It’s already late summer, but there is always need for ice cream. This version is a quick fix when the craving strikes, or when you don’t have time to wait for that long-lasting churning of ice cream maker. Especially useful this recipe comes for those who don’t have an ice cream maker. Preparing this frozen treat is fun activity for kids, too!
First, I’ll give a recipe and directions for making vanilla ice cream. Naturally, I won’t leave you with plain vanilla, but I’ll provide some fascinating variations as well! It’s really easy to tweak the recipe and invent new ice cream flavors. After reading this post, you know how to prepare proper sugar-free and low-carb soft ice without an ice cream maker in five minutes or even less. Enjoy!
Tips for making the ice cream
In addition to the three ingredients required for the ice cream, you need a bunch of other stuff. Luckily this stuff is often available in your pantry, or you can get it easily from the nearest grocery store.
Because you must have waited my blog post for long, let’s forget chit-chat and just get into the business and check how to make this incredibly quick ice cream.
Fill the 1/2-gallon (2-liter) sized plastic bag half full with ice cubes.
Pour in the salt.
Take the small bag and place there the heavy cream…
…vanilla extract…
…and the sweetener. Add also the pinch of salt if you use it.
Close the small bag tightly.
Place the small bag inside the large bag.
Fill the large bag with ice cubes. It doesn’t have to be completely full, just that the smaller bag is completely surrounded by ice.
Close the large bag tightly.
Wrap the closed bag in the towel. You need the towel, because the plastic bags will get really cold and moist while shaking.
Then just shake! Be careful that the bags don’t get broken while shaking.
Ready! Enjoy the contents. (And be careful that the salt doesn’t get into the ice cream…)
By the way, I noticed that you can make three batches of ice cream with the same ice and salt mixture in the large bag. Just fill a new, 1-pint (1/2-liter) sized resealable plastic bag with a new mixture of heavy cream, sweetener and your preferred flavorings. This is a good opportunity to try out different ice cream flavors!
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| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 3.6 g | 63.0 g | 5.4 g | 607 kcal |
| Per serving if 2 servings in total: | 1.8 g | 31.5 g | 2.7 g | 304 kcal |
My freezer bag ice cream experiments
I browsed through several freezer bag ice cream recipes that I found from the web. I didn’t pay attention to particularly any of those, I just was gathering ideas.
Without further thoughts, I took two resealable plastic bags, plenty of ice and salt, and filled the larger bag half full with the ice.
I took the smaller bag and poured 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream in there, 1 packet NuNaturals NuStevia and 1/4 teaspoon organic vanilla extract. I closed the smaller bag tightly, and placed it inside the larger bag. I added some more ice and 1/4 cup (60 ml) coarse salt.
After closing the larger bag, I wrapped the whole thing in a towel and started shaking vigorously. After some minutes I was indulging myself with perfect soft ice! Well, the smaller bag had broken, so the ice cream was a tad salty, though still edible. But at least the consistency was perfect.
I wanted to make a bit bigger amount of ice cream, since 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream made just enough ice cream for one person. I also wanted to try to make frozen yogurt. In my next experiment I took 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream, 1/2 cup (120 ml) plain full-fat Turkish yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract and 1 packet NuNaturals NuStevia. I added 1/3 cup (80 ml) salt to the large bag — instead of the 1/4 cup (60 ml) salt that I used in the first experiment — and after some vigorous shaking perfect frozen yogurt was ready! I was surprised that the frozen yogurt was ready in much shorter time than just heavy cream based ice cream.
The consistency of the frozen yogurt was perfect, but the taste was too bland. I decided to use more yogurt and less cream. That paid off. Later, I added some more flavorings which improved the taste further.
Next, I tried chocolate ice cream with 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream, 1 packet NuNaturals NuStevia and 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder. The cocoa powder didn’t dissolve properly, but the result was anyway really delicious! My 3-year-old son ate almost the whole batch. Well, it wasn’t a huge batch anyway, just enough for one growing kid.
