Last Updated on June 29, 2021 by Sarah
Want to know how to make quick homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker, in just 3o minutes?
Read on!
Because I’ve got an easy to make recipe for you that’s crazily creamy, devilishly delicious and maddeningly moreish.
This quick ice cream recipe makes enough for a small serving for 3 people (or one generous scoop for a cone or cornet) and makes a great project to do with the kids, as the ice cream is made in a jar and you can actually witness the transformation of the ice cream from liquid to solid form.
Most kids get a huge thrill out of eating homemade ice cream they’ve rustled up themselves. Which makes me a big kid too, as I was literally blown away when I made this ice cream, which I was convinced wasn’t going to work! (It does, don’t worry.)
The best bit?
This homemade ice cream tastes better than anything you’ll find in most shops. I think you’ll notice a world of difference.
Before we start the recipe, I’m going to squeeze in a tiny bit of ice cream history.
Did you know, traditionally, ice cream only contained 2-3 ingredients – cream, sugar and maybe some sort of flavouring?
However, over time (and probably to the horror of all Italians) ingredients, such as vegetable fats, milk powders and artificial flavourings have crept in. Whilst these may extend shelf life and make ice cream cheaper to produce, they really don’t have a place in proper ice cream, which, incidentally, is thought to date back all the way to the Tang Dynasty in China.
Ok, teeny tiny history lesson over. Let’s get cracking on some quick homemade ice cream.
How to make quick homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker
What You’ll Need:
- 3 jam jars or Mason jars, with lids
- chilled double cream (enough for 9 tablespoons)
- 6 teaspoons of icing sugar
- flavouring of choice – e.g. vanilla extract, a few crushed strawberries or a little chocolate icing sugar
- 4-5 mugs of ice direct from the freezer
- 1 mug of table salt
- a plastic or metal container, large and deep enough to hold the jars and ice – e.g. a round cake or biscuit tin, an empty plastic ice cream tub or even a small washing up bowl!
- 2 teaspoons
Step 1
Add 3 tablespoons of cream to each of your 3 jars (so 9 tablespoons in total). Then add 2 teaspoons of icing sugar to each jar (6 in total). Stir the mixture in each jar to evenly disperse the sugar.
If you want to add flavouring, this is the time to do it. I simply added 2-3 drops of vanilla essence to each jar, but you can easily add a couple of crushed strawberries or raspberries instead, or even a little cocoa powder.
Put the lids back on the jars, then place the jars in the fridge, whilst you carry out step 2.
Step 2
Add the ice to your container (which needs to be large and deep enough to hold the ice and the 3 jam jars), sprinkle the salt on top and mix a bit to evenly spread the salt around the ice.
Sciencey bit: adding salt to the ice rapidly drops the temperature of the ice. Without the salt, your creamy mixture will just get cold and not actually freeze (i.e. turn to ice cream).
Step 3
Remove your jam jars from the fridge and place them in the ice and salt mixture.
The sides of the jars don’t need to be completely covered by ice – just make sure the ice comes up as far as the level of the creamy mixture, otherwise it won’t get cold enough to transform into ice cream.
Step 4
Leave the ice to do it’s job for 10 minutes. You don’t need to put your homemade ice cream maker in the fridge by the way. Just leave it on the table of worktop, where you’ve been working.
Once 10 minutes is up, open each jar in turn and stir the mixture, with a clean tea spoon. You’ll probably find your ice cream has already started to get thicker (or even freeze), especially on the edges.
Put the lids back on the jars.
Step 5
Wait another 10 minutes and repeat the stirring process. By the time 30 minutes is up you should find you have frozen ice cream. You can then scoop the ice cream out of each jar into a bowl.
The ice cream can get a little hard at the edges of the jar, so don’t worry if you need to chip it out a bit.
And voila! That’s it. How to make quick homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker.
All that’s left to do now is enjoy your homemade ice cream with some fresh strawberries or fruit of juice.
Yum! Just like summer holidays when you were 5.
Ice cream credit
Inspiration for this recipe came from a couple of places – Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Family Cookbook and Rachelle Doorleys’s Tinkerlab. Both are great books if you have kids and enjoy making stuff.
Me & My Little Lady seriously loved this ice cream. We’d love to hear your verdict below!
Leave a Reply