The ultimate no-churn vanilla ice-cream

Pastry chef Terri Mercieca shares her ultimate tips for the creamiest homemade ice-cream using a little food science. Her secret ingredients? Milk powder – which boosts the protein content and helps trap air bubbles to create a creamier scoop – and a drizzle of golden syrup, which lowers the freezing point, creating a smoother finish with less ice crystals.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• makes

  600 g

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 50 g milk (see Note)
• 20 g golden syrup
• 20 g skim milk powder
• 1 g sea salt flakes
• 300 g thick cream (see Note)
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (see Note)
• 150 g condensed milk
• 50 g evaporated milk
• Cacao nibs, smoked sea salt flakes, to serve

For the Pedro Ximénez cherries

• 200 g frozen morello cherries, pitted
• 30 g caster sugar
• 50 g Pedro Ximénez sherry

Cooling time: 20-30 minutes

Freezing time: 4 hours or up to overnight   

Instructions

1. Place a large container with a lid in the freezer to chill.
2. Heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in the golden syrup, milk powder and salt, stirring to dissolve the milk powder. Pour the mixture into a jug, then refrigerate until it reaches 10-15˚C.
3. Combine the cream, vanilla bean seeds, condensed milk and evaporated milk in a large, stainless-steel bowl and whisk with an electric hand mixer to soft peaks.
4. While mixing, gradually pour the chilled milk mixture into the cream mixture, whisking until it forms soft peaks – aerating the mixture as much as possible. Pour into your chilled container and freeze for 4 hours to overnight.
5. Meanwhile, make the Pedro Ximénez cherries. Heat the cherries and sugar in a medium frying pan over medium heat, cooking until the sugar dissolves and begins to bubble. Pour over the Pedro Ximénez and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature before using.
6. When ready to serve, divide scoops of vanilla ice-cream between serving bowls. Top with the Pedro Ximénez cherries, then sprinkle with cacao nibs and smoked salt.

Note

• For best results, try use Jersey milk for this recipe – the higher fat content gives a richer and creamier taste to the ice-cream. Thick cream in this recipe refers to double cream.
• Save the vanilla bean from this recipe to store in sugar to make vanilla sugar!

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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