Easy 3 Ingredient Ice Cream

This 3 Ingredient Ice Cream recipe is the ideal way to celebrate the start of summer. There is no need for expensive machinery, ice cream makers, or specialized utensils because it only requires 3 ingredients!

Looking for a more easy recipe to make? Try this Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli, Air Fryer Breakfast Potatoes, or this Quick & Easy Gouda Mac and Cheese.

Why you'll love it

Everybody loves ice cream, and in the US (if not the whole world) the most popular flavor is vanilla. You can eat it plain or with a wide range of add-ons. It pairs so well with desserts such as pies, root beer floats, banana splits, and sundaes. And it is extremely fun and easy to make at home, if I can do it, you can too. Let's get going!

But even better yet, it doesn’t use a machine or a ton of fancy ingredients and instructions!

What you'll need for this 3 ingredient vanilla ice cream

Custard is traditionally the first stage of a home made ice cream. The custard is then poured into a pre-frozen ice cream maker, and it is churned until the custard hardens into a custard-based ice cream.

All you need to make this vanilla ice cream is 3 ingredients:

• Heavy Whipping Cream - Ice cream cannot be made without cream!
• Vanilla extract - You get vanilla flavour from vanilla extract.
• Sweetened condensed milk - will help with the texture and sweetness of the ice cream.
• Roasted almonds (optional)- and honey in this recipe give it some added crunchiness and sweetness.

How to make 3 ingredient ice cream

No ice cream maker needed to make this ice cream, just 3 simple ingredients and 3 easy steps.

1. In a medium mixing bowl, stir sweetened condensed milk and vanilla together (as instructed in the recipe below). Reach for that real deal vanilla bean, scrape the tiny seeds out and enjoy an extra punch of flavor.
2. Add the whip heavy cream Prepare the heavy whipping cream by beating it until reach firm peaks in the second cold bowl.
3. Using a spatula fold it gently to combine. You don't want to overmix because you will lose that light, airy texture.

Now you can freeze it! You just dump the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and wrap it up in plastic.

My variation also involved a few extra steps; I crushed a handful of roasted almonds and mixed them with honey and spread it over the base of the ramequin so that the ice-cream will have something sturdy to sit on when I down it.

What Does No-Churn Mean?

You don't need an ice cream maker to make no-churn ice cream, and it's ready to eat in a few hours' time. It is homemade vanilla ice cream. The foundation of many homemade ice creams is an egg custard, a creation that receives the same gentle schooling you might give your first child. Not this one, though.

Storing Homemade Ice Cream

The secret is to keep the ice cream out of temperature swings once it has been churned. Here are a couple of tips to store the ice cream:

• Wrap plastic over the ice cream with the container lid and store. Courtesy of Coolnice That prevents ice crystals from forming on the service of your ice cream. (This trick applies to store-bought ice cream also.
• Don’t use a deep container (opt for a flat one).
• To keep the same temperature, place it by the lower back of the freezer rather than the door.

Variations and substitutions

I like to make the home-made ice cream base and then let everyone’s palate decide what flavors they want to enjoy. And, if you like the idea of a DIY ice cream bar, but not the waiting that goes along with it, this recipe is the one you need.

Here are some of the flavor combinations I personally love, in the hopes that they would inspire you to create your own:

• The Peppered Strawberry Bean: consists of vanilla beans, frozen strawberries, black pepper, and white chocolate chips.
• Graham cracker crumbs, lime juice, lime zest and white chocolate chips are what create key lime pie.
• The Minty Mini-chocolate Chip: contains freshly ground mint leaves, peppermint oil, green coloring and micro chocolate chips.
• The Islander: Salted caramel, macadamia nuts and toasted coconut with pineapple chunks.

Tips for Making No-Churn Ice Cream

• Buy the right stuff. It’s worth purchasing everything you need from the recipe card below, since you don’t need too many ingredients for this homemade ice cream recipe. Less fat or sugar replacements you can't use to turn your ice cream out right.
• Just add a teaspoon at a time when you are flavoring your vanilla ice cream base with more extracts like mint or almond. Vanilla extract, is hard to overuse, other extracts are much more powerful.
• Finally, prep your add-ins by roughly chopping them. It’s also a good idea to cut bigger nuts, chocolate chips, M&Ms and the like into smaller pieces before you freeze them, as they come out hard as rocks.

More Delicious recipes:

Quick & Easy Gouda Mac and Cheese

Easy Turkish Baklava Recipe

Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli

Air Fryer Breakfast Potatoes

Grilled Buffalo Chicken