The Key Ingredient for Flawless No-Churn Ice Cream Is Already in Your Fridge

Humans have been inventing ways to make ice cream for thousands of years, ever since the first person poured something tasty and sweet on snow. And while today we rely primarily on ice-cream makers to freeze and churn the timeless treat, there’s still a desire—and need—for no-churn recipes. After all, ice cream makers are costly, large, and/or require a lengthy freezing step for models that work via a freezer bowl (which some of us sometimes forget to put in the freezer soon enough).

Most recipes for no-churn ice cream are built on a combination of evaporated or condensed milk and whipped cream, and while they work, that canned dairy tends to add a distinct flavor that is decidedly un-ice-cream-like. Plus, those recipes fail to deliver the custardy notes of egg-enriched French-style ice creams.

In her quest to solve this problem, pastry genius Stella Parks landed on a solution that unlocked a whole world of no-churn frozen treats, from straight-up custardy ice creams to light and airy fillings for frozen sweets like DIY Klondike bars and slice-and-serve ice cream pies. The secret ingredients? The humble egg.

Now, that alone may not sound like much of a revelation—Oh wow, you solved the not-custardy-enough no-churn ice cream problem by adding the ingredient that literally makes custard custard!—but the devil’s in the details, as they say, and the details here are all about the technique.

When Stella first cracked the code on custardy French-style ice cream, she did so by devising an entirely new technique for heating, whipping, and aerating the ice cream base before freezing such that one can produce mounds of light, fluffy, and minimally icy ice cream, no churning required.

She does this by heating eggs and sugar over a hot water bath until it reaches 160°F—a temperature that is both safe from a Salmonella standpoint and also allows the eggs to hold more air once whipped. And whipping is exactly what happens next, in a stand mixer until the eggy base is a pale color and thick enough to form soft serve–like mounds. After that, she folds in whipped cream (how else is it going to taste like ice cream?) and freezes the mixture until perfectly scoopable.

This basic method became the key that then unlocked a whole new world of frozen-desserts discovery: Perfect no-churn ice cream fillings for pies and bars. This time, instead of seeking the custardy flavor of a classic French ice cream, Stella was after the pure, fresh dairy flavor of an eggless American- or Philadelphia-style ice cream. The solution: Swiss meringue. (Yes, it’s funny that the solution to an egg-free-tasting ice cream is egg whites, but it makes sense when you remember that much of the flavor of eggs comes from the yolks.)

It’s the best way she’s found to achieve an ice cream that’s light but firm enough to be incorporated into bars and pies—recipes where you want something fluffy and airy, but still able to hold their own and bite into. The cool thing about this particular trick is that it isn’t just a workaround for those who don’t have an ice-cream maker on hand, but her actual preferred way to make the frozen fillings for recipes like homemade Klondike bars to her strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. By folding a Swiss meringue with whipped cream, she was able to hit the sweet spot that defines these desserts: neither too heavy like fior di latte gelato, too thin like homemade ice milk, nor too custardy like the no-churn vanilla ice cream. 

The process of making Swiss meringue is simple. Nothing more than egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla, you start by incorporating these ingredients together in a stand mixer. Once combined, set the bowl over steaming water, stirring and scraping constantly until the egg whites hold steady. Finally, you’ll whip this mixture in a stand mixer at a high speed until it’s glossy, fluffy, and able to hold stiff peaks. To take this Swiss meringue into “ice cream” territory, whip heavy cream into stiff peaks, add some milk to the Swiss meringue to help firm the mixture up once frozen and whisk to combine, then whisk in whipped cream until smooth. 

In her no-churn ice cream pie recipe, Stella notes that the results of this trick are too firm for scooping, so I wouldn’t rely on this method to enjoy ice cream on its own in a bowl for dessert. But in the form of an ice cream pie or bar, its density and consistency is just excellent. And just like that, a new summer treat has just been unlocked—no ice cream maker required.