape and the syrup has thickened slightly. You'll know it's ready when you drag a wooden spoon across the bottom center of the pot and the syrup stays parted for a few seconds. Remove the syrup from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Set the strawberry syrup aside to cool.
- While the syrup is cooling, prepare the ice cream base. Add the sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, and salt to a bowl. Use a hand mixer to whip the mixture until it is light and fluffy, and has formed soft peaks.
- Fold the reserved chopped fresh strawberries into the ice cream base. Transfer the whipped ice cream base to a freezer-safe container. Drizzle the cooled strawberry syrup over the ice cream and gently swirl it into the mixture.
- Cover the ice cream and freeze for eight hours before scooping and serving.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Strawberry Ice Cream – Step by Step Photos
Make the strawberry syrup first. Wash the strawberries and remove the green tops from one pound of strawberries. Dice the strawberries into ¼-inch pieces. Reserve half of the chopped strawberries to fold into the ice cream later.
Add the other half of the diced strawberries to a sauce pot with ⅓ cup sugar.
Stir and cook over medium heat until the strawberries release their liquid and form a syrup in the saucepot and the mixture comes up to a simmer.
Let the strawberries simmer in the syrup, stirring occasionally until they break down and lose their shape, and the syrup has thickened slightly. You’ll know it’s ready when you drag a wooden spoon across the bottom center of the pot and the syrup stays parted for a few seconds. Remove the syrup from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Set the strawberry syrup aside to cool.
While the syrup is cooling, prepare the ice cream base. Add one 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk, one pint of heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt to a bowl.
Use a hand mixer to whip the mixture until it is light and fluffy, and has formed soft peaks (when you lift the beaters out of the mixture it will form a gentle peak that slumps over to the side).
Fold the reserved chopped fresh strawberries into the ice cream base.
Transfer the whipped ice cream base to a freezer-safe container.
Spoon the cooled strawberry syrup over the ice cream and gently swirl it into the mixture. Don’t over mix it! :)
Cover the ice cream and freeze for eight hours before scooping and serving.
Other Desserts You Can Make For Under $1 A Serving:
Try these wide-open bags of deliciousness without breaking the bank!
Is there any way to fix the icy bits once this is frozen?
Is it still icy once it’s thawed out a bit? Letting it warm up a bit outside of the freezer should help but that’s the only thing I can think of!
I love your recipe …please be sharing more
This was delicious, but I wish I had read the comments about not mixing in the fresh strawberries! They froze solid like tiny rocks. Next time I’ll make a double batch of syrup. I also added about 2/3 cup of mini chocolate chips, which was super yummy!
Hi there!
I’m planning on making this on the weekend coming (hopefully). Your recipe indicates to use 14oz of sweetened condensed milk which comes to about 414ml. In Canada, our tins of sweetened condensed milk are 300ml which is 74% in quantity.
Should this mean I should be also reducing the 2 cups of whipping cream (500ml) by the same ratio to equal 360ml? Or do you think it will make nominal difference?
Best and thanks in advance!
I haven’t tested the recipe with an altered ratio, so I would try to keep them the same to be on the safe side.
Hi there! A quick update to confirm that 300mL of Sweetened condensed milk is weighs 14oz (well just slightly under). So no ratio changes are necessary! Thought you and any fans who go by metric measurements would like to know!
Im in Cañada, I make several batches of no churn ice cream and I a 473 ml whip cream with 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk.
I read comments about the chunks freezing together so I made sure to really chop the strawberry down smaller and didn’t have any issue of frozen chunks. This is very sweet so we found eating a little bit was perfect but it tasted so good!
This no churn ice cream is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! I LOVE this recipe and prefer it over ANY store bought ice cream or even homemade churned ice cream. That’s how good this no churn ice cream is!!
Would there be a way to make this dairy-free and still be creamy?
Hi Rinda! I/m sure there is a way, but we have yet to develop that recipe. When going dairy-free it complicates things a touch, as the results can be icy. I’ll put it on the list of things to try. XOXO -Monti
I know this is way too late to help you, but I have had excellent results using coconut cream and sweetened condensed coconut milk in other no-churn recipes.
Absolutely fantastic. It does make a lot to eat. HUGE TIP – skip the part where it says to reserve half the strawberries. Make a double batch of the strawberry syrup instead, and fold the entire batch into your base mixture. If you fold in small chunks of reserved strawberries instead, the icy texture can hurt when you bite into it.
