This Thai tea ice cream recipe makes the easiest no churn ice cream that you’ll ever make using just four ingredients: Thai tea mix, whipping cream, condensed milk, and salt. The flavour will take you right back to Thailand, but you can really use any flavour with this easy no churn ice cream recipe.
If you’ve been to Thailand and you tried the bright orange Thai iced tea at a coffee shop or local restaurant and you loved it, then you are going to love this Thai tea ice cream. If you tasted the soft serve Thai tea ice cream at Bangkok’s Chatuchak market, then you’re going to adore this rich creamy ice cream.
And if you’re not a fan of Thai tea, then you can add any anything to our easy no churn ice cream recipe below, from vanilla to chocolate chips, ground peanuts to crushed biscuits. We include a little salt in our Thai tea ice cream recipe, as it’s very rich and very sweet without it, so the salt provides balance.
We’re missing travel terribly and have very itchy feet right now. It’s been tough for these two food and travel writers to stay in the same city for a year, especially knowing our international airport remains closed – which is why we’ve been using food to transport us to some of our favourite places.
Hence last week’s Weekend Eggs recipe for half-boiled eggs and my kaya coconut jam for kaya toast, a quintessential breakfast at kopitiams (coffee shops) in Singapore and Malaysia, which took us right back. And satisfied some cravings. This week we’re spending time in Thailand – in our imaginations, anyway!
Before I tell you about this Thai tea ice cream recipe, we have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported, which means we rely on income generated from readers of this site to continue to share recipes and food stories. If you’ve made any of our recipes and you’ve enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo if you can.
In this post you’ll find ways to support Grantourismo, such as clicking through to links to buy travel insurance, rent cars and hire campervans, book accommodation, or purchase books, kitchen utensils or ingredients. You can also purchase something from our online shop such as gifts for foodies featuring Terence’s images or you could support our Cambodian culinary history and cookbook on Patreon.
Now let me tell you about this Thai tea ice cream recipe.
Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe and an Easy No Churn Ice Cream Recipe for Any Flavour
Our Thai tea ice cream recipe will make you the easiest no churn ice cream with just four ingredients – Thai tea mix, whipping cream, condensed milk, and salt – but you can really make this no churn ice cream with any flavour.
An Easy No Churn Ice Cream Recipe for Any Ice Cream Flavour
If you don’t own an ice cream maker but you love homemade ice cream, then you’re going to love this no churn ice cream recipe. It’s super simple and requires just a few ingredients – whipping cream, condensed milk and whatever flavour you want to add.
To maintain the richness and creaminess, we recommend using dry ingredients, such as dried spices (cinnamon or nutmeg, for instance), Milo, or Vietnamese 3-in-1 coffee powder, and for flavour and texture, chocolate chips, dried fruit, crushed honeycomb, pounded biscuits, or ground peanuts.
To make this easy no churn ice cream recipe, use an electric hand beater to whip 350 ml of heavy whipping cream until peaks form, then fold in 180 ml sweetened condensed milk, and a tablespoon of your favourite flavour (see the previous paragraph for ideas).
If it’s a sweet flavour you’re adding, then you may wish to add a pinch of salt, so it’s not overly sweet. If it’s savoury, you should not need to add sugar as the sweetened condensed milk is very sweet.
Then blend everything a little again, just for a minute so that it’s all combined. Transfer the mixture to several small 500ml ice cream containers or other freezer safe containers and freeze for a minimum of five hours or overnight.
You could use one large container, but if you’re making this for dessert the same day, it may not harden in the centre. Note that you’re going to get a creamier ice cream if you pull it out at five hours, and maybe even four hours if you have a super-cold freezer.
Tips to Making this Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe
To make this Thai tea ice cream, you first need to make your Thai tea. I prepare it exactly the same way I would if I was making myself a pot of Thai tea, using a ceramic Chinese teapot with a filter beneath the lid, however, you can use whatever you have.
Something like this teapot with stainless steel filter would work. If you don’t have a filter or infuser built into your tea pot, you’ll need a Thai tea filter or tea strainer.
