You Can Make A Delicious And Easy Ice Cream With Coffee Creamer

Ice cream is one of those desserts that almost every foodie can appreciate. What's not to like? The rich combination of heavy cream, sugar, and whole milk mixed into an icy confection is sure to please any palate. While dairy-free alternatives have become popular over the years, so have recipes with unique substitutions. If you're a fan of creative ice cream concoctions, you might already know that TikTok is responsible for cottage cheese ice cream. If not, you may have been too busy enjoying another bowl of banana "nice" cream, which is essentially just frozen bananas blended to mirror an ice cream alternative.

Whether you like deviations from traditional dairy ice cream for health or variety, there is yet another food you can turn into a frozen bowl of creamy goodness. Liquid coffee creamer just got assigned another use besides sweetening up your morning cup of joe. As it turns out, coffee creamer may be the perfect ingredient to turn into a delicious bowl of ice cream simply for its all-in-one convenience. With traditional ice cream, you need a handful of ingredients to result in a creamy dessert. But with only your favorite liquid creamer, plastic storage bags, salt, and ice, you can make another variety of this frozen confection in no time. 

Before we get into some important factors to consider when making this simple frozen treat, let's reveal the step-by-step process of making coffee creamer ice cream. 

How to make homemade ice cream with coffee creamer

Now that you know there's a super-convenient way to make homemade vanilla ice cream with a bottle of coffee creamer, let's get down to the logistics. To make a batch of coffee creamer ice cream, start by adding a cup of liquid creamer to a quart-sized resealable plastic bag. Make sure any extra air is pressed out before sealing. 

Next, take your empty gallon-sized plastic bag and add enough ice cubes until the bag is halfway full followed by ½ cup of kosher salt. Next, you're going to place the quart-sized bag of creamer into your bag of ice and salt. Put on some oven mitts or wrap the gallon bag in a kitchen towel and shake the two bags together with both hands vigorously for up to 4 minutes. Remove the inner quart-sized bag from the gallon bag, rinse off any excess salt, and voila — you now have soft, scoopable ice cream.

If you typically like your ice cream on the softer side, grab a bowl and enjoy some of this convenient frozen treat right away. However, if you're someone who enjoys ice cream with a little more structure, add your newly made batch of ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm. Now that you know how to make coffee creamer ice cream, there are a few stipulations you should adhere to when choosing the right creamer for the job.

What kind of liquid creamer works best?

You're already used to choosing between the healthiest and unhealthiest creamers for your coffee, and selecting the right variety for your next batch of hand-churned ice cream is no exception. When it comes to coffee creamer ice cream, you'll want to select a variety of creamer that has an ingredient list similar to classic ice cream. The main ingredients in your selected creamer should be milk and cream. You also want to choose a variety that doesn't have a lot of added extras that may affect the final product, such as vegetable oil. 

Another important factor to keep in mind is the sugar content. Many commercial creamers contain a significant amount of sugar per serving. Especially if you're wanting to use a specialized flavor of creamer, read the nutrition label before turning a specific variety into ice cream. And remember that flavored creamers are most commonly used to sweeten black coffee, as opposed to being eaten by themselves as a dessert.

To combat this dilemma, you might think opting for a sugar-free, zero-calorie creamer is your best bet. But fat and sugar are foundational components in homemade ice cream. Without these ingredients, you may end up with a mixture that looks and feels very different from the iconic confection you know and love. As long as you choose a more natural variety of coffee creamer, you're just a few steps away from quick and easy hand-churned ice cream.