Homemade Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker

I CANNOT believe it!

This actually works very well!!!

I wanted to try this recipe as I am posting it for my friends who didn't have access to an ice cream maker. Used the recipe from Family Fun magazine, and it worked great.

HOME MADE ICE WITH WITHOUT ICE CREAM MAKER
RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
2 tbs sugar
1 c half and half**
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c kosher salt
Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
1 pint-size ziploc bag
1 gallon-size ziploc bag

**According to Wikipedia, in the United States, half and half is a very light cream typically used in coffee. Its butterfat content is about 12.5%, which makes it lower-calorie and more stable in coffee, and also used in making ice cream.

1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.

2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it's done.

3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, dry the outside of the bag so that the salt doesn't get into your ice cream, add mix-ins(your preference for nuts or choc. chips) and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Easy cleanup too! Serves 1, but I shared it with two little kids.

Recipe taken from Family Fun magazine.

Note: Have the ice cream ingredients ready in a small sandwich or pint size ziploc bag.Set aside. Use a freezer Ziploc bag (gallon size) and fill it 1/2 full of ice cubes.Add 1/2 cup kosher salt in with the ice. Why SALT? Here's the answer I found from pbskids.org Salt helps ice absorb more heat energy than it would without salt. And absorbing more heat energy means removing more heat from the surrounding environment. So, while cream that’s next to ice (without salt) gets cold, the cream that’s next to a mixture of ice and salt gets very cold. And, it has to be very cold to freeze cream. Another way of saying this is that the cream needs to lose a lot of heat energy to freeze. The added salt will make sure that the ice would draw enough heat energy out of the cream to freeze it.Place small sandwich or pint size ziploc bag into the large gallon size ziploc and seal. Set the timer for 5 mins. Since I don't like cold hands, I put on a pair of oven mits, and started shaking the ice cold bag. Shake, shake, shake. For 5 mins. (Feel the burn on your triceps and biceps) Work it, work it (2 mins more....) At this point, the kids are looking at me weird. Maybe it's because I'm walking around the house shaking my bag of ice cubes and cream mixture to their Backyardigans DVD! 5 mins later, and the timer beeps. Now it's done. I pull out the little sandwich size bag of cream which turned into ice cream. Wipe off the salty water from the little bag. Feels cold and hard like ice cream.Tried it.....

Delicious!!!

I am surprised with the result! Yummy!
I just did my arms exercises and rewarded myself with ice cream too! And did I share it with the kids? A little...

More Notes: You can make different flavors by adding cocoa, matcha, or pureed fruits to the ice cream. Mine was done in 5 mins., but I've read that it sometimes take between 5-10 mins. I tried it once with half and half, and the another time with cream. Both were good, but the cream one is richer (of course!). Also used 2 big gallon-sized ziplock bags (double-bagged) for the ice cubes and kosher salt. Another way of serving it is to cut a corner off the small ziploc bag, squeeze out the ice cream onto a dish and add your favorite toppings (mine was chopped up strawberries.) Enjoy!