Our toddler is firmly entrenched in the impossible-question-asking phase. “What’s that smoke doin’?” “What’s mommy’s eyebrow doin’?” “What’s that ice cream doin’?”
I mean how do you answer these questions?! I’m flummoxed.
Well, okay, except for that last question. What’s that ice cream doin’? Well, honey, it’s bein’ frickin’ delicious, that’s what! And it’s so easy, too. This Sea Salt & Honey Ice Cream is made with only two base ingredients – that’s right, two! No eggs, no custard, no machines.
I start with Kevin & Amanda’s inspiring no-churn base recipe, which uses two cups of heavy whipping cream and one can of sweetened condensed milk. Diet food this is not.
And then I stir in a nice amount of sweet-and-sticky honey and a little sea salt. Mmmmmm. And then cover and freeze! Several hours later, out comes the creamiest, richest, and quite possibly most incredible ice cream I’d ever made, machine or otherwise.
I love this recipe for entertaining. Take five minutes early in the day, whip up the ice cream, and put it in the freezer. Then when dinner’s over, just sneak into the kitchen and scoop this creamy-delicious-sweet-and-salty stuff into cups, bowls, or cones, and serve your happy guests. It’s rich, decadent, and special-occasion-worthy. In fact, I pretty much can only have this in my house for special occasions only, because it’s just too tempting!
If you’re a fan of salted caramel, I’m willing to bet you’ll love this one, too. Flecks of briny sea salt highlight honey’s floral sweetness – this right here is just luxe, creamy decadence. So, so good.
So what’s that ice cream doin’? Something very, very awesome, my dear.

Sea Salt & Honey No-Churn Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup honey (I like clover honey for this recipe + 1 tablespoon for topping + a little more for serving if desired)
- 1/2 teaspoon Fleur de sel sea salt + more for serving if desired
Instructions
- Pour the whipping cream into the bowl of a stand mixer affixed with the whisk attachment. Start out mixing on low speed, then slowly increase speed to high and mix until the whipping cream forms stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. You can also use a bowl and a hand mixer, or a bowl and a whisk and mix by hand (but it'll probably take awhile unless you have superpowers!)
- Using a spatula, gently fold the sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt into the whipped cream. Continue stirring gently until completely combined. Pour into a freezer-safe container with airtight lid. Drizzle the top with 1 tablespoon honey. Seal.
- Freeze until solid, at least 6 hours.
- Scoop into cups, bowls, or onto cones; drizzle individual servings with a little more honey and a bonus pinch of sea salt if desired. Serve.
Awww you’re kiddo sounds cute! My nieces and nephews are all young and in their inquisitive years, which I’m sure makes parenting them tough but it’s fun to see everything they’re interested in learning.
This ice cream. It needs a full-time job in my mouth. That’s what it should do. No egg yolks? SOLD!!
You always make me giggle – “full time job in my mouth.” You come up with THE best lines. 🙂
Whoa!! I cannot resist a good sweet salty combo and this is amazing! Pinned!
Thanks, Kelli!
Love this recipe and passed it on to the college kiddos. So easy for them to make and reminiscent of the homemade ice cream we make each summer machine, rock salt, custard and all. They will appreciate this easy creation! By the way feel free to pass some over the fence 🙂
We inherited an old-fashioned ice cream machine recently and as much as I love this easy no-churn recipe, I’ve got to admit I look forward to trying the rock salt version out! As far as passing food over the fence goes – I *often* have extras! Be careful what you wish for! Hee hee. 😉
I totally remember the question-asking phase with my daughter! She’s five, and it’s slowed down some, but I know we’ll soon be there with my son.
Your photos of this ice cream make me wish I had a bowl right now, even though it’s not yet 7am. I’m loving the honey-sea salt combo!
Any suggestions for making a lactose free version? Soy milk? Coconut whipped cream? This would be the perfect flavor for my daughter, who is unfortunately lactose intolerant. Any suggestions would be most appreciated! Please respond to provided email, if indeed, you have suggestions! Thank you, and Happy Summer!
