This no-churn strawberry ice cream is smooth and creamy, and it tastes like fresh strawberries.
An easy-to-make dessert, no-churn ice cream is a great option for warmer days. Add in fresh and bright strawberry coulis, and you have the perfect summer ice cream.
For ease of browsing, you can find all my ice cream recipes in one place. Now let’s get right into it.
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Strawberry Ice Cream, At a Glance
✅Skill Level: Beginner
✅Skills: Making fruit puree, whipping cream
✅Type: No-churn ice cream
✅Number of Ingredients: 6
✅Prep Time: 15 minutes
✅Freeze Time: at least 6 hours
✅Yield: about 1 1/2 quarts
Jump Straight to the Recipe
Tasting Notes
This ice cream is smooth, creamy, and strawberry-forward.
There are no chunks of fresh strawberries, because those freeze into little rocks and just mess with the texture.
It freezes into a fairly hard block, but is beautifully scoopable after sitting out at room temperature for 5-7 minutes. This means it’s a slow-melting ice cream, which is excellent for photography purposes as well as for eating purposes!
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The Anatomy of No-Churn Ice Cream
At their most basic, no-churn ice creams are made with a pint (2 cups or 454 ml) heavy cream and a 14 oz can (396 grams by weight) of sweetened condensed milk.
For this ice cream, I reduced the heavy cream by 1/4 in order to keep it from feeling too fatty. I replaced that amount with whole milk, which, along with the strawberry coulis in the recipe, also allows the ice cream to freeze more solidly.
The cornstarch in the coulis also helps to bind water to keep the ice cream from being too icy. It’s an excellent balance between creamy mouthfeel and bright strawberry flavor.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- heavy cream: heavy cream provides volume and enough fat to be able to whip air into your ice cream mixture
- sweetened condensed milk: adds milky sweetness and body
- salt: snaps all the flavors into focus
- vanilla extract: rounds out the flavors and adds a creamy/floral finish to the ice cream. Substitute strawberry extract if you have some for a super bright strawberry flavor
- whole milk: Adds additional volume and also cuts the fat from the heavy cream so you don’t end up with a butterfat-coated mouth after eating
- strawberry coulis: Provides intense strawberry flavor, adds a bit of sugar, and a balancing hint of acid to keep the mixture from being too sweet. See the strawberry coulis recipe. You’ll need 8 oz by weight, or about half the recipe
Procedure
If you already know the no-churn drill, you can skip straight to the recipe.
Here’s how you make this ice cream:
- Add heavy cream, salt, and vanilla to the bowl of your mixer (or a big bowl, if using a hand mixer).
- Pour in an entire can of sweetened condensed milk.
- Whisk on low speed to combine.
- Whisk on medium high until the mixture starts to thicken up. You’ll be able to tell because the whisk will begin to leave tracks in the cream.
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- Mix milk into the coulis.
- Slowly pour the strawberry mixture into bowl.
- Scrape the bowl and whisk until uniformly combined and thick. Mixture should not reach any sort of peaks. Think of it as having the texture of ice cream once you stir it around a lot to melt it some and make it creamy.
- Pour the finished ice cream into a loaf pan, press plastic wrap onto the surface, and freeze until firm, at least six hours.
Jenni Says: There is no reason to whip the cream separately from the sweetened condensed milk or the strawberry mixture. The base will thicken up just fine without all the folding that really does nothing but push air out.
Recipe Variations (Make It Fancy)
You can make a strawberry ripple ice cream by layering 1/3 of the ice cream in the pan, pouring on a 1/8-1/4″ layer of strawberry syrup on top. Alternate 3 layers of ice cream with 2 layers of strawberry syrup. Finish by marbling some syrup onto the top of the ice cream. Freeze for at least six hours, and voila! Strawberry swirl ice cream!
You can also swirl some strawberry jam into the base so you get some chunks of strawberry throughout the ice cream. This is much preferable to adding chopped strawberries. Those get so hard in the freezer that you may as well just add ice cubes to your base.
Some Strawberry Ice Cream Q & A
For best flavor and texture, keep it in a tightly-covered container in the freezer for up to a week. It will still be good for up to two weeks, but it may start to take on a bit of a “freezer flavor,” so enjoy it sooner rather than later!
While I scooped it to take photos, I’ve found an easier way to serve it, especially when frozen in a loaf pan is to just cut slices and serve it like a piece of pound cake. You can cut it straight out of the freezer without having to wait for it to soften enough to scoop. This gives you time to garnish it however you’d like without it melting all over the place.
More No-Churn Recipes from PCO
If no-churn is your thing, you may want to check out my no-churn creamsicle ice cream, Andes mint chip ice cream, or my Junior Mint chocolate no-churn. They are all excellent and perfect for summer.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.
For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.
I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.
This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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No-Churn Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
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Ingredients
- 8 oz strawberry coulis (See NOTES)
- 4 oz whole milk
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk cold
- 12 oz heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large, deep bowl if using a hand mixer), combine cold cream, sweetened condensed milk, salt, and vanilla.
- Combine on low speed and then increase the speed to medium-high and whisk until the whisk leaves tracks in the cream and the mixture has thickened up a bit.
- Combine the strawberry coulis (recipe here) and milk and add to the mixing bowl. Continue to whip until thick. Don't let the mixture reach even soft peaks, but it should softly mound and only smooth out if you shake the bowl.
- Scrape the ice cream into a 9" x 5" loaf pan, press plastic wrap down on the surface, and freeze until firm, at least six hours.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
For Extra Strawberry Flavor
Use 12 oz (340 grams) of strawberry puree and leave out the milk entirely for a more intense strawberry flavor and color.Nutrition
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