Hot summer days basically demand ice cream, and once I started making this at home I stopped buying it at the store almost entirely. Three ingredients, five minutes of actual work, and what comes out is this incredibly smooth, creamy strawberry ice cream with no icy crystals and no artificial anything. It tastes like real strawberries because it is real strawberries. My kids request it constantly from June through August and I am completely fine with that.
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
- 2 cups light cream or half-and-half
Toss the hulled strawberries, condensed milk, and cream into a blender and blend on high for 3 to 4 minutes. You really want to blend it well — the longer you go, the lighter and fluffier the mixture gets, and that makes a huge difference in the final texture. By the time it’s ready it should look almost like a thick strawberry milkshake, pale pink and really airy.
Pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container, cover tightly, and freeze for 1 hour. Pull it out and stir it vigorously with a whisk to break up any ice crystals that are starting to form around the edges. Cover and freeze for another 40 minutes. Stir it again the same way. Do this one more time — so three stir sessions total — and then on the fourth time, instead of just whisking, blend the whole thing again with the hand blender for about a minute before returning it to the freezer. That final blend is what makes it completely smooth and creamy instead of icy.
Freeze until fully solid. Before serving, let it sit on the counter for a minute or two so it scoops cleanly.
The texture is genuinely better than most store-bought ice cream. No weird ingredients, no preservatives, just cream and berries and that sweet condensed milk holding everything together. You can swap the strawberries for bananas, peaches, cherries, or mango and it works just as beautifully every time.
