This summer has been pretty… lame. Well. Not ACTUALLY lame. I spent two and a half weeks in Europe, went to Vegas with some friends, and Molly came down to LA for us to go to the Eras Tour and we had a great long weekend. But… the in-between parts of summer have been lame. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s my second summer as an adult, and I’m still trying to figure out how to make them fun. It just doesn’t feel like the summer vibes ever reached their potential! But you know what has reached it’s summer potential? The heat. Which means that turning on the oven to bake (or even the stove to cook dinner) in my apartment sometimes just feels like too much work. Makes it pretty difficult to bake. So enter: No-Churn Ice Cream!! Brilliant because it requires not turning on anything hot, and I don’t have an ice cream maker here. Win-win.

I decided to go with a root-beer float situation. I had some weird mushroom drink that was Root Beer flavored, and it got me on a root beer kick. And I remembered how awesome the chocolate root beer situation in these cupcakes was. So I made the No-Churn Ice Cream base with vanilla paste, and then swirled in a root beer ganache. Froze it overnight. Done.

The ice cream is slightly softer than normal ice cream, but it definitely holds up in texture and flavor of regular churned ice cream. It’s pretty light, and the use of vanilla paste give it a really solid flavor. I also definitely like the flexibility of this recipe, and I’ll probably end up using it again in the future. Even when I have an ice cream maker again! It was incredibly simple, and you could really have fun with the ways you flavor the base or with the mix-ins you use.

Eating this ice cream as a treat to get me through the work days of summer really drives home that I have yet to learn how adults manager summers. I miss the days where my summer schedule just involved playing a lot of tennis, going on runs, reading for pleasure, baking whenever I wanted, and watching a movie every night. Now I have to go to work 10 hours a day, and the heat drains me of any and all energy, because the only reprieve from it is either the night time, or standing in front of my window-unit AC.

Summer is truly just sweaty season in LA, and I haven’t figure out how to work in any of the fun parts of summer.

But until I figure that out… I couldn’t recommend this recipe more if you’re looking for a lazy way to bring some summer vibes in to a not very summery summer. Especially since as I write this, it’s nearly 90 degrees in LA, and I feel too wiped out to do much more than the low-effort of this recipe!

No-Churn Root Beer Float Ice Cream

Author: Audrey

Ingredients

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons root beer extract

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Instructions

In a medium bowl whisk together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt – set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat cream cheese until well softened and spread around the bowl. Add the heavy cream and whip on medium high until stiff peaks form.
Spoon a third of the whipped cream into the condensed milk and whisk to combine. Add another third of the whipped cream to the condensed milk mixture and use a rubber spatula to fold to combine. Add the final third and fold to combine. Spoon into a 9×5-inch loaf pan or another Tupperware and freeze for 2 hours.
In the meantime, make your root beer ganache. Heat up the heavy cream in the microwave until hot to the touch when you stick your finger in. Pour over the chocolate chips, and let it sit to melt the chocolate a bit before stirring. Once smooth, stir in the 2 teaspoons of root beer extract, and let sit to thicken.
After 2 hours, the ice cream will be halfway set. Take it out of the freezer and swirl in the ganache. You can gently fold it in to get it throughout, but try to avoid fully stirring it in.
Once swirled, smooth out the top of the ice cream, and then cover with parchment paper. Freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Keep frozen for up to 1 week.