Skip the ice cream shop and make this homemade cotton candy flavored ice cream instead!
You’ll love this no churn cotton candy ice cream for its beautiful colors, its tasty flavor, and how easy it is to make!
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If you’ve ever had cotton candy ice cream at Baskin Robbins, you know what a delicious treat it is.
It’s nice and creamy, with pretty colors and a hint of confectionary flavor.
But did you know you can make your own at home? It’s true–and you don’t even need an ice cream maker to do it!
You can make this no churn cotton candy ice cream recipe with just a few simple ingredients, making a lovely treat everyone will love.
Homemade Cotton Candy Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Machine
I’ve been making no-churn ice cream recipes for years, because the base is super easy to make and you can customize with loads of different flavors and varieties.
I especially love that you don’t need to freeze an ice cream bowl ahead of time, and you don’t need any fancy equipment to make it happen.
Instead, we use fluffy whipped cream to provide the creamy texture we want in an ice cream, and sweetened condensed milk provides sweetness.
I often add a bit of vanilla extract as a flavor enhancer, and for this recipe, I also used a cotton candy flavoring extract to provide that extra hint of sweetness.
I bought this variety of cotton candy extract from Amazon, because it was the easiest way to find it.
Food coloring provides the lovely hues of the ice cream, and when they’re frozen together, you get such a pretty marbling that really shines in each individual scoop of ice cream.
This is the perfect summer treat, but I also think it would be fun to serve at a birthday party or baby shower!
More Delicious No-Churn Ice Cream Recipes:
- Mississippi Mud Ice Cream
- Chocolate Marshmallow Ice Cream
- Turtle Ice Cream
- Red Velvet Ice Cream
- Black Forest Ice Cream
How to Make No-Churn Cotton Candy Ice Cream
It’s really easy to whip up a batch of this homemade ice cream recipe!
Ingredients You’ll Need:
- Heavy whipping cream
- Cotton candy extract
- Vanilla extract
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Red and blue food coloring (or other colors, if preferred)
How to Make this Easy Recipe:
(Full printable recipe card is located below)
Whip the cream. Add cold whipping cream to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or you can use a large mixing bowl and electric hand mixer).
Add the cotton candy extract and vanilla extract to the heavy cream.
With the mixer on high speed, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Turn the mixer off.
Add condensed milk. Use a rubber spatula to add the sweetened condensed milk and mix gently until it’s incorporated and no yellow streaks remain.
Tint the ice cream. Add half of the cream mixture to a separate bowl, so that you have two bowls of ice cream base.
Add 3-5 drops of red food coloring to one bowl and 3-5 drops of blue coloring to the other bowl of ice cream base.
You want just enough food coloring to tint the ice cream pink and light blue.
Use rubber spatula to fold the coloring in until the mixtures are uniformly tinted.
Layer. Using an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, drop ice cream mixture into an ice cream container, alternating between dollops of the two colors.
There’s no need to stir or swirl them together (that would just create purple!). Instead, tap the container on the table a couple of times to help the cream settle and release any air pockets.
Close the lid on the container or drape a layer of plastic wrap over the surface of the ice cream base.
Freeze. Freeze the ice cream for at least 8-10 hours, or until it’s completely frozen. Scoop and serve!
When you scoop it out, it looks like pink cotton candy and blue cotton candy ice creams are swirled together, making it so pretty!
You can enjoy this ice cream in a waffle cone or in a bowl.
Notes and Adaptations:
- I recommend starting with 1/2 teaspoon of cotton candy extract, because the variety I purchased was pretty strong (though this could vary with other brands). I wouldn’t use more than 1 teaspoon of the flavoring, otherwise the flavor becomes too saccharine. You want it to taste like homemade cotton candy ice cream, not a sickeningly sweet dessert. If you decide 1/2 teaspoon isn’t enough, you can fold a bit more in after adding the sweetened condensed milk.
- Feel free to use pink food coloring or light blue food coloring if you have them on hand. I used regular liquid food coloring, but you can also use gel food coloring if preferred.
- You can garnish with real cotton candy if you’d like!
- You may need to let the ice cream sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes or so to soften a bit before serving.
Recommended Equipment:
- Cotton candy flavoring extract
- Stand Mixer or Electric Hand Mixer
- Ice cream container – I like this insulated container for transporting ice cream, or these containers for easy storage. You can also use a 9×5″ loaf pan.
- Ice cream scoop – My two favorites are this scoop and this more traditional variety.
Cotton Candy Ice Cream (No Churn)
This lovely cotton candy ice cream is a no churn recipe that creates a beautiful pink and blue swirl sweet treat.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2-1 tsp cotton candy flavoring extract
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 14-oz sweetened condensed milk
- 2-5 drops each of red and blue food coloring
Instructions
- Add heavy cream, cotton candy extract, and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer).
- With the mixer on high speed, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. This means if you lift the whisk out of the bowl, it will leave little peaks behind that don't fall over.
- With a rubber spatula, gently fold the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream, until no yellow streaks remain.
- Add half of the cream mixture to a separate mixing bowl, so you have two bowls of cream mixture.
- Add 3-5 drops of red food coloring to one bowl and 3-5 drops of blue food coloring to the other. Use a rubber spatula to fold the coloring into each mixture until they are evenly tinted.
- Use an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to spoon out dollops of the ice cream mixtures into an ice cream container, alternating between the two colors. Do not stir or swirl the colors together, simply layer them on top of and next to each other.
- Close lid on ice cream container (or cover surface with plastic wrap). Freeze for at least 8-12 hours, or until frozen through.
- Scoop and serve as desired.
Notes
- I recommend starting with 1/2 teaspoon of cotton candy extract, because the variety I purchased was pretty strong (though this could vary with other brands). I wouldn't recommend using more than 1 teaspoon of the flavoring, otherwise the flavor becomes too saccharine. You want it to taste like homemade cotton candy ice cream, not a sickeningly sweet dessert. If you decide 1/2 teaspoon isn't enough, you can fold a bit more in after the sweetened condensed milk is added.
- Feel free to use pink food coloring or light blue food coloring if you have them on hand. I used regular liquid food coloring, but you can also use gel food coloring if preferred.
- You can garnish with real cotton candy if you'd like!
- You may need to let the ice cream sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes or so to soften slightly before scooping.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 278Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 67mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 0gSugar: 25gProtein: 5g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is not guaranteed for accuracy.
Be sure to save this recipe to your ice cream board on Pinterest!
