Homemade Ice Cream In a Bag!

One of our favorite summertime traditions is making homemade ice cream in a bag! Have you ever tried it? If you haven’t, you should, your kids will love it and have a blast making it!

Did you know that yesterday was National Ice Cream Day?

Did you miss it? Don’t worry about it, there won’t be a penalty. I mean, seriously, National Ice Cream Day or no National Ice Cream Day, who said you couldn’t enjoy some ice cream on any other day? Not me, that’s fer sure.

Did you know that pretty much everything tastes better when you make it yourself? (Really, when I started letting my children all create their own taco salads, they started piling on the veggies, and eating more, all the while licking their chops and declaring that those were the best taco salads ever!)

And when you make it yourself, well, you know what’s in it!!

We had so much fun making ice cream this way last year for the first time, and it is fast becoming a favorite summer pastime, not to mention favorite summer treat, and we just couldn’t pass up National Ice Cream Day without shaking up another batch!

If you have never tried this, here’s how you do it-

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream*
• 1/2 cup half & half*
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2-3/4 cup rock salt**
• ice cubes
• gallon sized ziploc™ bag
• quart sized ziploc™ bag

*You can use 1/2 cream & 1/2 milk as well, or all half & half, or even all milk, if that’s all you have, but I can assure you that it’s better with the good stuff {I love real cream! #yum} 🙂
**Regular table salt will work in a pinch, but rock salt works best

Directions:

Place first 4 ingredients in quart bag, seal well. Fill gallon bag half full of ice and add rock salt. Place well-sealed quart bag inside ice and salt-filled gallon bag, seal well, and shake, shake, and shake some more! (A rocking motion works well, tipping the bag back-and-forth, over and over and over again.)

{Be careful to hold the bag by the corners as the salt will react with the ice, lowering the freezing temperature, and making the ice colder than cold- cold enough to damage skin. Trust me on this one, hold the corners.}

In about 10 minutes, voilà! Ice cream in a bag! You can scoop in into a bowl or save on the dishwashing and eat it right out of the bag. Guess which way the kids will like better? 🙂 Tip- a straw works great to get the last melted bits. You’re welcome. 😀

You can add things like chocolate syrup, mini chocolate chips, mint extract, sprinkles, berries, or anything that strikes your fancy (and that you happen to have in your cupboards)!

Do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream? Do share!