Happiness is… ice cream!

It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from, there is one childhood memory that we all have in common – the daily visit from the ice cream man. There is something magical about the sound of the ice cream truck, something that instantly grabs your attention and makes the rest of the world stop. Kids will freeze in their tracks (for a second) before descending into complete delirium, desperate to get home, prise cash from their parents wallets and make it back outside, so as to avoid the fateful situation of watching the truck merrily drive away and being the only kid on the street tucking into an ice cream.

As we grow older, our bond with ice cream gets stronger and stronger. How often do you tunnel your way to the bottom of a tub of Ben & Jerry’s when you’re upset, watching a movie, or simply because it tastes so good you can’t put it down? Even my nan will persuade us to take a longer route during a summer day out, only to discover that her detour cunningly goes past an ice cream shop – you just gotta love her!

After eating my own weight in Easter food last weekend, I was keen to find something a little lighter to satisfy my sweet tooth – it was time to discover a new ice cream recipe. I love to make home-made ice cream but don’t have an ice cream maker – who has room for all these machines in their kitchen anyway?

My No-Churn Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream is delicious, but has too much chocolate to stomach so soon after Easter, and it wasn’t long ago that I overdosed on Thin Mints Cookie Ice Cream. What I needed was something that offered the perfect combination of sweet and tart, something refreshing. This immediately brought to mind one of my all-time favourite American recipes, Key Lime Pie – hey, this would make the perfect ice cream flavour!

This No Churn Key Lime Pie Ice Cream is delicious, refreshing and it’ll melt your heart. It has all the taste of traditional key lime pie as well as a buttery, biscuity graham cracker crumb. It’s also really easy to make, the hardest part is waiting for it to freeze!

First, you’ll want to get started on the Graham Cracker Crumb. If you cannot find Graham Crackers, use Digestives or Ginger Nut biscuits instead – in other words, substitute the Graham Crackers for the biscuit you would normally use in a key lime pie or cheesecake crust.

To make the crumb mix, melt the butter and stir in the vanilla extract. Then crush your Graham Crackers into small pieces, either by bashing with a rolling pin or pulsing in a food processor – you’ll want a nice combination of crumbs and small chunks to add texture. Place the Graham Cracker Crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a medium sized bowl and stir to combine.

Set your crumb mix aside – it’s ice cream time!

You’ll need to squeeze half a cup of key lime juice for this recipe. Key limes have a more aromatic, tarter flavour than regular limes. However, if you cannot find key limes, simply use regular ones, your ice cream will be equally delicious using either variety. In fact, as regular limes are larger than key limes it takes a lot less of them, and a lot less elbow grease, to press the same amount of juice.

In a large bowl, stir together the lime juice, condensed milk and vanilla extract. Set the bowl aside.

Using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream on high-speed until stiff peaks form. This process generates heat and you want to keep the cream as cold as possible for the best result, so try using a pre-chilled metal bowl. Simply pop the bowl into the freezer for 5 minutes before whipping the cream.

Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture until they are completely combined. Be careful not to over-stir, we want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible to achieve a wonderfully smooth and creamy ice cream texture.

Pour half of the ice cream mixture into your ice cream tub and spread evenly – I used a Tovolo Glide-A-Scoop Ice Cream Tub for my ice cream. If you don’t have one of these – and why don’t you?! – simply line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Sprinkle half of the Graham Cracker crumb mix over the top of the ice cream mix.

Pour the remaining ice cream mix into the tub, topping with another layer of Graham Cracker crumbs. Cover the container and freeze for at least 6 hours (preferably overnight) before serving. NOTE: if using a loaf pan, wrap tightly with cling film.

The Tovolo Glide-A-Scoop Ice Cream Tub, Tovolo Tilt-Up Ice Cream Scoop and Tovolo Flex-Core™ Spatulas featured in this post are available to purchase from the Arugula & Rocket Cook Shop.