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This cinnamon no-churn ice cream is ultra smooth from heavy cream and sweet and spicy with a swirl of brown sugar quick caramel.

People this is the ice cream of my childhood. In my home town in Nebraska there used to be a restaurant that always served a scoop of cinnamon ice cream with their kids’ cheese frenchee.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to know, a cheese frenchee is one of Nebraska’s best sandwiches. It’s essentially a corn flake breaded deep fried grilled cheese. Is it healthy? Nope–it’s pretty much a health abomination. Is it good? Absolutely.

Whoever first thought to put these two things together had a moment of pure inspiration. There’s something inexplicably magical about the sweet spicy creamy goodness of the cinnamon ice cream after the crunchy gooey sandwich.

I know we all learn to eat better the older we get, but for today, I’m eating like a kid again. And I just bet you a cheese frenchee you’ll love this ice cream as much as I do.

cinnamon ice cream in pizelle waffle cups and ice cream scoop

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Cinnamon No-Churn Ice Cream

piping brown sugar caramel on top ice cream

Making ice cream the old way

Ice cream can be a pain to make at home. I’ve sat through enough family barbecues on the 4th of July with my uncle’s hand crank ice cream maker in the bathtub nestled in ice and salt to know that making ice cream at home can be a big to-do.

Sometimes that’s fun (like when I have my baking students make ice cream in bags and we toss them around the kitchen), but when you have 4 kids who are ice cream monsters, you tend to look for quicker, easier solutions.

Enter no-churn ice cream.

Why no-churn ice cream

No-churn ice cream is so brilliant it feels like cheating.

With a combo of heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk and flavorings, you can skip all the time consuming custard making, chilling, ice cream maker contraptions.

Whipping the air into the heavy cream makes for light textured ice cream. The sugar in sweetened condensed milk is ultra dissolved, making for a smooth texture.

Even better, you need no bulky, uni-tasking equipment, and you likely already have all the ingredients you need.

For me, I only ever have to remember to buy cream. That’s way less intimidating than remember to buy cream, half and half, and 16 eggs or something crazy like that for more traditional custard based ice creams.

Why make no-churn ice cream and break up with your ice cream maker?

So to recap, no-churn ice cream lets you:

Use regular pantry and fridge ingredients you likely have on hand.
Save time by skipping the long chilling sessions that you need when you make custard based ice creams.
Skip long churning sessions with manual labor or loud electric ice cream makers.
Nix the day-long freezing process of the bowl that some ice cream makers use. (I’m looking at you my Cuisinart).
Make unbelievably creamy ice cream you’d pay a fortune for in tubs, making for happy kids, who are always trying to manipulate you into buying ice cream for them even when it’s 10 below zero outside.

Literally, making no-churn ice cream is a win-win-win-win-win scenario.

Cinnamon no-churn ice cream ingredients

Heavy cream: for fat, flavor and smoothness
Sweetened condensed milk: for the sweetness.
Vanilla: for flavor.
Cinnamon: for the spicy main player flavor.
Brown sugar: to make the brown sugar caramel swirl
Butter: to smooth out the brown sugar caramel swirl

Process for making cinnamon ice cream

Chill: chill the bowl and beaters for the heavy cream.
Boil: mix brown sugar and a little water in a pan and boil until it turns into a thick syrup. Add in the butter and some of the cinnamon, then let it cool.
Whip: the cream with the vanilla and the rest of the cinnamon until it forms stiff peaks that stand up on the beater.
Fold: drizzle the sweetened condensed milk down the sides of the bowl, then fold the two together until you get a smooth, consistent mixture.
Scrape: half the cream into the loaf pan.
Pipe: Scoop the caramel into a piping bag or small ziploc. Cut the corner, then pipe stripes of the caramel across the top of the ice cream.
Repeat: scrape the rest of the ice cream into the pan, followed by squeezing the rest of the caramel over the top.
Drag: drag a butter knife in a lazy zigzag through the ice cream to break up the cinnamon caramel and swirl it into the ice cream.
Freeze: cover the ice cream and pop it in the freezer overnight.
Scoop: scoop your amazing cinnamon ice cream into your favorite cones, pizelle waffle cones, or pizelle waffle cups and enjoy!

Cinnamon Swirl No-Churn Ice Cream

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 8 hours 35 minutes
Yield: 6 cups

Print Recipe

Description

Nobody thinks about cinnamon ice cream and it’s a crying shame as it tastes like pure comfort. This is the perfect end of Summer ice cream when dreams of Fall and pumpkins are around the corner.

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups heavy cream (472 mL)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (414 mL)

Cinnamon Swirl

1/3 cup brown sugar (50 g)
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons butter (28 g)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

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Instructions

Chill the bowl you’re using to whip your cream and the beaters for 20 minutes.
Line the bottom of a 9″x5″ loaf pan with parchment.
While the bowl is chilling, make the cinnamon swirl.

Make the cinnamon swirl:

Mix the brown sugar and water in a small pan.
Set the heat to medium and bring the sugar to a boil.
Continue cooking the sugar until it starts to thicken and make big bubbles.
When the sugar is as thick as pancake syrup, turn off the heat and stir in the butter and 1 tsp of cinnamon.
Set aside the sugar to cool while you beat the cream.

Make the ice cream:

Beat the cream, 1 tsp of cinnamon, and vanilla in the chilled bowl until you get stiff peaks.
Open up the can of sweetened condensed milk, then drizzle it down the side of the bowl.
Use a baking spatula to scrape out all the sweetened condensed milk, then fold the cream and milk together into a smooth, consistent mixture.
Scrape the cinnamon sugar into a piping bag or a ziploc. Cut the tip off about 1/4″ from the end.
Scoop about half the cream into your prepared pan, then squeeze out stripes of the cinnamon swirl mixture across the top of the pan.
Scrape out the rest of the bowl into the pan. Squeeze out the rest of the cinnamon swirl mixture in stripes across the top.
Drag a butter knife through the ice cream in loose swirls to break up the cinnamon swirl mix and distribute it through the ice cream.
Cover the top with plastic wrap.
Freeze overnight or about 8 hours.
After freezing, feel free to transfer the ice cream to a lidded freezable container like a Pyrex or a Tovolo tub for longer storage.

Notes

Just add coffee: this ice cream makes an incredible affogato. Brew up your favorite espresso and add a scoop. You’ve been warned.

Cheese frenchee and cinnamon ice cream: my home town in Nebraska had a restaurant that served their kids’ cheese frenchee with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. Out of pure nostalgia, I cannot think of cinnamon ice cream without the cheese frenchee. Why they go together is a mystery, but trust me, it works. I know it’s trashy, but life is too short to eat clean 100% of the time. Try it; you won’t be disappointed.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 8 hours 20 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Category: Ice Cream
Cuisine: American

This Cinnamon No-Churn Ice Cream is a big scoop of nostalgia