Kool-Aid Is The Secret Ingredient You Need To Make No Churn Ice Cream

In this viral ice cream recipe, Kool-Aid powder is the ingredient that packs all the flavor in its small, colorful paper pouches. The only other ingredients required are heavy whipping cream and condensed milk. Whisk it all together and add sugar if you want it sweeter. Then, freeze — and be sure to store it in the right spot of your freezer. Voila! After a few hours, you've got a delicious no-churn ice cream in a fun flavor.

As this easy DIY recipe shows, ice cream is quite a self-explanatory food; it is simply cream, sugar, and flavorings that have been processed and chilled. However, there are little tips and tricks to elevate this simple dish into a decadent dessert. To ensure your ice cream turns out smooth, add simple syrup instead of sugar. (This is also a fancy trick for sweetening iced coffee!) Because the sugar is already dissolved, you don't get stuck with chunky sugar crystals in your final product.

For a little added texture in your ice cream, toss in chunks of frozen fruits you should have stocked at home based on the flavor of Kool-Aid you chose. For example, if you opt for the cherry pack, you could stir in some cherries. Alternatively, satisfy your sweet tooth with a few maraschino cherries — or opt for luxurious Luxardo cherries. This gives you something to chew in an otherwise melt-in-your-mouth dessert.

While this ice cream recipe is simple to make at home, there are some strong opinions on churned versus no churn. Churning allows for air to meet the ingredients as the ice cream freezes instead of after. Otherwise, freezing the ingredients without churning would cause the ice cream to develop ice crystals — and no one wants that. To prevent ice crystals from forming, make sure you seal the top of your homemade delight with something like plastic wrap or wax paper.

So, how does no-churn ice cream get the right texture? Well, it all goes back to one important ingredient mentioned previously — heavy whipping cream — and whipping it to perfection. This may take some time. You're ready to add in everything else when the cream forms stiff peaks, meaning you should be able to flip your bowl upside-down without creating a mess on your kitchen counter. This replaces the churning step because it allows air into the cream and creates a fluffy texture that prevents ice crystals from forming. Then, that bit of condensed milk keeps things even softer by lowering the freezing point, creating fewer crystals too.