I have an ice cream maker for my KitchenAid mixer and have never made no churn ice cream, but the pics looked yummy. So I decided to give it a try. It was delicious. The flavor reminded me of the strawberry cheesecake ice cream from a local ice cream parlor which used to be my favorite flavor. The only thing I would do different is to skip the strawberries chunks and just stick with the sauce. As others mentioned, the strawberry pieces froze hard and were icy. The strawberry syrup was great.
I made this with my kids last night and got to try it after lunch today. It was decent, although I thought too sweet if the bite was only vanilla without the strawberry syrup. The strawberry chunks froze together in some parts and made ice chunks, which wasn’t great but not a huge deal. Previously, I’ve made custard-based ice cream and done a slow churn freezer method (stirring every 30 mins for a few hours). I did this one as written but in hindsight wish I had stirred it a few times last night even after all the whipping. I’m not sure if I’ll repeat this recipe but it was fun to try a new technique.
Really enjoyed it, but my strawberries froze. Do you think I didn’t chop them small enough? They were 1/4 inch for the most part.
I love your sight & have been following you since you first started back in the day!
Bravo
Kisi
We made this the other week and it is delicious and easy. My kids love it. Thanks for sharing!
I was a little hesitant to make this recipe because I didn’t really know what to expect, but wow am I glad I gave it a shot. I made it exactly as written and it turned out heavenly. The ice cream base is rich and creamy, almost like a custard. The strawberry chunks did end up an icier texture, but it personally doesn’t bother me. If you’re sensitive to texture, you could probably skip folding them in, and just sprinkle them on top afterwards (unfrozen) as a topping!
I’ve never made homemade ice cream before, so I can’t say how it compares to homemade churned ice cream, but it definitely tastes better than store-bought ice cream. I’m excited to try out more flavors with this recipe!
Yum! I added a bit of cardamom and clove to the ice cream base and it was amazing. The only thing I had issues with was the fresh strawberries I had turned out very icy and a completely different texture than the base and syrup, so that was kind of unpleasant. I’d probably do all the berries in a syrup next time. (I also think my berries weren’t as sweet, so they were very tart on top of that.) But good enough for me to want to experiment and try again!
Oh, this sounds so good! I have another recipe for no churn that uses cream cheese and half and half, but I think this sounds even simpler. Can’t wait to try it! And I have to say Beth, that I LOVE your recipes. I have a whole bunch that are my absolutely go to’s, don’t need another, thank you very much. Easy to follow, don’t have to hunt high and low for some weird ingredient (that you then wonder what the heck you are going to do with the rest of it!), nice simple sane GOOD food. Keep doing what you’re doing. We love you.
@Beth , you are a life-saver. I have tried many of your recipes and got your book ‘Budget Bytes’ a few years ago. Don’t let the cranky people get you down. You saved my grocery budget and got some more vegetables into my diet! Keep up the good work!
When you say ” sweetened condensed milk” so you mean something like Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk? The reason I ask is that in your photo the product you are using has the work “topping” on it, so I wasn’t sure exactly what product to use. Thanks.
Hi, A.N. I’m not sure which picture you’re referencing, but yes, I mean sweetened condensed milk like Eagle Brand. :)
Thanks so much for answering my question. :)
I appreciate your time and enjoy your website immensely.
The photograph I was referring to it the one above the following statement:
“While the syrup is cooling, prepare the ice cream base. Add one 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk, one pint of heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt to a bowl.” The white container seems to have the word “topping” on it. Glad to know I can rely on Eagle Brand anyway.
Oooh, okay. That’s the whipping cream in that photo, not the sweetened condensed milk. :) I think you were seeing the word “whipping” not the word “topping” on the bottle. Mystery solved! :)
Do you think this could be made with other fruits that come in after strawberries…like peaches?
Yes, definitely. :) Check out my Balsamic Peach no-churn ice cream.
The perfect recipe to beat the heat this summer! Thanks for sharing!
My husband said, “Remember years ago when we made that homemade ice cream? We couldn’t stop eating it because it was so good! This reminds me of that ice cream. It’s delicious!
This recipe was very easy and the result was luscious, creamy, and delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe. Everyone is not interested in purchasing an appliance to make something once in a while, so an alternative is always welcome. I don’t know why people feel entitled to criticize you for doing what I see as a public service – making us all better cooks – but I hope you won’t let it discourage you from sharing. Let them get their own websites. Thanks again and happy summer!
