Ice cream is one of my favourite year-round desserts. I especially enjoy it during the fall and winter when it’s cold and wet outside. During those times, I like to have ice cream while sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and next to a warm fireplace. I also like to have ice cream when I’m sick, when I need a pick-me-up, when I want a treat, or just whenever I have a craving. Basically all the time. 😉

So, it comes as no surprise that I’ve been wanting to make my own ice cream for-e-ver. But since I don’t have an ice cream maker (a lack of counter/cupboard space deters me from buying one), I’ve been keeping my eye out for ways to make ice cream without a machine. Finding a recipe wasn’t too difficult. July is national ice cream month, so a lot of recipes for this frozen treat have been floating around on the interweb. The recipe I used is so easy. If you can whip cream, you can make ice cream. It’s that simple. The most challenging part is deciding what flavour to make.

For my first batch of homemade ice cream, I decided to make white chocolate strawberry. I wanted to use up some scraps of leftover white chocolate I used to decorate a Valentine’s Day carrot cake and fresh strawberries we picked recently, but had to be frozen away because I went overboard and picked too many.

David was skeptical when I told him I was making ice cream without a machine. And to be honest, so was I. We were both pleasantly surprised. The ice cream turned out awesome! It’s so fruity, creamy and rich, but not too sweet.

I don’t think we are going to buy ice cream ever again…

This could be dangerous for my waistline…

Recipe (adapted from kevin {&} amanda and http://www.gourmeted.com):

2 cups strawberries

3/8 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

2 cubes of white chocolate

2 cups of heavy cream*

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk*

1 tsp vanilla Make a simple syrup by boiling water and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add strawberries and cook on medium heat until it starts to boil. Decrease to low-medium heat. Stir with a heat-resistant spatula and occasionally pressing the berries against the bottom of the saucepan. Mash berries as fine or chunky as you like. Cook until mixture becomes thick, but not as thick as jam (~20 minutes). Transfer to a bowl and let cool at room temperature (~30 minutes) and then in the fridge for 30 minutes. Melt white chocolate in a bowl set on top of a small pot with simmering water. Remove bowl from heat after chocolate has melted and let cool a bit. Whip cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix/whisk together condensed milk with strawberry mixture, vanilla and white chocolate. Add to whipped cream and fold until combined. Pour into a 2-quart container and cover. Freeze 6 hours or until firm. Store in freezer. *The base for the ice cream is the whipped cream and condensed milk. Barring that, you can add any toppings to make any flavour. The original recipe calls for 1 can of condensed milk, but I decreased it to 3/4 cup since the strawberry mixture was already sweetened.