The Key Ingredient for Flawless No-Churn Ice Cream Is Already in Your Fridge

People have been inventing methods to make ice cream for hundreds of years, ever because the first particular person poured one thing tasty and candy on snow. And whereas at present we rely totally on ice-cream makers to freeze and churn the timeless deal with, there’s nonetheless a need—and wish—for no-churn recipes. In any case, ice cream makers are expensive, massive, and/or require a prolonged freezing step for fashions that work through a freezer bowl (which a few of us generally overlook to place within the freezer quickly sufficient).

Most recipes for no-churn ice cream are constructed on a mix of evaporated or condensed milk and whipped cream, and whereas they work, that canned dairy tends so as to add a definite taste that’s decidedly un-ice-cream-like. Plus, these recipes fail to ship the custardy notes of egg-enriched French-style ice lotions.

In her quest to resolve this drawback, pastry genius Stella Parks landed on an answer that unlocked an entire world of no-churn frozen treats, from straight-up custardy ice lotions to gentle and ethereal fillings for frozen sweets like DIY Klondike bars and slice-and-serve ice cream pies. The key components? The standard egg.

Now, that alone might not sound like a lot of a revelation—Oh wow, you solved the not-custardy-enough no-churn ice cream drawback by including the ingredient that actually makes custard custard!—however the satan’s within the particulars, as they are saying, and the small print listed below are all concerning the approach.

When Stella first cracked the code on custardy French-style ice cream, she did so by devising a wholly new approach for heating, whipping, and aerating the ice cream base earlier than freezing such that one can produce mounds of sunshine, fluffy, and minimally icy ice cream, no churning required.

Ice Cream

No-Churn Chocolate Ice Cream

She does this by heating eggs and sugar over a scorching water tub till it reaches 160°F—a temperature that’s each protected from a Salmonella standpoint and likewise permits the eggs to carry extra air as soon as whipped. And whipping is strictly what occurs subsequent, in a stand mixer till the eggy base is a pale colour and thick sufficient to kind tender serve–like mounds. After that, she folds in whipped cream (how else is it going to style like ice cream?) and freezes the combination till completely scoopable.

This primary technique turned the important thing that then unlocked an entire new world of frozen-desserts discovery: Good no-churn ice cream fillings for pies and bars. This time, as an alternative of looking for the custardy taste of a basic French ice cream, Stella was after the pure, recent dairy taste of an eggless American- or Philadelphia-style ice cream. The answer: Swiss meringue. (Sure, it is humorous that the answer to an egg-free-tasting ice cream is egg whites, but it surely is smart while you do not forget that a lot of the flavour of eggs comes from the yolks.)

It’s the easiest way she’s discovered to attain an ice cream that’s gentle however agency sufficient to be integrated into bars and pies—recipes the place you need one thing fluffy and ethereal, however nonetheless in a position to maintain their very own and chunk into. The cool factor about this explicit trick is that it’s not only a workaround for individuals who do not have an ice-cream maker readily available, however her precise most well-liked strategy to make the frozen fillings for recipes like do-it-yourself Klondike bars to her strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. By folding a Swiss meringue with whipped cream, she was in a position to hit the candy spot that defines these desserts: neither too heavy like fior di latte gelato, too skinny like do-it-yourself ice milk, nor too custardy just like the no-churn vanilla ice cream. 

The method of constructing Swiss meringue is easy. Nothing greater than egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla, you begin by incorporating these components collectively in a stand mixer. As soon as mixed, set the bowl over steaming water, stirring and scraping continually till the egg whites maintain regular. Lastly, you’ll whip this combination in a stand mixer at a excessive velocity till it’s shiny, fluffy, and in a position to maintain stiff peaks. To take this Swiss meringue into “ice cream” territory, whip heavy cream into stiff peaks, add some milk to the Swiss meringue to assist agency the combination up as soon as frozen and whisk to mix, then whisk in whipped cream till easy. 

In her no-churn ice cream pie recipe, Stella notes that the outcomes of this trick are too agency for scooping, so I wouldn’t depend on this technique to get pleasure from ice cream by itself in a bowl for dessert. However within the type of an ice cream pie or bar, its density and consistency is simply glorious. And similar to that, a brand new summer time deal with has simply been unlocked—no ice cream maker required.