Desserts

Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

Three ingredients, one bowl and no ice cream maker anywhere near it. Whipped double cream folded through sweetened condensed milk freezes soft enough to scoop straight from the tub — the sugar in the condensed milk keeps it from setting into a block, which is the whole trick and the reason no churning, custard or eggs are needed. What comes out is closer to clotted cream than to shop-bought ice cream — thick, dense and spoonable rather than light and icy, with the same rich, slightly fudgy pull to it as it softens. Ten minutes of work, four hours of waiting, and a proper vanilla ice cream at the end of it that tastes like the expensive tub rather than the value one.

Makes about 900ml (6-8 scoops) · Prep 10 mins · Cook 4 hrs · 3 ingredients · 5 steps

Ingredients

  • 300ml double cream (fridge cold)
  • 397g sweetened condensed milk (1 tin)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

  1. Whip the cream. Pour the double cream into a large bowl with the vanilla extract and whisk until thick — it should hold soft peaks and leave a trail behind the beaters, but stop well before it turns grainy or buttery.
  2. Fold in the condensed milk. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix until completely combined, with no pale streaks left. Fold rather than beat once it starts coming together, so the air you whipped in stays where it is.
  3. Fill the container. Pour into a freezer-safe container, smooth the top and cover it.
  4. Freeze until firm. Freeze for at least 4 hours until scoopable — overnight if you want it firmer.
  5. Scoop and serve. Take it out a few minutes before serving and run the scoop under hot water between scoops.

Good to know

  • It makes a little under a litre, so a 2lb loaf tin or any 1 litre tub is the right size. A wide, shallow container freezes faster than a deep one.
  • Cold cream whips faster and further. On a warm day chill the bowl and the beaters for ten minutes first.
  • Over-whipped cream is the one thing that goes wrong here — the moment it stops looking glossy it is on its way to butter, and the ice cream comes out grainy. Soft peaks are plenty; the condensed milk does the rest.
  • Press a piece of cling film or baking paper onto the surface before the lid goes on. That is what keeps ice crystals off the top.
  • Four hours gives you soft-scoop, thick and clotted rather than icy; a full night firms it up without ever taking that away. Either way it never sets rock hard, so it can go straight from freezer to bowl.
  • Use a good vanilla — with three ingredients there is nowhere for a cheap one to hide. Vanilla bean paste in place of the extract gives you the seeds through it too.
  • The base takes almost anything folded through at the end of step 2: crushed biscuits, honeycomb, chocolate chunks, a rippled spoonful of jam or lemon curd, or 2 tbsp of cocoa sifted in with the condensed milk.
  • The clotted cream likeness runs to the richness as well as the texture, so scoops smaller than a shop tub's go further. It is happiest next to something sharp or hot — stewed rhubarb, blackberries, a crumble straight out of the oven — for the same reason clotted cream is.
  • Keeps for up to a month in the freezer, though the texture is best in the first fortnight.