Yes it’s summer and yes I’m obsessed with my new ice cream maker. I took a two week (involuntary!) break from ice cream prep. You can’t have ice cream every weekend, or can you? Anyhow, I was very excited to get back to it and try out this No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream recipe that I found on SouthernLiving/MyRecipes.

This is really a follow up from my earlier ice cream post and also a kind of experiment of no cook (philadelphia style) ice cream vs the classic french style ice cream. While the earlier post focused on the french custard style of ice cream that required a kind of cooking process, this ice cream recipe was super quick and much simpler to prepare. Combine a few things together, chill, cut up strawberries and voila. Ice cream! It was still a two day process for me but seemed like a lot less work. There was also less stressing over questions like “Have I cooked the eggs correctly? is this the right temperature? Is this a complete flop?”

Why strawberry? Well I tried chocolate and mint choc chip so I thought that something with fruit was a nice way to mix things up. Plus, it’s rare that I cook anything that comes out pink so I thought that might be fun too!

I followed the recipe directions almost exactly but I did do a couple of things differently and have adjusted the recipe below accordingly:

1. I skipped the part about refreezing the ice cream bowl. It seemed like an odd unnecessary step to me and not something I’d seen in other ice cream recipes. Maybe it was critical?
2. I didn’t add all of the final mixture into the ice cream maker. It looked like it was going to be too much liquid for the ice cream maker to handle and I was right as evidenced by the photos! Any more batter and that thing was going to come pouring out of the machine.

I also wanted to point out that I used my handy dandy Breville Control Grip Immersion Blender for a lot of the preparation steps in this recipe from combining the milks using the jug and base/lid to blending the strawberries using the chopper bowl attachment. This is one versatile piece of kitchen equipment and I can’t recommend it enough. It cleans up easily (love to dump the pieces in the top drawer of the dishwasher) and just feels a little easier to use than a large food processor.

Here’s some video I took that was about half way through the churning process, about 10 minutes into churning.

Another video that was close to the end of the process, about 15 minutes into churning. Notice the difference in volume between the first and second video.

The finished product tasted almost like a firmed up frozen yogurt (with a slight icy texture) and wasn’t too rich or creamy though it was deliciously sweet and you could really taste the fresh strawberries.  It definitely didn’t taste like store bought strawberry ice cream made with artificial flavors and colors though sometimes I’m a sucker for that kind of flavor too!

So what’s the verdict? Which style of ice cream wins? In my opinion it’s the classic french custard (cooking required) recipe. Yes it’s more complicated but it produces a richer, luxurious ice cream that tastes amazing. Having said that, I could see this recipe making an appearance again on a hot summer day. It’s very refreshing and doesn’t feel as heavy as the other ice creams. Don’t worry, I’m not fooling myself into thinking that this is healthy ice cream. I know it’s not! I also think this is a good recipe for someone starting out with their ice cream maker or someone who just doesn’t eat eggs.

Recipe – No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream (based on No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream from myrecipes.com/SouthernLiving.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 (16-ounce) container fresh strawberries or 1 (16-ounce) package thawed frozen strawberries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl or 2-quart pitcher whisk together the milks and sugar.
2. Cover and chill for about an hour.
3. Meanwhile, slice strawberries and combine with lemon juice and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth. My small capacity breville immersion blender worked out perfectly here.
4. Remove milk mixture from fridge and add blended strawberries to it, stirring with whisk.
5. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker bowl and churn. Note: You might need to leave a little behind so as not to overflow your ice cream maker.
6. Leave ice cream maker to churn following the manufacturers instructions. For the KitchenAid I set it for 20 minutes.
7. Transfer ice cream mixture to airtight containers and freeze until firm about 4 hours. For best results (a nice firm ice cream) leave to freeze overnight.

Ingredients for todays recipe

Combining milk products

Strawberries prepared for blending

Using my second favorite kitchen gadget. KitchenAid mixer is number 1!

Love the colors here.

Combined ice cream ingredients

Starting the churn

More churning

Finished product!

Ready to go in tubs for the freezer

Alternate presentation photo. I liked the glass presentation better in the end.