Additions to No-Churn Ice Cream

Asked by KayWare. Answered on 25th January 2014

Full question

Hi. I've made Nigella's No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream and it was so good and easy I thought I would add things to it (pecan nuts and dark chocolate chips) but everything sank to the bottom of the container. What can I do to stop this happening please?

Our answer

Nigella's One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream (from Nigellissima and on the Nigella website), along with many no-churn ice creams, is made by mixing whipped cream with other ingredients. Whipped cream, when not frozen, is not a particularly strong structure and if you add heavy ingredients (such as whole nuts) then these will tend to sink through the cream before the whole mixture freezes firm.

You could try putting the ice cream mixture in a shallow container and freezing it for 2-3 hours, until partially firm, then mixing through any additions, transferring everything to an airtight container and freezing overnight. The partially frozen mixture should hold the additional ingredients in suspension, but as we have not tried this ourselves we cannot guarantee the results.