Any tips on how long to whip the ice cream base? Tried this tonight and despite my best efforts I never got “soft peaks.” The mixture does taste delicious, though.
It didn’t take me too long, maybe 3-5 minutes? As long as it gets super light and fluffy and you can see “tracks” left behind by the beaters (see the photo), that should be good. :)
Perfect timing! I was just eyeing a couple of cartons of strawberries I’d gotten my hands on trying to decide if I should freeze them or not. Ice cream sounds just right.
Quick question: I’m trying to decide how to best store this. I’ve got a pan that’s about the right size, but it doesn’t have a lid. Thoughts on covering on this? Aluminum foil? Would I be better off preparing it and then scooping it off into individual containers?
Individual containers will also work great! Even little mason jars would work, provided you have lids for them. Use whatever you have that has an air-tight lid because when freezing anything you want to seal out as much air as possible. The cold air inside a freezer can really dry out food fas (freezer burn), so it needs to be air-tight.
This came out beautifully! I did it in separate containers and love that I essentially have made pints for myself. I’m going to try the peach basaltic next, which looks amazing.
Wow, you guys really over-hyped this one to the point of intentionally misleading people.
Home made no-churn is a great option BUT
1) No, it does NOT have the same texture as regular home churned ice cream
2) No, it does NOT have the same texture as store bought commercial ice cream
3) The end result is EXTREMELY dependent on the quality of the ingredients you use, so people’s results will vary widely (as will the cost to make this)
4) This is not at all a replacement for having an actual ice cream churn because this recipe ONLY works at all due to the high fat, dairy and sugar content. While an actual churn can make really nice stuff that is suitable for a wider range of diets.
No churn is fun, and great if you don’t have an ice cream maker, but don’t lie to people and claim this is exactly the same or that it completely negates the options you get with the real equipment.
I found this ice cream to be every bit as good as a pint I’d buy at the grocery store, despite using generic ingredients, and what I wrote accurately reflects my feelings about it. It’s a bummer that your experience with no-churn ice cream hasn’t been as good, but hopefully, you don’t let someone else’s enjoyment ruin your day.
P.S. I never said this no-churn technique was a total replacement for an ice cream machine or everything you can make with one, just that you can make delicious ice cream without one (this recipe). But I guess you just misread that because you were blinded by ice cream rage.
Please calm down. It’s a lovely recipe that you can make or not. Home churned and store bought vary widely as well. No need to be a huge downer.
Just chiming in here that I appreciate greatly that Beth makes all sorts of delicious recipes accessible to those on a lower budget or with more limited resources. Not everyone can afford (or has the space to store!) a nice ice cream maker, but many people already own a hand mixer! A little kindness goes a long way…including a little kindness and gratefulness to Beth, who has the goodness to create new and delicious recipes for us! I guess I don’t understand the attack on Beth here. There are plenty of delicious recipes online for “properly” churned ice cream. Why attack this one? Have you actually made it, out of curiously? I have actually made Beth’s no churn mint chip, and I found it amazingly comparable to store bought. Better, actually. I’m not one to comment but I just don’t understand this attack. Just skip this recipe if it’s not your jam! Beth doesn’t deserve a lecture or accusations for posting a budget friendly and fun recipe. She’s not trying to deceive anyone. She’s helping those with limited budgets create delicious food. And that is more needed than ever. So thank you Beth, for what you do! We appreciate you!
Hear hear! I heartily concur with your comment!
Sorry (not sorry), but PHOENIXCHICK needs to take a Xanax. Or a Valium. Or both.
I appreciate Beth’s recipes. They’re great for those of us on a limited budget (& who maybe don’t have the space to store/$ to buy an infrequently used appliance).
Hope you had a great 4th of July, from Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦! (We celebrate Canada Day on the 1st.)
You scream, I scream: we all scream for ‘ICE CREAM’ LOL
Well… that was intense! Chill the heck down.
Just put this in the freezer, had a great time making it with my 6 year old daughter. Pinky promise I won’t internet attack you if it isn’t EXACTLY what I could buy from the store.
OH MY WORD!!! We are serious ice cream eaters over here and THIS is perfect for us! My 14-year-old can make this independently!!