London fog ice cream is a beautiful ice cream flavour that combines Earl Grey tea and vanilla. Easy to make, this no churn London fog ice cream brings you the flavours of the London fog beverage in the fresh and creamy form of homemade ice cream. No ice cream machine required for this London fog no churn ice cream!

An ice cream machine is high on my list. I want to be able to make delicious gelato at home. The key to good ice cream is the use of the right ingredients and I can’t wait to try my hand at that art. Because let’s just say it – gelato is an art.

Yet, I still haven’t gotten around to buying myself such a machine. Been re-organizing the space in my kitchen and it’s not a good time (yet) to welcome a new kitchen appliance. We live in a rather small apartment and space is limited. The pressure cooker I got for Christmas has lived on the kitchen table for a handful of months before I was eventually able to find it a suitable storage place. The problem is, it’s not like I totally lack the space. It’s more like I am bad at occupying it.

While I am confident that sooner rather than later I will finally get my hands on an ice cream machine – while also ensuring it will have a designated storage space that is not my kitchen table – I have to rely on no churn ice cream recipes for the time being. Guess what, making homemade ice cream is actually pretty easy.

London fog ice cream

So I recently ventured into making no churn ice cream. Funny enough, while I was pondering whether I should buy myself a churner or maybe organize the space in my kitchen first, I got challenged by a food blogging colleague, Nick from Blogtastic Food to create a no churn ice cream flavour. He had made a pretty awesome one and was challenging other bloggers to get bold and come up with even more awesome flavours.

London fog is a favourite beverage of mine. I love Earl Grey tea. With milk. And vanilla syrup. Seriusly, in the winter I could have a cup of London fog anytime. I have a hard time saying what it is that I love the most – the Earl Grey tea, the hot milk or the vanilla syrup. One thing’s for sure, together they’re a recipe for perfection. So now I had to come up with a no churn ice cream flavour and I wanted to make one I’d love. I am in such a big gelato mood that I wanted to prove myself I am perfectly able to make it at home. Even without an ice cream machine.

By the way, this is my London fog recipe.

How to make no churn London fog ice cream

The basis to no churn ice cream making are pretty standard. All you need is whipped cream and (sweetened) condensed milk. It’s that simple. If you don’t have any other ingredients at hand, you’re good to go with those two. You don’t even need an electric mixer if you’re up for some exercise with a hand whisk. What you need, obviously, is a freezer. And a container – preferably one made of metal for better chilling. Square or rectangular cake pans (especially loaf pans) are great for this.

To make London fog ice cream you need to play with two key flavours: Earl Grey tea and vanilla. In this London fog ice cream recipe the Earl Grey tea is steeped directly in the cream, to release its full flavour right into one of the two key ingredients. It’s what we’re doing also in Earl Grey panna cotta, by the way. As for the vanilla, in this London fog ice cream I have used real vanilla bean, whereas in the beverage I usually go with vanilla syrup.

Earl grey flavoured cream

To make tea flavoured cream I chose to use loose leaf Earl Grey tea and cook it directly in the cream. The first time I came across tea-flavoured whipped cream I remember that teabags were being used. I chose to go with loose leaf, instead. Loose leaf tea is much stronger. With 2 tsp of loose leaf tea I was able to give quite an intense flavour to almost half a litre of cream.

Instead of steeping the tea in the hot cream, just like you would when making tea in hot water, I added the tea to the cold cream and brought it to a boil together. As the cream cooks and warms, the tea already starts releasing its flavour. I then removed the cream from the heat just before it reached boiling temperature. By then the tea had already released most of its flavour. I kept steeping it as I cooled my cream in an ice water bath, and once it cooled to room temperature I eventually strained it.

Cream needs to be chilled to fridge temperature for best results when making whipped cream. Once chilled, Earl Grey tea flavoured cream whips like regular cream. To make London fog ice cream you want to also add some vanilla bean to the cream before whipping. Then it’s all about folding in the condensed milk and placing your ice cream in the freezer to set (5-6 hours minimum). Enjoy your London fog ice cream!