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This root beer no churn ice cream is smooth and creamy with heavy cream and the delicious soda fountain flavor of root beer extract.

If you grew up with summers on root beer floats, you’ll want to make this ice cream right now. This ice cream plus a burger hot off the grill with some macaroni salad on the side is about all you could want from summer.

My local dairy we get our milk from has root beer milk as one of their seasonal flavors. Sometime last year, my kids noticed this, and we made a lower fat soft serve root beer ice cream from it.

While we loved the rich root beer flavor, I wanted to create something with a bigger punch of root beer and obviously the richer cream taste.

Thank goodness for no-churn ice cream. It’s so cool that you can take literally 4 ingredients and turn them into premium root beer ice cream with no machine.

Seriously, my poor beleaguered Cuisinart ice cream maker is getting closer and closer to its inevitable thrift store donation.

Enough tears for the Cuisinart, pop a mug in the freezer and let’s bust out the A&W.

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Root beer no-churn ice cream

What you’ll love about root beer ice cream

Root beer flavor: Root beer is a complex blend of wintergreen, vanilla, and licorice. It’s weird, but if you love it you LOVE it. This ice cream has just the right amount of it to get that deep root beer flavor that’ll remind you of your favorite root beer soda.
Texture: Like all of my no-churn ice creams, this ice cream is almost impossibly perfectly smooth and creamy. To quote my youngest son: “Mom, you nailed the texture.”
4 ingredients: outside of the root beer extract, there’s no fancy ingredients you need to make this.
Way to press the easy button: this is fall-off-a-log easy. Whip the cream, and mix in the rest, freeze, and you’re good to go.

Not all root beer extracts are the same

The only sticking point with this recipe is the root beer extract. My kids like to make soda stream flavors with extracts on their own. In one of these experiments, we tried out some of the Watkins root beer extract. Let’s just say we banned it from the kitchen for a while. The flavor of that is pretty heavy on the mint side. We are not fans of the mint in our house.

That said, the Watkins tastes great in ice cream. I’m guessing this has something to do with the flavors being more fat soluble. Also mint tastes better in ice cream. My mint chocolate chip fans, you already know that!

Regardless, buy a good quality root beer extract. We’ve been thrilled with both the color and flavor of this Big H Root Beer Extract. It’s just the right amount of everything.

You might even consider a sarsaparilla extract which has the more old-fashioned flavor root beer used to have before the sassafras was taken out. It tastes a little more like a tree and less like a patch of mint.

Here are some ideas for root beer extracts:

Big H root beer extract: smooth root beer flavor. I picked this up at my local grocery.
Watkins: I’ve also bought mine locally, but it’s not too badly priced online. Use this if you like the wintergreen flavor of root beer.
Cook’s: I’ve not used this one, though I’ve always loved their vanilla, so I’d trust this extract.
What not to try: there are lots of sarsaparilla concentrates, though they’re meant for home brewing of your own root beer, so they are much more concentrated than the extracts listed here. Save them for your microbrewing experiments!

Why is the texture of no-churn ice cream so amazing?

Whipped cream: Ice cream needs air to be incorporated into it as the mixture cools down, hopefully as quickly as possible. Because we’re starting with a base of cold whipped cream, you already have the air in the mixture.
Sweetened condensed milk: sugar in ice cream needs to be well-dissolved for the chemistry in the freezing process to give you the best ice cream texture. The sugar in sweetened condensed milk has already been dissolved fully in the process of making the SCM. Because of this, you can mix and go. This is a huge time saver from traditional ice creams where you make a custard that must be chilled for several hours BEFORE freezing.

Ingredients for root beer no churn ice cream

Heavy cream: for fat and flavor
Sweetened condensed milk: for sweetness and to help the texture
Root Beer extract: for the big flavor
Vanilla extract: to make the root beer flavor taste more like root beer.

How to make no churn root beer ice cream

Chill the bowl you’re using to whip the cream.
Beat the cream and vanilla in the chilled bowl until you get stiff peaks.
Fold in the sweetened condensed milk and root beer extract.
Smooth the mixture into a loaf pan.
Freeze overnight until firm.
Transfer: if you’d like, transfer the ice cream to a freezable lidded container like a Pyrex or one of Tavolo’s ice cream tubs for longer keeping.

Root Beer No-Churn Ice Cream

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 0 hours
Yield: 6 cups

Print Recipe

Description

Want to make a double root beer root beer float? This is the ice cream to do that with! This tastes like pure summer.

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups heavy cream (473 mL)
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (414 mL)
2 tsp root beer extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

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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.
Beat the cream 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.
Fold in the root beer extract so that the color is well distributed.
Scrape the ice cream into your prepared pan, then cover the top with plastic wrap.
Freeze overnight or about 8 hours.
Transfer the ice cream to a lidded freezer container like a Pyrex or one of the Tovolo tubs for longer storage.

Notes

Root beer float: for the ultimate root beer float, scoop some of your frozen ice cream into a tall glass, then top with your favorite root beer or sarsaparilla.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 8 hours 20 minutes
Cook Time: 0 hours
Category: Ice Cream
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Calories: 279
Sugar: 26
Sodium: 67
Fat: 18
Saturated Fat: 12
Unsaturated Fat: 5
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 25
Fiber: 0
Protein: 5
Cholesterol: 60

How to use your root beer ice cream

Scoop it straight!: pop it in a pizelle waffle cup or pizelle waffle cone, a cup, or your favorite store-bought cone.
Double root beer float: freeze a Mason jar for 10-15 minutes. Fill the frosty jar with ice. Scoop some of the root beer ice cream over the ice, then top with your favorite root beer for the perfect double root beer float.
Root beer milkshake: Blend up several scoops of ice cream with a little milk in a blender or food processor.

Root beer blizzard: make like the milkshake, just use a little less milk for a super thick milkshake. Mix in a couple handfuls of crushed oreos, root beer hard candies or Teddy Grahams or whatever else you can think of. Pulse to mix everything.
Root beer ice cream sandwiches: Let the ice cream sit out for about 5 minutes, then press a scoop or two between two chocolate sandwich cookies, whole wheat butter cookies, or chocolate cutout cookies.

Did you love this root beer ice cream? Let me know your thoughts below!