I wanted to give a try to the plain old vanilla ice cream again. Mainly I wanted to increase the amount, making the quantity perfect for two persons. I thought 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream might be a splurge, and used 3/4 cup (180 ml) in the end. For sweetening I used 3 tablespoons Confectioner’s Style Swerve and 1 whole teaspoon organic vanilla extract to get enough vanilla flavor.
So far I had used a gallon-sized (4-liter) resealable plastic bag as large bag, but now used half smaller bag, which was just the right size. I also kept the amount of ice at 1/3 cup (80 ml), since it seemed to work better than 1/4 cup (60 ml) ice.
The resulting ice cream was unbelievably scrumptious, though a bit too sweet for my taste. 2 tablespoons Swerve must have been enough. A pinch of salt could also round the flavors nicely, as I learned from my broken-bag experiment.
Since I was happy with my plain vanilla, I continued with other flavor experiments. Recipes to the best ones I’ll give below.
Tips for variation and some more recipes
For (keto) vegans, you can substitute the heavy cream with coconut cream. Just be sure that the coconut cream doesn’t have food additives, but just pure coconut.
Since you can create endless variations, I’ll give you free hands to try out the most imaginative versions of this ice cream. I would love to hear about your experiments in the comment field!
I, too, made some interesting experiments with different ice cream flavors, but the Frozen Lemon Yogurt and the Raspberry Rose Water Ice Cream were my real favorites. Recipes below, hope you like them as well! Especially the frozen yogurt is really refreshing and perfect dessert (or snack) on a hot summer day.
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| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 5.1 g | 33.0 g | 6.6 g | 352 kcal |
| Per serving if 2 servings in total: | 2.6 g | 16.5 g | 3.3 g | 176 kcal |
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| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 3.6 g | 56.4 g | 6.6 g | 552 kcal |
| Per serving if 2 servings in total: | 1.8 g | 28.2 g | 3.3 g | 276 kcal |
Next week, I’m going to publish my first ever guest post. Martina from KetoDietApp has created a low-carb recipe for my blog. I promise it will be absolutely scrumptious and the photos are stunning!
Thanks for the recipe! I tried it tonight but I was in the mood for chocolate. So I put 3/4 C cream, 1.5 Tbsp Erythritol, pinch of salt, and a heaping Tbsp of Hershey’s Dark Cocoa Powder into a small sauce pan and warmed it up to help dissolve the cocoa and sweetener. Then I chilled it for about 7 min in the freezer before following your ice/salt shaking instructions. It turned out great! It was rich and sweet and chocolaty. Maybe too great though because I ate the whole thing and it was a bit too much because of how rich it was. I’ll try and show a little restraint next time and only eat half and save the next half or share it. I have a question though. If you shake it too long does it become butter?
Thank you for the recipe and ideas. I can’t wait to try your other flavors. I did 3/4 C Cream, 1 heaping Tbsp Hershey’s Dark Cocoa Powder, a pinch of salt and 1.5 Tbsp Erythritol. I warmed it over a medium heat to help dissolve the sweetener and cocoa powder then chilled it in the freezer for about 7 min before following your ice/salt bag shaking instructions. It turned out great. Too great maybe 😉 It was rich and sweet and chocolaty. But I ate the whole thing! And it was a little too rich to try that nonsense after going so long without anything sweet (approx 4.5 months). Next time I’ll try and show a little restraint. Thanks again. Oh, a question, if you shake and knead it too long will it turn into butter?
Hi Shawn, great to hear it turned out so good 🙂 Maybe you make a smaller amount next time or then share the serving with somebody 🙂 For me it didn’t turn into butter but maybe I didn’t knead it that long… I would expect it could indeed turn into butter if kneaded long enough.
Hi I love this recipe. It’s so simple. I featured it on a post on my website and I hope you check it out. http://www.thetenfootjourney.com/2017/03/03/5-amazing-low-carb-ice-creams/
Hi Tenesha! You have a beautiful blog! Thank you for featuring my recipe 🙂
Amazing recipe, turned out great. My one question is ….how don’t you get the ice cream out easily from the small bag? Half of mine stuck to bag, missed my bowl when scooping out. 🙁
Hi Larry, great that you liked it! I’m usually just lazy and eat the ice cream straight from the bag 🙂 I wonder if larger bowl would help? It should basically get out easily from a plastic bag.
