When you need ice cream NOW, try No Cook Vanilla Ice Cream. No cooking is needed so it's quick and only takes 3 ingredients!

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After a hot summer day - whether it's spent working or playing - you just want some ice cream. But if you don't have any in the freezer, what do you do? Two options: you could go to the store and pick some up; or you could make some. The problem with making ice cream is that it is often an hours-long project. Traditional custard-based ice creams need to be cooked first due to the addition of eggs. Then they have to be cooled completely before freezing it in the ice cream maker.

With this No Cook Vanilla Ice Cream, you can skip the cooking and drastically shorten the cooling steps. This means you get to eat ice cream faster. It also means that you can make delicious homemade ice cream on short notice if you find out you're having people over for dinner in a couple of hours. And who isn't impressed by homemade ice cream?

Now let me tell you: I have tried MANY ice cream recipes since I got my ice cream maker several years ago. Unfortunately, I have had limited success with many of the recipes. I find they either leave a fatty, buttery film in my mouth (which I assume means too much fat in the recipe) or they get rock hard when frozen. This vanilla ice cream is one of the few recipes that turns out perfectly every time.

Ingredients to make no cook vanilla ice cream: cream, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla

How to make No Cook Vanilla Ice Cream

You only need three simple ingredients to make this no cook vanilla ice cream:

Half and Half cream
Sweetened condensed milk
Vanilla extract (Alternatively, you could use vanilla bean paste or scrape out the inside of a vanilla bean if you want those little flecks of real vanilla)

You will also need an ice cream maker. But before you get that out, stir the ingredients together until the sweetened condensed milk is completely dissolved. Doing this in a container that will be easy to pour from (like a large measuring cup or bowl with a spout) makes things easier for you.

Note that before you put the mixture in the ice cream maker, you want it to be well chilled, especially if it's a hot day. To get the mixture perfectly cold, put it in the fridge for awhile, or stick in in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Homemade no cook vanilla ice cream being scooped out of a glass dish

Then pour it into the bowl of your ice cream maker and churn away (following your ice cream maker's directions). It will be done when it is not getting any more frozen. It should look like soft serve.

At this point, you can add mix-ins if you like. Think crumbled Oreo's, cookie dough, chopped up chocolate bars, fruit or a ribbon of fudge or caramel sauce. You can either eat it soft, or transfer it to a container and put it in the freezer until firm.

This ice cream is delicious on its own, but like any vanilla ice cream, you could make a sundae with you choice of fruit, fudge or caramel sauce or serve a small scoop of it with your favorite pie or fruit dessert. It's excellent with Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler. You could also use it in Smores Ice Cream Cake.

Homemade no cook vanilla ice cream in a green dish

What should you serve this ice cream with?

Slice of rhubarb crisp on a white plate — Old Fashioned Rhubarb Crisp

Closeup photo of brownies on a baking sheet — Flourless Black Bean Brownies

Stack of cut butterscotch oatmeal bars — Butterscotch Browned Butter Oatmeal Bars

No Cook Vanilla Ice Cream Nutrition Notes

Keep in mind that a healthy portion size for ice cream (homemade or otherwise) is only half a cup. You should get 10-12 half-cup servings from this recipe, depending on how much air gets churned in. The above photo shows a roughly 1 cup portion, which would be 2 servings.

Carissa Serink