Homemade ice cream is the stuff of fond memories in our childhood. A loving mother, grandmother or relative knew how to make ice cream that was absolutely delicious. Homemade ice cream tastes so good not because it is “better” that the store brands, but because we take the time and effort to make it ourselves.
If you want to experience the joy of making ice cream for the first time, the process itself is actually quite simple. The trick is knowing what to add to give it that extra special flavor. What follows is how to make your own ice cream.
Ingredients
While everyone has their own way of creating ice cream, here are the basic ingredients you will need in order to get started.
– ½ cup Whole Milk or Cream
– 1 tbsp Sugar
– 1 tsp Vanilla
– 6 tbsp Kosher Salt
– 2 Cups of Ice
You can use 1% or 2% milk, but there will be some unwanted crystallization because of the water content of the milk. You’ll also need a dish towel, quart size zip top bag and a single sandwich size zip top bag as well. Plus, if you have any special “fixins” that you like on your ice cream, such as candy or fruit, then have them handy as well.
#1 – Combine the Milk, Sugar and Vanilla extract in the Sandwich bag and seal it tightly. Next, put the ice and Kosher Salt in the Quart size bag. Place the Sandwich bag inside the Quart bag and seal it up.
#2 – Shake the Bag without having it pop open until it becomes the consistency of ice cream. This is generally the fun part and where the kids can get involved. This usually takes about five minutes if you shake properly and a little longer if you are somewhat slow. Be sure to hold the bag with the dish towel so that your hands do not get frozen.
#3 – Add the “fixins” to the ice cream. This means any fruit or candy that you want to have with your ice cream needs to be there so you can enjoy it.
Using this method, it makes a single serving but you can double up on the recipe to make two servings. However, if you have the kids around the house for a barbeque or family gathering, having them with their own bags to make ice cream can be a real joy. It’s just as much fun for the adults as well.
If you want to make larger servings all at once, then you need the same ingredients, but instead of the freezer bags you’ll want to have a large bucket for the ice, a smaller bucket for the ingredients and a hand-held mixer to stir the ingredients until it becomes ice cream. You can also use a hand-held whisk and do the work yourself if you want to experience what it was like to make homemade ice cream in the days before refrigeration.
