Do you like ice cream? If so this is going to change your life. I’ve only known about it for a month or so and it has already changed mine.

It all began with Diana Henry‘s excellent book, How to Eat a Peach. It’s a book that goes through the year and offers different menus, based on her memories and the time of year. I made the whole of ‘Take me back to Istanbul’ which began with roast aubergine and goat’s cheese, followed by lamb kofte, and ended with Turkish cardamom coffee ice cream. I would have never made the ice cream, in normal circumstances, but this one looked really simple: no machine required and no stirring every 30 minutes.

The secret ingredient was condensed milk. I was somewhat sceptical at first, but now I am a complete convert. What’s more, I remembered that I had seen something similar in the Palomar cookbook and then, once I searched online, I discovered that this is known as no-churn ice cream, and every food writer/website (Nigella, Martha Stewart, the Kitchn…) has heard of it; it’s just me that’s late to the party.

Try it; you won’t regret it. I’ve worked my way through a version of the Henry recipe several times (using real espresso, not instant), a Nigella salted caramel Bourbon recipe and used the Palomar template and technique to make a salted caramel sans-Bourbon recipe. All of them combine two basic ingredients, condensed milk (or caramel condensed milk in the Nigella recipe) and cream, with a flavouring and whereas Palomar whisks the cream separately, the others don’t and that’s now my method too. I use Nigella’s proportions, Henry’s method and Palomar’s alternatives suggestion (‘add 100g of your favourite flavour/fruit’ to a basic recipe). They all work, they all take about five minutes and, once you’ve mastered the really simple technique, you have a memorable recipe that can be used all summer long. I’m going for mango ripple next; how about you?

Makes enough for 4 post-dinner, or 2 as dinner…

Basic recipe (adapted from all three)
condensed milk, 397g (the usual tin size)
double cream, 300ml

How to
Beat the condensed milk and cream together with an electric whisk or in a food processor until thickened. Add flavouring and stir in well. Freeze for at least five hours.

For the salted bourbon caramel
Swap the condensed milk for the same amount of caramel condensed milk, and add a teaspoon of flaky sea salt. Once the mixture has been beaten, taste to see if it is salty enough (remember the flavour will be muted once frozen). Add more if needed and whisk in slowly, along with 1-3 tbsp of bourbon to taste. Freeze as above.

For the Turkish cardamom coffee
Use only half a tin of condensed milk. Mix 2 tablespoons of hot espresso coffee with freshly ground cardamom seeds from 10 pods. Leave to cool. Once the mixture has been beaten, stir the cooled spiced coffee in. Freeze as above.

For salted caramel
Once the mixture has been beaten, stir in 100g salted caramel sauce. Freeze as above.

For all other flavours
Stir in 100g of whatever you fancy (fruit purée or chopped berries; Nutella; peanut butter…) to the mixture after beating. Freeze as above.