I’m Making This Retro Dessert I Found on Reddit All Summer Long

Homemade ice cream is always on my summer bucket list. There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of creamy, cool ice cream that you’ve made yourself.

Some summers, I pull out the ice cream makers and make classic ice creams step-by-step—tempering eggs into cream, cooling the mixture over an ice bath, churning, and freezing. However, my kids often request simpler treats like ice cream in a bag or a no-churn version.

So, I was inspired when a Reddit thread introduced me to a retro recipe for chocolate-coffee ice cream from the 1950s that can be made without a machine while still being super creamy and not icy, thanks to a secret ingredient.

Pudding Mix Is the Secret To Creamier and More Lucious No-Churn Ice Cream

Most no-churn ice creams are made with a base of whipped heavy cream and strengthened with sweetened condensed milk. The results are always delicious, but these ice creams can get a little icey and crumbly in the freezer.

Plus, they melt quickly out of the freezer, ultimately forming more ice crystals when they are put back in.

Making an ice cream base stabilized with pudding mix, like JELL-O Cook & Serve, and folding in whipped heavy cream makes an ice cream that tastes (and melts) more like egg-based homemade ice cream—rich, luxuriously creamy, with small delicate ice crystals. 

As it turns out, brands like JELL-O have been recommending its pudding mixes as a shortcut for making homemade ice cream since the late 1800s. These days, pudding mixes are often used in Ninja CREAMi recipes all over the internet. Instead of eggs or egg yolks like more traditional ice creams, cornstarch, the primary thickener in pudding mix, thickens the cream or milk.

I followed the recipe from Retro Housewife Goes Green, which is mentioned in the Reddit post to make a chocolate coffee ice cream. However, you could take the basic idea and make shortcut ice cream in any flavor.

How To Make This Retro No-Churn Ice Cream

You’ll need:

• 1 (3.4-ounce) box cook and serve chocolate pudding
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream

In a medium bowl, make the pudding according to the package instructions. You’ll need two cups of whole milk (the retro recipe calls for 1 1/12 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of coffee). Stir the sugar into the pudding.

In a separate bowl, whisk the heavy cream until medium peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding. Scrape the mixture into a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least four hours.

With these base ingredients—pudding mix, sugar, milk, and heavy cream—you could make many different ice cream flavors. I’d recommend adding mix-ins during the last round of folding in the cream. This is a shortcut that can keep you rich in homemade ice cream all summer long.