The Best Easy Vanilla Chai Ice Cream

This delicious and creamy homemade vanilla chai ice cream with a dulce de leche drizzle is so easy to make. It uses no eggs, and has the perfect hints of chai spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves. It’s your favorite vanilla chai latte in ice cream form – a chai lover’s dream!

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Hellooo summer! Welcome sunshine, long, hot beach days, and warm breezes… With the sweltering heat of the summer, we’ve been dreaming of fall weather and chai lattes. My fellow chai tea lovers, you can absolutely still delight in those delicious chai flavors without the heat! Your vanilla chai tea latte comes in mind-blowingly delicious, velvety, creamy, caramely ice cream form! Talk about a dream come true!

And one of the best parts – it’s so so easy! There’s no messing around with eggs or custard in this recipe! No complicated directions to follow, just steep your chai, combine all your flavors, chill, churn, and DONE! You seriously cannot tell it’s made without eggs. It’s just that creamy, rich, and delicious!

Don’t forget the dulce de leche drizzle… It’s the perfect topping to complement those chai flavors.

Make it for a party, make it for the holidays, make it for a snack for those sweltering summer days. It’s what I’m doing! This vanilla chai ice cream has become a favorite at our house and everyone is always clamoring for more.

What do you need to make vanilla chai ice cream?

Let’s start with some easy, basic ingredients.

You’ll need whole milk, heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, chai tea bags, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt, and tiny bit of xanthan gum (it’s optional but recommended).

Using xanthan gum in ice cream

Don’t let that last one scare you at all – xanthan gum is a natural stabilizer, made by a fermentation from sugar. It might sound odd, but it’s simply an emulsifier or stabilizer similar to the way a starch is used to thicken soups, or egg yolks are used in more traditional ice cream. Xanthan gum serves a similar function, which is to prevent ice crystals from forming in your ice cream and to make a more smooth and creamy texture.

Since this recipe uses no yolks, the xanthan gives it a little boost of creamy-ness. It’s really no big deal if you leave it out, though. I personally like to keep some xanthan gum on hand since it also helps with gluten free cooking.

Churning the ice cream

If you’ve never made homemade ice cream, no worries! This KitchenAid Ice Cream maker attachment does all the work for you and does it beautifully. If you’re already using a KitchenAid mixer (this is the one I use), it’s super easy to turn it into an ice cream maker and from then on, you’ll only want to eat homemade ice cream! Win-win! Hey, it’s also not a bad way to make healthier ice cream and frozen desserts, too.

Use any ice cream maker of your choice to churn the ice cream according to manufacturer’s instructions. It’s best to move it to a freezer safe container right away, seal it, and freeze overnight or up to 24 hours before enjoying. It’s so worth the wait!

How to make the best vanilla chai ice cream

Start by heating up your milk on the stove and steeping your chai tea bags for a few minutes. The milk will absorb all that wonderful, fragrant chai… Mmm…

Once the chai is done steeping, take out the tea bags and pour in the whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk (my secret ingredient to the best ice cream), pure vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and sea salt. Whisk the mixture on low heat to make sure everything gets combined well. This step helps the ingredients to mix and mingle. Lastly, take off the heat and whisk in xanthan gum.

The ice cream mixture needs to be completely cold before churning, so put it in the refrigerator to chill. Now the waiting begins….

Once it’s cold, let your ice cream maker do its job! Move it to a separate container to freeze overnight (if you’re patient), because this allows it to completely solidify and become perfect for scooping.

Dulce de leche caramel drizzle

I can’t imagine a more perfect topping/drizzle option than dulce de leche. This delicious caramel is made using sweetened condensed milk and actually also happens to make it into Russian cooking a lot. It’s the sort of flavor that takes me back to my childhood and just can’t be beat. Me = forever and always a lover of all things dulce de leche.

I love making my own dulce de leche the same day I make my ice cream. It tastes so good and fresh! Keep in mind that it does take about 4 hours of caramelizing so you’ll need to be able to check on it every now and then. Generally, it’s quite easy to make your own and I often prefer it, but a store-bought caramel drizzle or dulce de leche is also a great and easy option.

How to make homemade dulce de leche drizzle

If you want to venture out and try to make your own, you’ll find a thousand different online recipes. However, be careful, because I wouldn’t recommend placing the whole can in a water bath on the stove, just because it may not be safe. You could try a similar cooking method to mine…

I typically pour sweetened condensed milk into a mason jar, loosely cover it with a lid, and cook on low heat in a water bath. I line a medium saucepan with a kitchen towel, place my jar in, and fill it up with water so that the milk is submerged. It’s like a little bath for the mason jar of milk. Every now and then, I stir it and add more water to the saucepan, since it evaporates (this is important). The dulce de leche is usually ready in about 3-4 hours. Do note the color and taste it now and again to make sure it’s reached the perfect consistency.

A Dutch stroopwafel, which is a caramel waffle cookie, is a great companion to this vanilla chai ice cream. I give all credit to my husband, Caleb, for it was his genus idea to pair the two ❤️ And I’m sure one day we’ll be bakings stroopwafels together from scratch!

Don’t forget to pin and share this recipe, as well as leave a comment below. I always love hearing from you ☺️

Other Recipes You Might Love

• Easy Brazilian Avocado Ice Cream – creamy and delicious Brazilian treat
• Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti – Delicious little Italian cookies dipped in rich dark chocolate and covered in crushed roasted hazelnuts. Perfect to dip into coffee or tea!

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