We are lucky enough to live in the dairy state, three blocks away from Frios, an excellent ice cream parlor that is offering curbside service. I can also bike to no less than three fast food chains — Tom’s Drive In, Dairy Queen and Culvers — all of which offer delicious ice cream treats.
Still, I felt the need to make my own ice cream this week. I don’t know why. I think maybe because I’m on the north side of 50 I want to start accumulating life skills at a more rapid pace and I’m never going to be able to change to oil in my car or ferret out morels on the forrest floor or even stitch a hem. I’m here to tell you, though, that if you need ice cream in a pinch, I’m your gal.
(Spoiler alert: It’s ridiculously easy).
Molly whipped me up an excellent homemade hot fudge sauce and then loaned me an extra cookie from one of her baking projects and voila! I had the exact hot fudge sundae I’d been craving for a while.
The ice cream itself was a simple combination of heavy cream whipped into stiff peaks then folded into a combination of sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. That’s it. The only trick is that you have to lighten the condensed milk with a little of the whipped cream before you fold the rest in. Then you freeze it for six hours or overnight and scoop away.
I got the recipe here and I really appreciated the explanation of not only how to make the ice cream, but why this process works.
“With traditional ice cream, first you have to make a sweetened base – usually a cooked mixture of heavy cream and sugar with eggs or cornstarch to help thicken it into a rich custard – which needs to be cooled, then churned in an ice cream maker before freezing. Churning incorporates air and breaks up ice crystals as they form, making the finished ice cream creamy and smooth rather than one icy block. With no-churn ice cream, a can of sweetened condensed milk takes the place of the base and the whipped cream brings the airy, creamy texture. Fold the two together until they’re just barely combined and you get the exact flavor and texture of vanilla ice cream after freezing.”
Easy peasy.
I will warn you that this ice cream is extremely rich. Next time I make it I plan to cut the cream with a little half and half or maybe even milk. It was tasty, though. I just had to keep my portion small.
We’re big supporters of Wisconsin Dairy Farmers in this house and, frankly, they could use our help. It’s no hardship to buy local around here because Wisconsin dairy products are top notch.
So, the next time you’re doing your grocery run, load up on cheese, milk and ice cream. (Of course, if you forget the latter, you’re still good to go as long as you have fresh cream and sweetened condensed milk on hand.)
Treat yourself to a midweek sundae. It does a body good.
I’m going to have to try this, Laura. It sounds delicious and brings back many memories of making ice cream with my kids with our own cream from the cows. We churned though!
OMG! I gained 15 pounds with the pictures!!
My dad had a dairy bar in New England when I was growing up. He used to make his ice cream and we had all the free ice cream we could eat and milk — only problem was I didn’t like either. I ate sherbet instead and drank only chocolate milk.