Have you seen that stunning, jaw-droppingly vibrant, and beautifully purple ice cream all over social media and wondered what it is and how you can make it at home? Get ready to discover your new favorite flavor! This is the ultimate guide to making the easiest, creamiest, and most beautiful Homemade No-Churn Ube Ice Cream you will ever taste.
This isn’t just a pretty dessert; it’s a taste of the Philippines, where the ube, or purple yam, is a beloved staple. And the best part? You don’t need a fancy, expensive ice cream machine to create this masterpiece. Using a brilliantly simple, 3-ingredient no-churn method, you can whip up a batch of this sophisticated, uniquely delicious, and unbelievably creamy ice cream with just a few minutes of active prep time.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Recipe Overview: The Easiest, Most Beautiful Ice Cream Ever
What makes this No-Churn Ube Ice Cream recipe so amazing is its incredible simplicity and its truly unique flavor and color. Ube has a mellow, sweet, and nutty flavor with delightful hints of vanilla, which is perfectly complemented by the creamy, rich base. The foolproof, no-churn technique uses sweetened condensed milk and fresh whipped cream to create a perfectly smooth and scoopable ice cream without any special equipment. It’s a fun, easy, and impressive dessert that is guaranteed to wow everyone.
| Metric | Time / Level |
| Total Time | 8 hours 10 minutes (includes freezing) |
| Active Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Difficulty Level | Easy |
| Servings | 8-10 |
The 3 Essential Ingredients for Ube Ice Cream
This recipe uses just three simple, powerhouse ingredients to create its magical flavor and texture.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: This is the key to the ice cream’s light and airy texture. It’s crucial to use cold, full-fat heavy whipping cream. When we whip it to stiff peaks, we are incorporating air into the base, which is what prevents the ice cream from becoming a dense, icy block.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: This is the magic ingredient in all great no-churn ice cream recipes. This thick, sweet, canned milk serves two purposes: it provides the perfect amount of sweetness, and more importantly, its high sugar content lowers the freezing point of the mixture. This is the secret that prevents large ice crystals from forming, ensuring your finished ice cream is incredibly smooth and creamy, not icy.
- Ube Extract: This is what gives our ice cream its signature flavor and its stunning, vibrant purple color. Ube extract is a concentrated, liquid flavoring made from the ube (purple yam). It’s a convenient and easy way to get that authentic, nutty, vanilla-like ube flavor into your desserts. You can find it in the baking aisle of most Asian grocery stores or easily online.
What is Ube? (And Is It the Same as Taro?)
Before we start, let’s talk about our star ingredient!
- Ube (pronounced
OO-beh) is a species of purple yam that is a staple crop in the Philippines. It has a beautiful, deep purple flesh and a unique, mellow flavor that is often described as a cross between vanilla, pistachio, and a sweet potato. - It is not the same as taro. Taro is a different root vegetable that has a pale, lavender-colored flesh with a much starchier, more potato-like flavor. The vibrant purple you see in trendy desserts is almost always from ube.
Step-by-Step to the Creamiest Ube Ice Cream
This recipe is incredibly simple. The most important step is to be gentle when folding the ingredients together to keep the mixture light and airy.
Step 1: Whip the Cream and Ube Extract
First, it’s a great idea to chill your large mixing bowl and the whisk attachments from your electric mixer in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
Pro Tip: Using very cold equipment is the number one secret to making whipped cream that whips up quickly, with lots of volume, and is beautifully stable.
Pour the cold heavy cream into the chilled bowl. Add the 1 tablespoon of ube extract.
Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream and extract together on medium-high speed. Continue to beat until the cream becomes thick and forms stiff peaks. This means that when you lift the beaters out of the cream, the peak that forms will stand up straight and not curl over. The mixture should be a beautiful, uniform lilac color.
Step 2: Fold in the Condensed Milk
Now, slowly drizzle the can of sweetened condensed milk into the bowl with the purple whipped cream.
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the condensed milk into the whipped cream until no streaks remain and the mixture is uniform in color and texture. Be careful not to stir or beat the mixture, as you don’t want to deflate all the beautiful air you just whipped into the cream. The gentle folding motion is key to a light and airy ice cream.
Step 3: Freeze to Perfection
Pour the beautiful, light purple ice cream mixture into a loaf pan or another freezer-safe container. Smooth the top with your spatula.
Cover the container tightly with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream mixture. This simple trick helps to prevent ice crystals from forming on the top.
Place the container in the freezer and freeze for at least 8 hours, or preferably overnight, until the ice cream is completely firm.
Step 4: Scoop and Serve
When you are ready to serve, remove the ice cream from the freezer.
Pro Tip: Homemade ice cream freezes quite hard. For the easiest scooping, let the container sit out at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes to soften slightly. It’s also very helpful to run your ice cream scooper under hot water and then pat it dry before each scoop.
Scoop the beautiful purple ice cream into bowls or cones and enjoy!