Hi Jeri Ann, unfortunately I have very little experience with dairy-free ice creams (except for eating them! 😉 I’ve heard some folks have success with canned full-fat coconut milk but that alone wouldn’t do it as a base. I actually just read this from The Kitchn earlier today and must say this dairy-free ice cream (that uses the canned coconut milk) looks pretty darn good! http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-vegan-ice-cream-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-204755 Hope that helps. 🙂
Oh my…this looks like heaven on earth! I can’t believe how easy this recipe is – this is some dangerous knowledge, indeed!
I love salted caramel desserts so I’m sure I’d love this! It sounds so easy to make too which could be dangerous for me because I’ll probably make it too often. 🙂
What beautiful photos! This ice cream is gorgeous, and I can’t believe it’s so simple. Glad to have found your site via Foodgawker and looking forward to reading more!
This is a total win. This is the easiest ice cream, by far, that I’ve ever made, but you’d never know it. The end result is super creamy. The combination of the evaporated milk and the sea salt *really* gives the impression of salted caramel. And the touch of honey was so good – it would never have occurred to me to try honey with ice cream, but it really, really worked. We’ll be making this frequently, especially when we have guests over the next night and want to impress.
Yay! I am so happy you liked it. 🙂 I’ve decided it’s the easiest summer entertaining dessert ever. The bonus is that everyone will eat it all and then I won’t have any left over in the freezer tempting me. Because I have ZERO willpower when I know its in there! 🙂
Since I have an ice cream freezer for my kitchenaid I am going to try to make it in the freezer. Sounds so yummy!
I have the perfect Lavender Honey to use for this recipe! It will go down a real treat. And even though I have one, I’m not always keen to pull out my machine so this is perfect.
any chance one can use a vitamix instead??
I have been obsessed with honey lately. I know I would love this flavor. It looks amazing!
Wow. I’ve been debating getting an ice cream machine for ages, but now you’ve just given me the perfect excuse not to. Ugh, this is going to be so dangerous as soon as I can get it in and out of the freezer!
This looks delicious! I just found a shop that sells bacon dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt (sounds crazy but so good).This sounds like the perfect thing for summer!
I am IN LOVE! A friend on Twitter said she was making this today and I was so intrigued I ran out to the store for the ingredients and I made it too. I can’t believe how easy it was. And talk about yummy! Creamy, sweet, a hint of salt. I used buckwheat honey and it’s great. I have a feeling I’m going to be making this a lot.
I’m obsessed with this! I cannot believe how well it turned out. My favorite drink from Starbucks is the salted carmel mocha so I’ve made the ice cream and added hot cocoa mix instead of honey and I’ve got caramel sauce to drizzle on top. I can’t wait!
It is SO SO addicting. What it is about sweet and salty?!! The ice cream base is super versatile so I love that you mixed it up (literally). I’d love to hear how it turned out!
**caramel oops! Got too excited. lol
Made this today and my mouth watered all day waiting to have it for dessert tonight! Which my husband and I just did…..and it is heaven on earth!! libbi, my favorite drink @ star bucks is also the Salted Caramel Mocha….doesn’t it just make you mad that it is a fall and winter drink only and they don’t keep the salt in stock for the spring and summer months! At least that’s the way it is here in Southern IN. and Ky. Any way this ice cream is the best I’ve ever tasted! Salted caramel is my down fall….I took it a step further and drizzled a home made whiskey caramel sauce over the top for serving! I love all your recipes ….keep them coming !!
Whiskey caramel sauce — my mouth is watering. Like actually watering, not just saying that. 🙂 So glad you liked the recipe!
This recipe sounds fantastic! I would love to try it with my ice cream maker – are there any big changes to the directions if you use an ice cream maker, or do you just complete steps 1 and 2 normally and throw it in the machine?
Hi Elise, I’ve not made this in my ice cream maker (though I have made many, many other homemade ice creams that way). I think it should work out okay if you just complete the recipe up to the point you would throw it in the fridge and instead put it in the ice cream maker. It might be more soft-serve consistency right out of the ice cream maker but as I’m sure you know that’s not atypical. If you do try it please let us know how it turned out that way!
