Anyone who has made ice cream at home knows that the process can be blissful at best… and a downright disaster at worst. Your hopes of a smooth and creamy treat can be dashed in a second by ice cream that hasn’t set, or worse, is full of ice crystals. So if you’re running the gauntlet for this fickle beast, it turns out the secret to the creamiest, no-churn ice cream is vodka.

No, we’re not suggesting a nip of Dutch courage to ease those pre-cooking jitters. What we are suggesting, however, is a little bit of kitchen alchemy.

If you’ve kept your vodka in the freezer – which we sincerely hope you have been – you’ll notice that it doesn’t freeze. This is because alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water, and spirits with a high alcohol content like vodka don’t become solid until they reach around -26 degrees Celsius.

Given that an average freezer sits around the -17 degrees Celsius mark, it makes sense that a splash of vodka is a one-way ticket to velvety ice cream, every time.

Related story: 40 ice cream recipes that are the creme de la creme

By adding a 30ml shot of vodka to the base of a 500ml ice cream recipe, the alcohol will become evenly incorporated into the mix, which will eliminate any chance of big crystal pockets or the ice cream setting as hard as a rock.

Vodka also has very little flavour or aroma, so won’t change the flavour of your ice cream at all, though if you did want a boozy flavour, try adding bourbon to a cherry ice cream, or rum to a pineapple and lime sorbet for a pina colada twist.

For obvious reasons, this one is only for the grown ups. And even if you’re tempted, don’t add more than a splash, otherwise your ice cream may not set at all and you’ll be left with a runny milkshake mess. Which to be honest, wouldn’t be the worst thing to drink, but that’s a story for another time.

Related story: Matt Preston’s favourite no-churn ice cream recipes to make at home