Cream for No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream

Asked by Debashreed. Answered on 30th August 2013

Full question

Hi, I am from India and huge fan of Nigella's. I love the easy and simple recipes she makes and my all-time favourite is the No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream. Unfortunately to date I have not been successful in making it. I don't have a Kitchen Aid at home so can I use a food processor or a hand blender? Also in India we don't get double cream so how can I substitute it? Finally I used Nestle sweetened condensed milk but should I have used some other type? Thanks, Debashree.

Our answer

Nigella's No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream (from Nigellissima and also on Nigella's website) is a popular recipe and unfortunately some of the ingredients in the recipe can vary from country to country. The good news is that Nestle sweetened condensed milk is the correct type to use, or you can use another brand as long as it is sufficiently sweetened.

The double cream poses the biggest problem for substitutions. You do need to use a cream that can whip and usually you need to look for a cream with a fat content of around 35%. We understand that this can be difficult to find in India. There is Amul cream but we also understand that this has a low fat content (around 20%) and can be very difficult to whip. There are some websites giving advice on how to whip Amul cream, but it does seem that results can vary. You may also try looking around to find a local cream product with a sufficiently high fat content to whip successfully.

If you can find whipping cream then we suggest whipping the cream to soft peaks first, then whisking in the remaining ingredients. We would not use a food processor as this will not incorporate sufficient air into the mixture. You could try the hand blender, particularly if it has a whisk attachment, or a hand-held electric mixer would work as well.