Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe with No Eggs
This easy homemade vanilla ice cream is made in an ice cream machine with no eggs, so it's simple and quick to put together. The traditional, old fashioned, no cook recipe makes vanilla, but I've included other flavors in the notes.
Whisk heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste together in a large bowl.
Refrigerate cream mixture for 30 minutes or longer.
Pour into your ice cream maker as directed. (To use ours, you have to assemble the whole thing - including the paddle - then pour in the ice cream. Individual machines vary, though, so follow your own instructions.)
Churn ice cream as directed in the manual of your ice cream maker. Normally, it will take between 30-40 minutes.
If you use the ice cream right out of the machine, it will have a soft serve consistency. For harder ice cream, spoon it into an airtight container and freeze for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Notes
An ice cream maker is essential in this recipe. I don't know any other way to reliably make homemade ice cream without big ice crystals. Typically, you have to freeze the tub part of the machine for at least 24 hours prior to making the ice cream, so make sure you plan for that.
Other flavors of homemade ice cream
Once you have a basic recipe like this one, it's easy to make a variety of flavors.For fruit-flavored ice cream, I add fresh fruit. You can use strawberries, cherries, peaches, pineapple, bananas... you're really limited only by your imagination.
For a fruit and cream consistency - Mash fruit coarsely with a fork. Add 1 ½ cups of mashed fruit in step one. Proceed as directed.
For a homogeneously fruity consistency - Puree fruit in the blender. Add 1 cup of pureed fruit in step one. Proceed as directed.
For chocolate ice cream, you have a lot of options. When making chocolate ice cream, I cut the vanilla in half.
Chocolate syrup - Add ⅓ to ⅔ cup of syrup in step one
Melted chocolate - Melt a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips with a few tablespoons of heavy cream. Add in step one. In step two, refrigerate until well chilled. It may take a couple of hours.
Cocoa powder - Mix ½ cup cocoa powder in step one. Taste for sweetness, you may need to add extra sugar.
For other flavors, you can experiment with liquors or flavor extracts. Be careful to use only a tablespoon at a time, and do a lot of tasting.