Thanks for the reply. I think maybe next time I might cut the bottom corner of the bag and squeeze out sorta like frosting goes on a cake. Regardless amazing taste. If my bag of ice was big enough, do you think making two batches at once at the same time is possible? Two small kids can’t wait 5 additional minutes 🙂
I think you can make two batches at once, however, you might have to use more ice and salt, and maybe a bit more time. I have just one impatient kid 🙂
Just came across this and loved it. I was actually looking for a sugar free ice cream so I blended one ripe banana and added that to the pouch instead of the sugar substitute. I kept the vanilla and it was amazing! Zero sugar ice cream! Win! I can’t wait to try other fruit blends as well.
Hi Dylan, great to hear that you liked it! However, unfortunately it wasn’t sugar-free ice cream as banana (and other fruits) contain sugar…
Pls how long do you have to shake it? I tried it and it didn’t come out good. I don’t know because the ice wasn’t enough or not
Hi Chika, sorry to hear that it didn’t come out good. Usually 5-minute shaking does the job. Using enough ice (and salt) is the key.
Thanks I will use enough ice and salt next time, and thanks for a quick reply.
You’re welcome! Hope it turns out better!
Whats the purpose of the salt with the ice?
Salt lowers the melting point of water, so the idea is to take advantage of the lower melting point. When you make ice cream, the temperature around the ice cream mixture needs to be lower than 32 F (0 C) so that you can make it freeze. Salt mixed with ice creates a brine that has a temperature lower than 32 F (0 C) which means that the brine is so cold that it easily freezes the ice cream mixture.
Wow, I loved yourchocolate egg ice cream, but this might even be better. I made the lemon yogurt and it was PERFECT. I may throw away my ice cream maker. Thank you thank you!!
Thanks, Brenda, hope you like this ice cream, too!
Could I just put the ingredients in a bowl in the freezer?
Sure! You might want to whip the cream first to create fluffier ice cream.
Has anyone tried substituting canned coconut cream that has been in the refrigerator overnight for the heavy whipping cream?
This looks beautiful and so easy and quick to make. I love the idea of the plastic bad method. I have included it in my top 20 Low Carb & Sugar Free Ice Cream roundup. I also love your step by step guide on how to make it. Have a great day. Libby.
Hi Libby, special thanks for your comment, you have a fantastic blog! Thanks for including the recipe in your roundup!
How can I get actual “total” carb vs net carbs for your recipes.
Dearest Dee, I haven’t calculated the total carbs, just the net carbs i.e. digestible carbs. The body doesn’t digest the fiber anyway. May I ask why would you need the total amount of carbs? There is no easy way to add them afterwards since my software doesn’t support the feature.
I am dieting with Jorge Criuse’s method, the 100
Which multiplys the total carb by 4 as a number not to exceed daily. I have list 4 inches from my waist with this method. I also add that I have not been hungry! I saw your recipes, fell in love and wanted to use them in my life modification.
Hmm, interesting method… Well, the most important thing is that you get the results you want and feel good! Congrats on the lost inches!
Would a home ice cream machine with a barrel that you freeze in the freezer first work as well as the method you are using with freezer bags, salt etc.
Hi Mel, basically yes, but I guess you have to adjust the amount of the ingredients according to your ice cream maker. This is just a very tiny amount. Moreover, since this version contains just pure cream, the ice cream might get stuck (i.e. freeze) in the bottom and on the walls of the ice cream maker. But this was just my guessing. Hope it helps!
Hi Elviira
I have just discovered your blog and your recipes look amazing! I have your 4 ingredient bread in the oven now. Next is your ice cream!
Best wishes from South Africa.
Hi Terry and welcome on board! I hope you like my recipes. Please tell me how you like the bread!
Absolutely ingenious!!! Thanks for sharing Elviira 🙂
Thank you, Martina! 🙂
We made this today and it is YUMMY!
Hi Darlene! Great that you liked it! I was so surprised that you can make proper ice cream with so few ingredients and in so little time!