No Churn Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Cookie Dough and Quick Salted Caramel

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Ok, no churn ice cream is officially my summer jam. It’s so fun and easy to make, and even more fun to eat. My Lila girl has loved helping me swirl the flavors together and likes to check on it in the freezer roughly every 15 minutes. Ha! It’s a really great “baking” activity for the kiddos that doesn’t require turning on your oven in the summer heat. And it ends with a big bowl of ice cream. That’s a yes from me.

I shared a recipe for a cheesecake ice cream base here – where I swirled it with fresh blueberry jam and a graham cracker crumble. So if a fruity cheesecake ice cream is more your style, be sure to check that out. My husband saw the blueberry version and immediately said, ummm where’s the cookie dough? He is a cookie dough blizzard guy for life. So here we are, with the homemade ice cream of Mike’s dreams.

How to Make Vanilla Bean No Churn Ice Cream

First up, you need to make the toppings, so they’re ready to be swirled into the ice cream base.

For the caramel, reserve 1/4 C of cream and add the rest of the ingredients to a large skillet. Cook over medium heat until the butter has melted, the sugars have dissolved, and the caramel has started to thicken – about 5 minutes. Take off the heat, and stir in the remaining 1/4 C of cream. Easy peasy.

For the cookie dough, add the softened butter and sugars to a medium sized bowl and begin to cream them with a hand mixer. (Your stand mixer will work as well, but not necessary) Once the butter mixture is light and fluffy – 2 or 3 minutes – beat in the cream, salt, and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be soft, but will firm up more when chilled.

**Lazy girl tip – there are TONS of ready-to-go flavors and toppings you could pick up from the grocery if making it all from scratch just doesn’t sound like fun today – I won’t tell! I love this salted caramel and this edible cookie dough.

Make the vanilla bean ice cream base.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sweetened condensed milk, salt, and vanilla bean paste. I really like this one from Taylor and Colledge. You can find it on Amazon, and the squeeze tube is totally convenient and mess free – definitely my favorite. Set bowl aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream on high speed until you have stiff peaks. There is no need to add any sugar or flavor to the cream, the sweetened condensed milk mixture will take care of that for us.

Take about 1/3 of the whipped cream and stir it into the sweetened condensed milk mixture. Then carefully, fold that back into the remaining whipped cream – making sure to fold gently so you don’t deflate the whipped cream. This ensures that the ice cream has a light airy texture and isn’t dense!

Assembly and Freezing

Now you’re ready to assemble. This is where the kids will love to get involved. Layer the ice cream, caramel, and cookie dough in a freezer-safe container – I just use my round cake pan. I use a butter knife to get the swirled affect of the caramel. Freeze for at least 6 hours and dig in!

I like to serve this up in a waffle cone dipped in chocolate ganache. And because I am a sucker for the salty sweet thing, I sprinkle the chocolate with sea salt before it has cooled and hardened on the cone. Its also amazing straight out of the cake pan – whatever floats your boat.

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