This easy ice cream recipe only uses two main ingredients (3 if you count vanilla extract) and it does not require an ice cream machine! Whipped cream mimics the air you get through traditional churning and sweetened condensed milk gives it a luxurious texture and custardy flavor. It produces a rich and creamy ice cream that’s a perfect base for a variety of mix-ins. We love this with crushed cookies, a swirl of caramel or chocolate, or dollops of fruit jam.
Ingredients Needed
- Heavy Whipping Cream – Heavy whipping cream will provide a creamier, richer, softer finished ice cream, but you could use regular whipping cream in a pinch.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk
- Flavorings or Add-Ins, If Desired
- Vanilla or Other Extracts
- Crushed Cookie Crumbs
- Caramel or Chocolate Fudge
- Fruit Jam
How to Make Two Ingredient Ice Cream
- Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl and add some vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl or stand mixture, whip cream until medium-stiff peaks form.
- You’ll add your whipped cream to your sweetened condensed milk mixture in 3 separate additions. The first addition, you’ll stir the whipped cream in to lighten the whole mixture, after that, you’ll fold in the remaining whipped cream. You don’t want to just dump it in and stir. To fold means to take a little bit at a time, and gently move your rubber spatula from the bottom of the bowl, around up to the top. This keeps the fluffy air in the cream as opposed to deflating it while stirring.
- At this point you can fold in anything you like: fresh fruit, crushed cookies, spices, etc. You can mix it into your whole bowl of ice cram base, or add it in by layers right into your container, like I’m doing in these photos with some berry sauce.
- Place your container in the freezer until the ice cream is firm; usually about 6-8 hours.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store your finished ice cream in an airtight container in the freezer and eat at your leisure. My favorite containers for homemade ice cream are these 8 cup Oxo Glass Storage Containers.
- Experiment with different flavors- we love crushed Oreos, fresh berries, cinnamon-graham cracker with apple pie filling, peanut butter banana with chocolate chips, Nutella, chocolate or caramel sauce, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is no-churn ice cream the same texture as churned ice cream?
It’s pretty close to other homemade ice creams, but the flavor of the sweetened condensed milk comes through and it’s a little more rich and creamy! You may find it a bit firmer and more dense than some store-bought ice creams that tend to have a very airy consistency that aids in keeping it soft and scoopable. But it is every bit as delicious!
Two Ingredient Ice Cream {No Machine Required!}
This easy ice cream has only two main ingredients and doesn’t require an ice cream maker. If you happen to have one, though, there are instructions included for that as well.
Servings 1/2 Cup Servings (estimate)
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pour can of sweetened condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and whisk in vanilla. Set aside.
- Pour whipping cream into a separate bowl or stand mixer and whip until medium peaks form.
- Take one large spoonful of whipping cream and stir it into the sweetened condensed milk mixture vigourously until smooth. This should lighten your mixture so you can now gently fold in the remaining whipping cream in additions.
- Add the remaining cream to the sweetened condensed milk mixture in 3 additions, gently folding in each time until mixture is smooth.
- At this point you can stir in additions if you like, or you can layer them into your container by placing a layer of ice cream mixture, then swirling in some toppings, then layering in more ice cream mixture, etc. until you use all of your base mixture.
- Pour into container and freeze for at least 6-8 hours or until firm.
Notes
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- Store your finished ice cream in an airtight container in the freezer and eat at your leisure.
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- Experiment with different flavors- we love crushed Oreos, mashed banana, fresh strawberry, cinnamon-graham cracker with apple pie filling, peanut butter banana with chocolate chips, Nutella, you can’t really go wrong here, folks! Good ol’ fashioned caramel from a jar works just fine too.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.5cup, Calories: 244kcal, Carbohydrates: 19g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 17g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 56mg, Sodium: 53mg, Potassium: 162mg, Sugar: 19g, Vitamin A: 671IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 120mg, Iron: 0.1mg
Calories: 244kcal
Cost: 6
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Questions & Reviews
I hear you about the weather. I actually made a stew Monday. I just love soups and stews in the fall. But I needed a crockpot meal because of our schedule. So we get home from swimming lessons and have stew for dinner. My kids wondered about my sanity.
Delicious! We made it yesterday after lunch and ate it for dessert- Yummy! It is so creamy, very similar to store bought. We mixed crushed oreos into ours. Even my picky ice cream eaters in the family loved it. I may have to go running again today so I can eat some more later. This is definitely on our to make again list.
Made this for FHE. WOW. It was awesome. It will change my ice cream inhaling habit forever!
Here’s one of my favorite easy ice cream recipes. I hope you’ll try it!
STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM
1 container (24 ounces) frozen sweetened strawberries, chopped into large (frozen) chunks
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ cups (12 ounces) heavy cream
Place frozen berries in a blender. Whisk sugar into cream. With blender running, slowly add cream-sugar mixture, stopping to stir 3 or 4 times, until ice cream is smooth with small bits of strawberries. Transfer to an ice-cream freezer and freeze until soft-serve consistency (maybe you could just skip this step, or add whipped cream at this point). Place in airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Garnish with fresh strawberries if desired.
haha I’m in Austin and ecstatic that we are finally under 100 degrees at a “lovely” 98. Now if only it would rain so my grass wouldn’t be so crunchy. So I’m kinda glad you’re not posting fall recipes, it would only make me sad. But I do have half a can of sweetened cond. milk needing a purpose and saving me from drinking it straight. thanks
I have some churning in the ice cream maker right now! We couldn’t decide between vanilla and chocolate so we went with making vanilla and busting out the chocolate sause to top it off. Thanks!
Wow… you might have just saved my freezer (and wallet) from my ice cream obsession. I have a habit of being like “I feel like triple fudge ripple” so then I go and buy it, have one serving, and it sits in the freezer… until a few months later when I suddenly have that craving again, and the ice cream’s gone all hard and gooey.
Doesn’t sound too bad, but when I have two completely different ice cream cravings each week… it gets bad. Bad enough that we have a separate freezer (half the size of the big one, but still…) just for frozen deserts.
oh…my….goodness….
Hi, I love this! Thought I would share my own extra easy ice creams, published in my weekly newspeper column. I make Hazelnut Chocolate using only equal parts Nutella and evaporated milk, and Creamy Coconut with equal parts CoCo Lopez (coconut cream) and evaporated milk. With all my faux ice creams, I whisk them well and then let them set overnight in the fridge, to prechill and to get extra smooth. Makes all the difference. I serve the Hazelnut Chocolate with toasted hazelnuts and corsely ground Himalayan pink salt.
OK….I love you guys!!