So simple yet makes such a big impression! Every time I make it I get asked for the recipe! In my freezer it needs a bit more than 6 hours more like 8 hours. Thank you for yet another wonderfully delicious yet simple recipe!
This sounds delicious!!! I have a big box of
Kosher salt – will that work for the sea salt?
Hi Emily, I think it will work in a pinch! You might just want to go a little lighter on the kosher salt as fleur de sel tends to be a little milder.
This ice-cream just went into my freezer and I can already tell it’s going to threaten my willpower something fierce. I’ve licked the bowl before washing it and the unfrozen cream already tasted like heaven. Luckily, I halved the recipe so that it might not be a complete carnage when I dig in tonight.
I seriously cannot have it in the house (well, freezer). Halving is a good idea! Luckily it’s pretty decadent so a tiny bit goes a long way … so there is that. 🙂 Hope you enjoyed!
YES! Just what I’ve been looking for — this looks amazing and your pictures are beautiful!
Thanks for the great recipe. I just made it so I have hours to go before it’s totally frozen. It tastes amazing but it’s lumpy. What did I do wrong? Is it the condensed milk ? Help !!
Hmm, I’m not sure! Are the lumps big or small?
Hi! The texture of this ice cream is amazing!!! I have been trying to make my own ice cream for a long time, and this texture is the best. Thank you! My question is that it is sooo sweet. A little too sweet for me, and my 4 yr old said it was for him too. I have been trying to get this texture, but less sugar. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!
Any chance you think this could be made with ready-made whipped cream, like cool whip?
Hi Ashley, I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say for sure. But if you try it, please report back!
I made this today and just had some – delicious! A bit on the sweet side, but the honey and fleur de sel were very pronounced and lovely together. Thank you for sharing this!
I love this! I am now addicted to the no churn no salt ice cream recipe
BUT I am not very confident as to what other flavors and ingredients I can add without ruining it….things like nuts, chocolate chunks, etc., are fine, but if the added ingredient is a liquid, for example, I’m afraid it would ruin the ice cream. SO…the more “extra” flavors for this wonderful ice cream the better!
My batch is in the freezer as dessert for tomorrow night’s dinner. The unfrozen version tasted delish!! I did think I could have added a bit more salt, for the crunch. But will wait until I eat the finished product to make the final judgement on that! I look forward to it:)
This looks amazing, but what if I have an icecream-making I’d like to use to speed along the freezing process?! How should I revise the receipe, if at all?
Karen, you’ve just made my day! This must be the most delicious ice cream ever!
It is definitely good for those who want to enjoy sweet and salty ice cream together. We love this recipe and shared with our readers.
didn’t even know this was possible! And this has been posted for awhile! Thank you for this recipe, just saw it linked in foodiecrush with a few other non-churn recipes, was intrigued since I didn’t know about this technique, probably because I’ve never tried to make ice cream with all that’s required with the traditional technique, so thank you so much for this recipe and this technique!
This method really does make the most delicious ice cream too – seriously so insanely good. 🙂 Thanks Sabrina!
I have been dying to make this ice cream and finally got everything together that’s needed. I even bought the loaf pan you mentioned in your recipe. However, my concern is that the pan does not come with a lid and I cannot for the life of me find one that fits! Suggestions?
I just cover with a little plastic wrap. 🙂
Oh my! Hubby would love this! Pinning now! Thanks for sharing!!
Could add a teaspoon of nuts too.
Just don’t go dipping cones of that into chocolate and crushed almonds, as that’d be a big copyright breach!
Hi! Is heavy whipping cream the same as whipping cream?
This is gorgeous and so simple to make it’s an absolute delight
I love this. yum. I was wandering if salt has to be used and why? I’ve read that the ice-cream made like this last only a week in the freezer, is this so? Also I noticed my lips and roof of mouth feel creamy like a film over it. What causes this and how can I prevent it? Thanks in advance for your help
Love this Sea Salt & Honey Ice Cream. Super excited to try this , will surely gonna love this . Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe with us .
An excellent recipe. Delicious ice-cream and so easy to make.