The Easiest 3-Ingredient No-Churn Ube Ice Cream
An extremely simple, 3-ingredient recipe for a vibrant purple, no-churn Ube ice cream. This Filipino-inspired dessert is made by whipping cold heavy cream with ube extract until stiff peaks form, and then gently folding in sweetened condensed milk. The light and airy mixture is then frozen in a loaf pan overnight until it becomes a firm, scoopable ice cream.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes (includes freezing time)
- Yield: 8-10 servings
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No-Churn, Freezing
- Cuisine: Filipino
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 600 g (about 2 ½ cups) heavy cream, cold
- 1 tablespoon ube extract
- 375 g (one 14oz can) sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cold heavy cream and the ube extract.
- Use an electric hand mixer with a whisk attachment to beat the cream on high speed until it forms stiff peaks.
- Slowly drizzle the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream while gently folding it in with a spatula. Continue to fold until no streaks remain, being careful not to overmix and deflate the cream.
- Pour the mixture into a loaf pan or other freezer-safe container.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
- To serve, run an ice cream scooper under hot water and pat it dry before scooping.
Notes
- This is a no-churn recipe, so no ice cream maker is needed.
- Using cold heavy cream and a chilled bowl will help the cream whip up faster and create more stable peaks.
- Be careful not to overmix when folding in the condensed milk, as this can cause the whipped cream to lose its airy texture.
- Running the scoop under hot water makes it much easier to get clean scoops of the hard-frozen ice cream.
Storage and Make-Ahead Tips
This No-Churn Ube Ice Cream is the perfect make-ahead dessert.
- Storage: Store the ice cream in a freezer-safe, airtight container. To prevent freezer burn and ice crystals, it’s always a good idea to press a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper directly onto the surface of the ice cream before putting the lid on.
- Longevity: Your homemade ice cream will be at its best and creamiest within the first 1-2 weeks. After that, it is still delicious but may start to develop some ice crystals.
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Creative Recipe Variations
This simple and delicious ube ice cream is a fantastic base for all sorts of creative and flavorful additions.
- Richer Version with Ube Halaya: For an even richer, more authentic ube flavor and a slightly thicker texture, you can gently fold in 1/2 cup of ube halaya (a sweet purple yam jam, available at Asian markets) along with the sweetened condensed milk.
- Ube Cookies and Cream Ice Cream: For a delicious textural twist, gently fold in 1 cup of coarsely chopped Oreo cookies or another chocolate sandwich cookie into the ice cream base at the very end, just before you pour it into the pan to freeze.
- Ube Toasted Coconut Ice Cream: For a wonderful, tropical flavor pairing, you can fold in 1/2 cup of toasted, sweetened shredded coconut into the ice cream base. The nutty, toasted flavor of the coconut is incredible with the vanilla-like flavor of the ube.
Enjoy Your Stunning Homemade Creation!
You’ve just created a truly special, gourmet-quality ice cream that is sure to stun and delight your friends and family. This Homemade No-Churn Ube Ice Cream is a beautiful, delicious, and fun introduction to the wonderful world of Filipino desserts. It’s a simple recipe that proves you don’t need any fancy equipment to make an incredible, unforgettable frozen treat.
We hope you love every last, creamy, and colorful spoonful!
If you enjoyed making this recipe, please leave a comment below or share it with a friend who loves to try new and exciting flavors!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: What does ube ice cream taste like?
Ube has a very unique and delicious flavor that is hard to describe! It is a mellow, gentle sweetness with distinct notes of vanilla and a subtle, nutty flavor similar to pistachio. It is not as intensely sweet as some other desserts, which makes it very sophisticated and refreshing.
Q2: I can’t find ube extract. Can I use ube powder or ube halaya instead?
Yes, you can. If using ube powder, you may want to rehydrate a few tablespoons of it in a little bit of the hot cream before adding it to the base. If using ube halaya (purple yam jam), you can add about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup to the condensed milk. This will result in an even richer and thicker ice cream.
Q3: Why is my no-churn ice cream icy instead of creamy?
An icy texture is usually caused by one of two things. First, the whipped cream may have been under-whipped (it needs to be at stiff peaks to hold the air) or it may have been deflated by overmixing when the condensed milk was added. Second, not covering the surface of the ice cream with plastic wrap can allow ice crystals to form on top. The high-fat and high-sugar content of this recipe is specifically designed to prevent iciness, so be sure to use full-fat heavy cream and regular sweetened condensed milk.
Q4: Where can I buy ube extract?
You can find ube extract in the baking aisle of most well-stocked Asian grocery stores, particularly those that specialize in Filipino products. It is also very easy to find and order from online retailers like Amazon.
Q5: Can I make this ice cream dairy-free or vegan?
Yes! You can make a fantastic vegan version of this ice cream. Simply substitute the heavy whipping cream with a can of chilled, full-fat coconut cream (use only the thick, solid cream from the top of the can). Then, substitute the regular sweetened condensed milk with a can of sweetened condensed coconut milk or sweetened condensed oat milk.