How to Make a Better No Churn Ice Cream + Tote Bag and #Bookgiveaway from Cleo Coyle

Once Upon a Grind

A Coffeehouse Mystery
by Cleo Coyle

Tuesday, September 1, Marc and I will be celebrating the release of our 14th Coffeehouse Mystery Once Upon a Grind in its mass market paperback edition. To help us celebrate, we are delighted to sponsor a fun, little giveaway this week.

Scroll down to the end of this post to find out how to enter to win an autographed copy of our book and a custom-made Coffeehouse Mystery tote bag.

The contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who entered and congrats to the winner, Kathleen Costa!

And now for today's recipe...

"No churn" ice cream appeals to me. It's easy to make, takes little room in my freezer, and does not require reading appliance instructions (huzzah). It's also economical and the way its frozen, in 9 x 5 bread loaf pans, even makes it look like the gelato shops of Italy...

Unfortunately, there is a problem with the most common recipe for "no churn" ice cream, one I have worked to remedy. I'll tell you the specifics of how below. In the meantime, you might be wondering...

Where did this "no churn" idea come from? 

Well, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk label carries the same recipe as the one found on so many foodie blogs and YouTube videos across the internet. And where did the Eagle Brand company chef get the idea? Possibly from an ancient form of ice cream called Kulfi, which dates back to 16th Century India and is still enjoyed today. Kulfi is made without churning. Cooks boil down milk to a fraction of its original volume, concentrating the sugar and texture-smoothing milk proteins, before chilling.

Fast-forward to the present. While the American market has been dominated by French custard-style ice cream (cream, milk, sugar, and flavorings cooked with eggs or egg yolks before freezing), in recent years, we have seen increasing popularity of "Philadelphia-style" ice cream and a form of Italian Gelato which does not use eggs. 

The No Churn Ice Cream recipes I'm sharing with you today borrow from all of these ideas. I hope you enjoy them...

Chocolate, Vanilla, Coffee

Why I Revised the Popular

"No Churn" Ice Cream Recipe 

Cleo Coyle has a partner in 

crime-writing—her husband.

Learn about their books

by clicking here or here.

Freezing straight cream will get you a block as hard as ice. Adding sugar lowers the freezing point, and churning introduces air, which keeps the ice crystals small and creates that softer, fluffier texture we enjoy scooped onto cones or heaped into dishes.

"No churn" ice cream replaces the churning of air into the cream with whipping the air into the cream before freezing. This does a good job of keeping the end product as soft and fluffy as churned ice cream. 

But there's a problem with the most common "no churn" recipe I've seen (i.e., cream + sweetened condensed milk). It produces an ice cream that's far too soft, melts too easily, and leaves a waxy aftertaste on the tongue from too much butterfat. In short, it produces a product like ice cream but not as good.

So I began experimenting with that ubiquitous no churn recipe and have come up with an improved version (IMO, of course). Why is it better? A few reasons...

(1) Adding evaporated milk to the mix before freezing creates a final product that has a much cleaner, more ice-cream-like texture, eliminating that waxy butterfat coating on the tongue. It also...

(2) Allows very fine ice crystals to form, which make the final product colder in the mouth and gives it a more stable form in the dish or on your cone. Finally...

(3) By only whipping the cream until its thickened, rather than until it has "stiff peaks" (as most of the other recipes require), the final product is denser and more like a churned ice cream or gelato.

I'm continuing to experiment with flavors and ratios. If you're an ice cream or gelato lover, I invite you to join the foodie fun.

For today, my experiments have yielded nice results with these recipes. May you mix them with love and eat them with joy!

~ Cleo

To download all 3 recipes in a 

free PDF document that you 

can print, save, or share, click here.

Click here for free PDF.

Cleo's No Churn Chocolate Ice Cream

Makes a little over 1 quart, about 5 cups

1/4 cup natural, unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (about 1-1/4 cups)
2-1/3 cups Heavy Cream (aka Heavy Whipping Cream)
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: Into a bowl, fork-whisk the cocoa powder into the sweetened condensed milk. Set aside. 

In a large, chilled metal, glass, or ceramic bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until thickened. (Do not create whipped cream, simply beat it until it resembles thickened white gravy, as pictured below...) 

Add your chocolate sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and pure vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, blend everything until smooth. Be sure to blend the chocolate all the way through. The mixture should resemble a light chocolate milkshake without any chocolate streaks. 

Pour the blended mixture into a 9 x 5 metal loaf pan. Why? Because a metal pan will conduct the cold better than a plastic container. Do not fill the pan to the very top. Here’s why. 

