Making ice cream seems like a massive faff involving expensive equipment or constant going back and forth from the freezer to stir the damn thing over several hours. But this ice cream is quick, easy and does not mean you are tethered to the kitchen when you have other things to do.

It is basically double cream and condensed milk. That’s it. And then you can customise the ice cream however you like before you pop it in the freezer and get on with your day. For my Very Geordie Christmas, I made two ice creams to go with the berries-and-cherries pudding – one for the kids (see the picture) and one for the adults.

For the kids’ ice cream, I added a tablespoon of vanilla extract and Smarties. To ensure a good distribution of Smarties throughout the ice cream, I spread a small handful on the bottom of the container and then spooned in dollops of the vanilla ice cream, then a few more Smarties, then some more ice cream dollops, before decorating the top with whatever Smarties are left. Because the ice cream mixture is so thick, it is easy to layer the Smarties and the ice cream so it won’t all sink to the bottom.

As well as using Smarties, this ice cream can be easily customised with chocolate chips, bits of honeycomb, blobs of cookie dough, broken-up biscuits, nuts, coloured sprinkles, literally any sweets from the supermarket confectionary section… There really aren’t any limits – if it tastes good with ice cream, you can probably throw it in.

For the adults’ ice cream, I added a tablespoon of vanilla extract, a tablespoon of Sicilian lemon essence and a dash of brandy.

I could have easily made twice as much ice cream and it would have been devoured on Christmas Day, so I’ve set the quantities accordingly in this very simple recipe.

 

Easy no-churn ice cream

Ingredients

600ml double cream

400ml tin condensed milk

Your choice of flavourings

Instructions

  1. Put the cream into a large bowl and pour in the condensed milk while mixing it together. Using an electric whisk or electric beaters will obviously be quicker, but you can whisk by hand – it will take a bit longer, but with a little patience, you will have the same delicious result.
  2. Once the condensed milk is blended into the cream, add your choice of liquid flavouring, such as essences, extracts or alcohol. Usually a tablespoon of your liquid of choice will do, but feel free to add a little more or less according to taste.
  3. Whisk until it is thick and pleats have formed. Don’t turn it into sweet butter, but it should form a fairly solid ball on a spoon.
  4. Spoon into a container for freezing. If you are adding solid flavouring, such as chocolate chips, alternate spoons of the ice cream mix with sprinklings of your solid flavouring to ensure it is well distributed.
  5. Freeze for six hours.
  6. Remove from the freezer about 5-10 minutes before you serve it so it softens a little.

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