I saw a discussion recently about those Ice Cream Magic makers being sold on TV. One friend was wondering if they worked and another said they were not worth it because you can do the same thing with baggies. That’s when my ears perked up. Really? Homemade ice cream in a baggie? I need to know more!
I searched a bit and asked around, and it is so easy! I decided to use this baggie ice cream experiment as a part of my girl scout troop’s Home Scientist patch. Homemade ice cream is fun anytime! In the middle of winter, you know where your gloves are at least. And in the summer, you can’t beat it. We also learned about freezing point depression and made a tasty treat. Here’s how:
Baggie Ice Cream Recipe
½ cup 2% milk — also tried it with coconut milk*
¼ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp sugar
@ 4 cups ice
4 tbsp rock salt
2 quart freezer baggies
2 gallon freezer baggies
1 pair of gloves
Plus any kid of mix-ins or toppings like sprinkles, hot fudge sauce, cookies, fruit, chocolate chips, etc.
Make the mix by combining the milk, vanilla, and sugar. Put it in a quart size bag. Double bag it. (Trust me on the double-bagging!) Add rock salt to a gallon size bag. Put the quart size bag (mix) into the gallon size bag (salt) and surround it with ice (should end up being about half way full of ice). Then double bag that one too. Put on your gloves and shake the bag for 5 minutes – may take longer if you are using a different kind of milk – and be sure to hold the zip part of the bag while shaking so you don’t have a rock salt explosion in your house (not that I would know anything about that!). After 5 minutes, open the bags and make sure the ice cream has set, and enjoy!
We had pureed strawberries, peppermint extract, and chocolate chips to mix-in to the ice cream. And I have to say, the mint chocolate chip was really good!
* Make it dairy-free by using the So Delicious brand of coconut milk from a carton (not a can). It turned out great – it just takes a little longer to set.
