No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream
Two ingredients plus coffee, no machine, and the texture holds up because the condensed milk keeps ice crystals from forming.
Ice cream machines exist to keep crystals small by moving the mixture while it freezes. Condensed milk does the same job chemically — the sugar concentration simply does not let large crystals form.
The coffee has to be strong to the point of being unpleasant on its own. Cream and sugar flatten it more than seems fair.
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 2 cups | heavy cream, cold |
| 1 can | sweetened condensed milk (14 oz), cold |
| 1/3 cup | espresso or very strong coffee, cold |
| 1 tbsp | instant espresso powder |
| 1 pinch | salt |
| 1 tsp | vanilla extract |
Method
- Dissolve the espresso powder in the cold coffee. Stir it into the condensed milk with the vanilla and salt.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks. Stop the moment it holds a shape — stiff cream makes a dense, greasy ice cream.
- Fold a third of the cream into the coffee mixture to loosen it.
- Fold in the rest gently, until there are no white streaks left.
- Into a container, cling film pressed onto the surface, and freeze at least six hours.
- Out of the freezer five minutes before serving.
Notes
- Everything cold. Room-temperature condensed milk deflates the cream as you fold.
- The instant powder on top of the brewed coffee is what makes it taste of coffee rather than of beige.
- It keeps a month and is best in the first week.
Questions
Can I halve the sugar?
Not really. The condensed milk is doing the texture work as well as the sweetening; less of it means icier ice cream.
Decaf?
Works exactly the same. This is about the flavour of coffee, not the caffeine.
Why is mine hard as a rock?
The cream was over-whipped, or the freezer is very cold. Five minutes on the counter fixes the second.