Turron Ice Cream

This Turron Ice Cream Recipe is a delicious guide to making ice cream without an ice cream maker. It’s a no churn recipe. You can enjoy turron in a whole new way.

Turron Ice Cream is one of those things that just makes it feel like Christmas. This sweet delicious dessert is perfect this season. You can make it ahead and it will be waiting for you after Christmas Eve dinner or for a special treat on Christmas day.

Turron is a sweet almond nougat. Turrón as it’s called in Spain, is a southwestern European nougat, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds or other nuts. It comes in many different varieties but almond is always the base. The almonds are ground with sugar for smooth and crunchy texture. It’s a very similar texture to halva which is sesame finely ground together with sugar. 

Our Turron Ice Cream is a no churn ice cream, which means that you don’t need an ice cream maker to make it. The turron ice cream gets its creamy texture from smooth mascarpone cream and whipping the cream until very thick and folding in the other ingredients. 

Noche Buena wasn’t complete until my mom and grandmothers plated the turron, chestnuts and dried fruit on silver platters. It was the one sweet bite we could nibble on before the pork was ready. 

Ani

Some Tips for Making Turron Ice Cream

• You want the heavy cream to be as cold as possible because it will whip up much better and make for a creamier ice cream.
• Use the best ingredients you can find. The vanilla and turron should be the best quality because those are the flavors that shine.
• Remember you are freezing cream. When you are ready to serve, it will need to slightly thaw before scooping. 
• You can substitute the vanilla bean paste with vanilla extract but if you can get your hands on it, the vanilla bean paste adds an incredible layer of flavor to the cream, and the little black specs of the vanilla are a beautiful touch too.  

Serve this ice cream topped with some nuts or chocolate. It would be great served alongside our rum cake or either of our warm bread puddings for the perfect bite. 

Turron Ice Cream

Recipe by Abuelas Cuban CounterCourse: DessertCuisine: CubanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking timeminutes

It’s not Christmas without Turron

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups of heavy whipping cream, cold

• 1 can sweet condensed milk 

• 1 ½ cups of creamy almond turron, chopped and crumbled into small chunks (we like using el Almendro or Sanchis Mira brands)

• 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste 

• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract 

• ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt

• 8 oz mascarpone cheese, softened to room temperature 

• Garnish: almonds, chocolate shavings, whipped cream

Directions

• Completely line a metal loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside. 
• Add the cold heavy cream to a bowl. Whip it with a hand held mixer on high for 3-4 minutes until it is thick and creamy. Set aside. 
• In another bowl add the condensed milk, softened mascarpone cream, salt, vanilla extract and vanilla paste.  Whip it together with the same hand held mixer for about 2 minutes until everything is smooth and combined. Add 1 cup of the chopped turron. Mix again until combined. 
• Take a third of the whipped cream and fold it into the condensed milk mixture. Being careful not to deflate the whipped cream mix everything together. Then add in the remaining cream and fold everything in. Continue to be as gentle as possible. You want to see streaks of the condensed milk and the cream together. 
• Add half the mixture to the loaf pan sprinkle in more of the crumbled turron then add the remaining mixture. Top with the remaining turron. 
• Freeze for at least 3 hours. Once it set you can serve. If the ice cream freezes for a longer period of time you will need to take out the container at least 10 minutes before serving. It needs time to thaw slightly before scooping.