National Ice Cream Month: Celebrate at Home

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IMG_4170July is national ice cream month so let’s celebrate!

We love ice cream in our home – who doesn’t?  But since I love to make thing from scratch using quality ingredients, I love to make my own ice cream.  Oh it is so yummy.  You won’t want store bought brand after you try this.

The other morning we had about a fourth of a gallon of milk left I wanted to use before our vacation.  So I searched for a quick recipe to make ice cream in a bag.  Have you ever done this?  The boys had fun and well…somehow mommy ended up doing most of the shaking. It was simple and fun.  Give it a try.  I would recommend doing it outside.  Even though we used name brand freezer baggies and we were careful not to get holes in it we still had leaks!  Th best part is I bet you have everything on hand so you can make it today.

Ice Cream in a Bag…

Do a quick Google search and you can find plenty of recipes and of course there is Pinterest.  Here is a recipe if you want detailed instructions.  Here is what we did.

Ingredients:

Ice cubes…enough to fill larger freezer bag about half full

1/2 cup salt (rock salt or table salt – I used table salt and it worked great)

1 smaller freezer bag (quart)

1 larger freezer bag (gallon)

1 cup milk (we used whole milk)

2 Tbsp maple syrup/honey or sweetener of your choice (you can add more if you like it sweeter)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional omit if you want vanilla)

Method:

1. Combine Milk, Sweetner, Vanilla, and Cocoa powder in the smaller bag.  Make sure it is sealed well.

2. Put the ice and salt in the larger bag then put the smaller bag inside the larger bag on the ice.  Seal the larger bag and try to get out as much air as possible.

3. Shake the bag for about 5 minutes.  It will get pretty cold so we ended up rolling it around on the ground.  Feel the inside bag to determine if it has set up yet.

4. Take out the smaller bag and enjoy.  We transferred it to a bowl to eat.

And yes we had it for breakfast!  Just like chocolate milk right?

Chocolate Ice Cream…

If you want to make homemade ice cream in larger quantities this is my go to recipe.  I love the blog Just Making Noise that I got this recipe from.  Marilyn Beard and her family are missionaries in Honduras.  She sells her ice cream e-book Just Making Ice Cream that you can purchase (it is beautiful!) and 100% of the profits go to Rancho Oasis for Youth.  I used her recipe for Chunky Strawberry Chocolate Ice cream as a guide to just making plain chocolate ice cream.  Here is my adaptation.  I usually double it for our ice cream maker.

Ingredients:

3 Cups Whole milk

3 egg yolks

1 Tbsp arrowroot powder

1/2 cup honey or maple syrup or sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Method:

Blend all ingredients.  I use a hand stick blender.  Let chill for a few hours or overnight.  However if you are like me I don’t plan ahead so I typically don’t chill it at all.

Pour into your ice cream maker and follow their directions.  We transfer it to a plastic container to freeze.  You will need to set it out about 5 minutes before you want to eat it.

Enjoy…

Do you make homemade ice cream?  Do you have a favorite recipe? I would love to hear about it.

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