You'll need to stretch a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the pan, keeping the plastic from touching the ice cream itself. Place the pan in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours. By then, the entire pan should be ready to serve and enjoy! To store, you can scoop the ice cream into a re-sealable plastic container, or you can continually re-wrap the metal pan in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. 

Cleo's No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes a little over 1 quart, about 5 cups 

2 cups Heavy Cream (aka Heavy Whipping Cream)
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (about 1-1/4 cups)
2/3 cup evaporated milk (or one 5-ounce can)
2-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 pinches of table salt (or finely ground sea salt)

Directions: In a chilled metal, glass, or ceramic bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until thickened. (Do not create whipped cream, simply beat it until it resembles thickened white gravy.) Add the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pure vanilla extract, and salt. With the mixer on low, blend the mixture well until smooth. 

Pour the blended mixture into a 9 x 5 metal loaf pan. Why? Because a metal pan will conduct the cold better than a plastic container. Do not fill the pan to the very top. Here’s why. You'll need to stretch a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the pan, keeping the plastic from touching the ice cream itself. Place the pan in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours. By then, the entire pan should be ready to serve and enjoy! To store, you can scoop the ice cream into a re-sealable plastic container, or you can continually re-wrap the metal pan in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.

Cleo's No Churn Coffee Ice Cream 

Makes a little over 1 quart, about 5 cups

2 cups Heavy Cream (aka Heavy Whipping Cream)
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (about 1-1/4 cups) 
2/3 cup evaporated milk (or one 5-ounce can) 
1 Tablespoon instant espresso powder*
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: In a chilled metal, glass, or ceramic bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until thickened. (Do not create whipped cream, simply beat it until it resembles thickened white gravy.) Add the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, instant espresso powder, and vanilla. With the mixer on low, blend the mixture well until smooth. 

Pour the blended mixture into a 9 x 5 metal loaf pan. Why? Because a metal pan will conduct the cold better than a plastic container. Do not fill the pan to the very top. Here’s why. You'll need to stretch a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the pan, keeping the plastic from touching the ice cream itself. Place the pan in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours. By then, the entire pan should be ready to serve and enjoy! To store, you can scoop the ice cream into a re-sealable plastic container, or you can continually re-wrap the metal pan in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.

*Espresso powder note: In baking and cooking, good quality instant espresso powder produces better flavor than instant coffee or coffee crystals, which is why I recommend using instant espresso instead of instant coffee for your recipes. The brand I use is Medaglia D'oro because it delivers the instant espresso in fine powder form, which dissolves beautifully into batters. All is not lost if you have only instant coffee crystals or your instant espresso brand comes in crystal rather than powder form. For best flavor in those cases, whisk the crystals into a small amount of the evaporated milk until completely dissolved before using in this recipe.

To download all 3 recipes
in a free PDF document,
click here.

Once Upon a Grind:

A Coffeehouse Mystery

The bestselling hardcover
is now in paperback!

* A Best Book of the Year

Reviewer's Pick - Kings River Life

* Top Pick! ~ RT Book Reviews 

* Fresh Pick ~ Fresh Fiction 

* A Mystery Guild Selection

Congrats to Kathleen Costa,
who won an autographed copy of
ONCE UPON A GRIND!

Eat (and read) with Joy!

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author of  

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Friend me on facebook here. * Follow me on twitter here. 

Learn about my books here. 

* * *

Join coffeehouse manager 

Clare Cosi as she solves the crime 

against "Sleeping Beauty," opens 

secret doors (uptown and down), 

and investigates a cold case that's 

been unsolved since the Cold War.

Wonderful recipes are also featured in Cleo's 14th 

culinary mystery, Once Upon a Grind, including...

* Dairy-Free "Cinderella" Pumpkin Cake

* Snow White Chocolate Mocha 

* Black Forest Brownies 

* Cappuccino Blondies 

* Shrimp Kiev

* Dr Pepper Glazed Chicken

* Silver Dollar Chocolate Chip Cookies

* Caramel-Dipped Meltaways

* Poor Man's Caviar

...and many more recipes, including

a guide to reading coffee grinds...

See the book's

Recipe Guide

by clicking here.

* * * 

*Starred Review 

~ Kirkus

Billionaire Blend: 

A Coffeehouse Mystery 

"Top Pick" -RT Book Reviews

"...a highly satisfying mystery."

-Publishers Weekly

See Billionaire Blend's

Recipe Guide

by clicking here.

* * * * * * 

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling

works of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark

Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the

14 titles includes the added bonus of recipes. 

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TITLE CHECKLIST

(with mini plot summaries)

by clicking here.

* * * 

Marc and I also write

The Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

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by clicking here.

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our PI ghost by clicking here.

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Thanks for stopping by the Kitchen! 

~ Cleo