Old fashioned vanilla ice cream recipe with sweetened condensed milk

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This condensed milk ice cream is creamy, smooth, and rich. Every lick or spoonful melts in your mouth, this homemade ice cream worth the wait!

Nothing brings me more joy than a giant scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on a warm sunny day. 

You can’t buy tubs of vanilla ice cream filled with creamy, sweet, condensed milk. I’d imagine it would be quite expensive if you could find it like most things specialized are. 

Ice cream scooped onto warm waffle cones reminds me of my childhood. Here in New Zealand the classic vanilla, cookies and cream or real strawberry ice creams are summer classics. 

In New Zealand, even though we’re in Autumn, ice cream doesn’t go into hibernation. I love making apple crumble, it’s our family’s signature dessert and it’s always topped with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream! 

It used to seem so hard to make ice cream, but it’s not. It doesn’t take much time and it’s not complicated at all, well at least this recipe isn’t. I wish I’d started making my own sooner and I’m sure you’ll feel the same too. 

This recipe can be made in an ice cream maker if you have one handy but I’m not the type to keep millions of appliances in my kitchen. With a little bit of patience, you’ll have a great batch of ice cream!

If you like to make your food from scratch, try making your own condensed milk. It’s easier than you think, cheaper than store-bought and tastes better (in my opinion anyway). This is another thing I wish I had learned earlier, but I know it now and I’m proud of it.

This vanilla ice cream recipe can be used as a base for many different flavours like:

• Cookies and cream
• Mint Chocolate chip
• Strawberry
• Peach
• Hokey pokey (if you have the patience to make the hokey pokey!)

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What Does Condensed Milk Do in Ice Cream?

Adding condensed milk will make the ice cream sweet and creamy but also softer as the milk and sugar content lowers the freezing point of the ice cream. The smaller the ice crystals the softer the ice cream consistency will be and the easier it is to scoop.

Why You Will Love This Condensed Milk Ice Cream

• Super simple to make
• Affordable (some fancy tubs can cost $15 here in NZ!!!)
• Not commonly found in stores
• Homemade just can’t be matched. Creamy and sweet.

Ingredients For Vanilla Ice Cream

Condensed milk – I make my own condensed milk, but you can also buy this in a can from the supermarket. It’s milk that’s had a percentage of the water evaporated then sugar added for sweetness.
Cream – Fresh full fat cream.
Milk – I like to use full cream milk for ice cream it’s so creamy and delicious.
Vanilla Extract or Pods – This is a vanilla ice cream so try adding in vanilla pod seeds or vanilla extract. Don’t add vanilla essence as it’s fake flavouring. Don’t go through the effort to make your own and use this! 

Equipment You May Need

• Ice-cream machine
• Container with lid
• Ice-cream scoop (these are super handy for cookies too)

Condensed Milk Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

1. Warm-up a saucepan or Dutch oven on the stove. Pour in the milk and cream and warm through. Don’t let the mixture boil or get too hot just yet!
2. Once warm add in the vanilla. Stir to combine.
3. Bring to a boil then let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Mix occasionally to stop any sticking from occurring.
4. Begin slowly pouring in the condensed milk, stirring as you pour to combine.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the ice cream mixture cool down.
6. Once completely cooled pour into a tin or container with a lid and place into the freezer. I like to use a bread loaf tin with cling film on top.
7. If you have an ice cream machine wait until crystals start forming before adding to the machine. If you don’t have one like me wait for the ice cream to start getting icy, then give it a gentle stir and pop it back into the freezer.
8. After the first stir, wait an hour and stir again. It will become thicker and icier. Repeat this every hour until the ice cream is almost frozen. Once it is almost frozen solid you can pop it into a sealable container and smooth the ice cream out nicely.
9. Leave for another hour or overnight then scoop to serve.

Looking For More Dessert Recipes? Try These

• Apple Crumble
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 5 hours

Total Time 5 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 400ml condensed milk
• 1 cup cream
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract or seeds from 2 pods

Instructions

1. Warm-up a saucepan or Dutch oven on the stove. Pour in the milk and cream and warm through. Don’t let the mixture boil or get too hot just yet!
2. Once warm add in the vanilla. Stir to combine.
3. Bring to a boil then let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Mix occasionally to stop any sticking from occurring.
4. Begin slowly pouring in the condensed milk, stirring as you pour to combine.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the ice cream mixture cool down.
6. Once completely cooled pour into a tin or container with a lid and place into the freezer. I like to use a bread loaf tin with cling film on top.
7. If you have an ice cream machine wait until crystals start forming before adding to the machine. If you don’t have one like me wait for the ice cream to start getting icy, then give it a gentle stir and pop it back into the freezer.
8. After the first stir wait an hour and stir again. It will become thicker and icier. Repeat this every hour until the ice cream is almost frozen. Once it is almost frozen solid you can pop it into a sealable container and smooth the ice cream out nicely.
9. Leave for another hour or overnight then scoop to serve.
   

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Estimated nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed.