No-Churn Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream

The following “Chew This!” column has been reprinted from “The Courier-Times”, Sunday, August 16th 2015 edition. By: Blaise Doubman 

No-Churn Ice Cream is perfect for Dog Days of Summer…
Blaise Doubman

I remember sitting on my Great-Grandpa Willie’s back porch with my family, making homemade ice cream during the summer months. The ice cream machine looked like an old wooden bucket with a hand-crank. I loved cranking that old ice cream maker, and hearing the sound of the salt rocking back and forth, but I got bored easily and didn’t want to do it the whole required amount of time. I remember thinking then, even at such a young age, that I wanted to research and find a better (and faster) way of making ice cream. Why is all of this work necessary to make ice cream? I know – that sounds incredibly lazy, but sometimes, laziness pays off in feeding ideas on food.

Years passed, and I still remember the memories of making homemade ice cream with my Great-Grandpa Willie, and still (in the back of my mind) wondering how to make ice cream without any kind of ice cream maker. I finally decided to research recipes and techniques involved with this, and start the process of creating my own recipe. I’m not going to lie – it was a fun process! After several attempts, I created my recipe and couldn’t wait to share it here with all of you! Experiment with this recipe. There are literally thousands of flavor combinations that can be created!

No-Churn Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream

This recipe doesn’t need an ice cream maker, or anything! Just a freezer and a few hours of freezing. You can literally make thousands of combinations with this recipe! Leave out the chocolate chip cookies (homemade or store bought) and make just vanilla ice cream. Experiment with the flavor extracts and mix-ins with this recipe and you can make anything you’re craving. Even add a little lemon juice, lemon zest, orange juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice and mini-marshmallows for a tropical flavor. The only thing about this recipe is that it melts faster than store-bought ice cream – so just eat it a little faster… Ha!

2 cups heavy whipping cream (16 oz.)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8-10 chocolate chip cookies, lightly crushed and crumbled

Start by preparing an 8×5-inch bread pan (or approximate size) by lightly spraying with a non-stick cooking spray. Place a large piece of plastic wrap inside the bread pan and press down to make sure it sticks all around the pan.

Pour the heavy whipping cream into a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until the cream develops stiff peaks. Once you pull the beaters out, and the cream stands on its own – that is when you want to quit beating. Be sure not to overbeat the cream.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and pure vanilla extract until just combined.

Next, gently fold in the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk and pure vanilla extract mixture. Using a rubber spatula for this works best. Folding means to gently cut down the bowl in the middle with one motion, “fold” the mixture over while turning the bowl until everything is combined. You want to make sure the mixture stays light and airy. For this to work, the whipped cream needs to stay “inflated”.

Once the mixtures are combined, add in your desired mix-ins. (In this case, chocolate chip cookies.) These need to be folded into the mixture as well.

Once finished, pour into the prepared bread pan and place in the freezer for 6 hours.

When ready to serve, let sit at room temperature for about 3 minutes before scooping.