Homemade Ice Cream

We did this activity a few days after we made the homemade butter, but I'm only now getting around to posting about it. We had left over whipping cream from the butter to use, and I'd been hearing a lot about doing this and wanted to try it. I got the recipe from Spoonful.com.







You need:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup half and half (or half whipping cream, half milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)
• Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full) (this means about 3 trays of ice cubes per bag)
• 1 pint-size ziplock bag
• 1 gallon-size ziplock bag
  

Step 1: Make the ice ahead of time. This project required more ice than I realized it would, so I had to keep putting it off because I kept needing more ice.You can keep the ice cubes in the gallon size ziploc bags while the trays are making more. Plan this ahead of time and start making the ice 2-3 days in advance, depending on how many ice cube trays you have and how much room you have in the freezer.

Step 2: Put the sugar, vanilla, and half and half (or whipping cream and milk, or just plain milk, though 1% does NOT make creamy ice cream) in the bag and seal it. We used regular sandwich bags and we think they leaked a bit because it was a little bit salty. I recommend double bagging, though this will probably mean it will take a few more minutes to freeze.

Step 3: Put the milk bag in the ice bag and put 1/2 cup of salt on the ice. Seal the bag and start shaking it until the milk solidifies. This takes about 5 minutes; longer (probably) if you double bag or don't shake it enough. I've read some families put their bags in the dryer to tumble on no heat. Early Bird didn't last the whole 5 minutes, so Daddy took over his shaking. Builder Boy's hands got cold, so we tried to position his hands so they were holding just the edges, and then he did okay.

Step 4: Once it's ready, take out the small bag and eat right out of it! It's the consistency of soft serve, and will start to melt pretty quickly.

We ran out of whipping cream and had read that you can do it with plain milk, so Daddy tried making it with 1%. It was still ice cream when it was done, but it wasn't creamy at all. But the boys loved that they had made their own ice cream and they ate it up.

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