Spoon two tablespoons (heaped) of loose tea leaves of ChaTraMue Extra Gold Thai Tea Mix (or a similar tea, such as Number One Brand Original Thai Tea Mix Red Label) into the teapot filter or infuser, slowly pour the boiling water over the tea leaves. Then pop the lid on and allow the tea to steep for a few minutes.
My tea pot holds 600 ml (just over 20 oz) of water and I will fill it, even though I only need 90 ml for this recipe. As it’s so hot and humid here in Siem Reap at the moment, I’m sipping a lot of tall glasses of Thai iced tea right now, especially as I cook.
If you can’t find loose tea leaves, you can use tea bags. I recommend breaking them open and using them in the same way you would loose leaf, rather than dunking the tea bags in the tea pot. I buy big tins of ChaTraMue Extra Gold and the Red Label Number One Brand Original Thai Tea Mix and we use the tins to hold kitchen utensils.
If you don’t have a built-in filter in your teapot, and don’t want to make a full pot of tea, you can just pop a tea strainer on top of a coffee mug or an insulated travel mug (we have some cool coffee mugs and insulated travel mugs on Society6), spoon in your Thai tea leaves and pour 90 ml of hot water over them into the mug.
Whichever way you go, allow the tea to reach room temperature, then transfer it to the fridge or freezer to chill. So if you made your tea in a teapot, now you need to transfer 90 ml of it to a container to go in the fridge – which is why the insulated travel mug with lid is perfect, as the tea won’t spill.
Once the tea is cold, you’re ready to start the recipe below. I find 90 ml is absolutely perfect, but if it’s too strong for you add less tea next time, and if it’s too weak add more. I spotted advice on Amazon suggesting two tablespoons per every 8 oz or 236 ml, but I think that’s way too strong.
You should not need to add sugar as the sweetened condensed milk should provide plenty – which is why we add salt, to offset the sweetness. You can really use any salt, but I like the pink Himalayan salt. If you weren’t making a Thai tea ice cream, then a flavoured salt would work too. I plan on experimenting with flavoured salts so I’ll let you know how I go.
When it comes to freezing your ice cream mixture, by all means use one container, but I find it takes longer to freeze, so you will definitely want to leave it overnight.
Use a large ice cream scoop dipped in hot water to get a nice round shape. (We have a small ice cream scoop, as you can see!) Serve immediately, as no churn ice cream melts faster. For added texture, I recommend scattering some ground peanuts on top.
In keeping with the Thai theme, I sprinkled on some pounded deep-fried shallots and deep-fried garlic today. I know. Trust me, it works. It was so good I’m going to try including that in the ice-cream mixture before freezing it next time. I’ll report back.
Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ChaTraMue Extra Gold Thai Tea Mix
- 90 ml Thai Tea - cold
- 350 ml heavy whipping cream
- 180 ml sweetened condensed milk
- ¼ tsp seat salt or Pink Himalayan Salt
Instructions
- Spoon 2 tbsp of ChaTraMue Extra Gold Thai Tea Mix into a small teapot, add boiling water, and allow to steep for ten minutes.
- Using a strainer (if the teapot doesn’t have one), pour 90ml of tea into a mug or a vessel with a lid, such as an insulated travel mug, allow to reach temperature, then transfer to the fridge or freezer to chill.
- Using an electric hand beater, whip the heavy whipping cream until peaks form.
- Pour in the sweetened condensed milk, chilled Thai tea and salt, then blend only until everything is combined.
- Transfer to several small 500 ml ice cream containers or other freezer safe containers and freeze for a minimum of 5 hours or overnight.
Nutrition
Do let us know if you make this Thai tea ice cream recipe in the comments below as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
I made this ice cream but used frozen berries from my garden rippled through it. So easy and absolutely delicious.
Oh that sounds delicious! How I wish we could get good berries. They’re so expensive when they’re here. Terence has reminded me he made a no churn ice cream with mango some years ago and mango season is almost upon us – the trees are heaving with green mangoes – so will have to try that. Thanks for dropping by!