No Machine, No Churner, Simple Ingredients and Tools
We’ve been making ice cream at home – with no machine or fancy equipment. It all started with our young adults at home house-sitting. We called to see what they were making for dinner. What would they be making? Hot dogs, Frozen Dinners, Uber Eats? No – they were having some sort of dairy feast. One was making baked brie, the other was making home made ice cream. Not exactly a nutritionally balanced meal – but not what we were expecting at all.
When Ice Cream is Hard to Get
Here on our island cottage, it’s hard to get ice cream from the grocery store down the highway and then back across the lake in less than an hour. On a hot day, we just don’t bother. So we thought why not try to make ice cream ourselves? Wouldn’t we need a churner or some fancy tool? No!

Our cottage kitchen is sparsely populated with baking ingredients – it’s more in tune with barbecue season. BUT – if we could make ice cream at home using just the ingredients we want?
Ice Cream with Two Ingredients + Plus Your Flavour
To make our son’s recipe, you need one can of Sweetened Condensed Milk, and one container of 35% Whipping Cream. Then you need some sort of flavouring. I encourage you to invent your own ice cream flavours. Don’t worry – there’s a printable recipe card below with quantities.
This ice cream method is easy, and might be a fun activity for a family “craft” project.
To make ice cream at the cottage we whisked the whipping cream in a mixing bowl until we created soft peaks. (At the same time we had a pot of flavour simmering on the stove).

We passed the whisking bowl around to share the work (this cooperation only seems to happen with food), and when we had whisked enough – we mixed in the sweetened condensed milk.
Now – take a taste – just two ingredients and it already tastes like ice cream….. but you will want to add some flavouring.

In a small pot – we added half a cup of raisins, two tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and one third of a cup of port wine. This recipe was originally supposed to use spiced rum – but this time around we went with what we had in our wine cellar.
We simmered this mixture on the stove at a slow boil while all the whisking was going on. I did not sip the port while doing this – really. We cooked the flavour down until the alcohol had cooked off and the raisins had plumped up.
Our measurements were all approximate – I could say a splash of port and a handful of raisins. We tasted along the way and added sugar to adjust. We took the mixture off of the stove for 15 minutes to cool – and put the whipped cream mixture in the freezer temporarily.


After the flavour mix had cooled, we folded it into the cream mixture and gave it a good stir.

We placed the bowl into the freezer. Every hour or so, we gave the ice cream another stir. After the ice cream was fully frozen – about 3.5 hours – we stirred again, enjoyed some, and then moved the whole mixture into a sealed bowl.

We have now made Port Raisin, and Rum Raisin Ice Cream a few times. Our son has also made Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream – by adding creamed cheese, sliced strawberries and crushed graham crackers. The basic mixture of whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk is sweet enough on it’s own – so a little Vanilla, or fruit of some sort would also make a lovely ice cream – no fancy tools or ingredients required!

Below is a printable recipe card from RecipesGenerator. Please give it a try!

Home Made Ice Cream – Port Wine and Raisin
Ingredients
- 2 cups 35% whipping cream
- 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 cup port wine
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup raisins
Instructions
- Whisk whipping cream in a mixing bowl until it forms peaks
- At the same time – simmer raisins, port wine, cinnamon and sugar over low heat until the wine reduces, the raisins plump, and the sugar dissolves – remove from heat to cool for 15 minutes
- Add sweetened condensed milk to cream mixture – whisk and refrigerate briefly – until raisin mixture has cooled
- Fold raisin mixture into cream mixture and stir together
- Place bowl in freezer – stir every hour or so
- Ready in 3 to 4 hours
- Place frozen ice cream into freezer safe sealed container
Nutritional information is calculated automatically using “natural language processing” within the software, and is not guaranteed to be accurate, but is a “good guess”!
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FAQS about Homemade Ice Cream
Table Cream, Heavy Cream, Half and Half – What to use?
35% Fat Whipping Cream works the best for this. Table Cream can contain between 18 and 30% fat – but in our Ontario dairy department – Table cream is labelled as 18% fat. Whipping cream is labelled as 35%, and Half and Half is labelled as 10% fat. Sometimes Heavy Cream is labelled as 36% fat. So depending on your location – the labelling may vary – so just look for the percentage fat content.
Can I substitute table cream?
Yes, but the texture and flavour will vary. We experimented with 18% fat Table Cream. It did not whip to a peak, but it did thicken with lots of effort. We used the entire can of condensed milk to add some thickness and froze this less firm mixture. It still made Ice Cream – but it was of course less creamy and thick.
Don’t you need eggs in Ice Cream?
No. Eggs are often included in a recipe to help thicken and emulsify the ice cream. The 35% fat whipping cream is sufficient in this recipe to thicken.
What is in sweetened condensed milk?
Sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk – is whole milk that has been heated to evaporate about 60% of the water. Sugar is then added to the remaining milk to about 45% by weight. My Eagle Brand Milk is labelled as just milk and sugar.
Can I make sweetened condensed milk?
Yes. You can put 2 cups of whole milk and 2/3 cups of granulated sugar in a pot. Heat on low and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Then simmer very gently at low heat for 35 to 40 minutes until the mixture darkens and thickens. Do not stir during this time. When the mixture has reduced to about one half of it’s original volume, remove it from heat and pour it into a container to refrigerate. The mixture will become thicker in the refrigerator.
This sounds sweet but delicious.
It’s really rich!
Yum!! I started making this two ingredient ice cream a couple years ago and it’s so delicious! And so easy.
Also, I like your printable recipe option. I would love to add that to my blog.
Thanks Lillie!
Hi Meghan – I don’t know why we didn’t start making this sooner – it’s so easy. Thanks!
Sounds (and looks) great. Thanks for sharing.
It is. Thanks for visiting!
Sounds easy and looks great
Thanks – it’s very easy too.
What a great and resourceful recipe! Sounds delisc! Blessings and Peace!
Thank you. Blessings to you as well!
Making ice cream this way to me can be a great way to clean out the freezer of those bulky and often times half eaten cartons
Good idea – as usual!