When I was little, I used to want to make homemade ice cream, but I never knew the science of it. So I would mix my ingredients, throw everything in a bowl, and place it in the freezer for hours, only to end up with a rock-solid frozen concoction that nobody wanted to eat.
Cut to me decades later, and I’m older, wiser, and now I know how to make soft, fluffy ice cream that’s creamy and delicious! The best part? There’s no need to purchase an ice cream maker, and the kids will enjoy making this – from start to finish – in 13 minutes flat.
You’re going to flip when you see the ingredients list. It’s super simple, but trust me, the ice cream tastes SO good. The only item that you’ll need that you might not already have at home is rock salt. You can buy it from Walmart or pretty much any basic needs / grocery store. Some stores sell it near the ice cream makers; other stores sell it near the regular table salt.
So here you go. Are you ready? It’s probably the simplest recipe you ever made!
You’ll need:
- One cup of whipping cream
- 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons of Sugar
- A pinch of salt
Here’s what to do:
- In a small resealable plastic bag, combine whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla. Push out excess air and seal.
- Into a large resealable plastic bag, combine about 5 cups of ice and salt. Place small bag inside the bigger bag and shake vigorously, 7 to 10 minutes, until ice cream has hardened. WARNING: You'll need oven mitts or gloves to keep this up for 10 minutes! The bag gets extremely cold!
- Remove from bag and enjoy with your favorite ice cream toppings.
The science behind making ice cream in a bag is that when salt is added to ice, it lowers the melting point of ice to below freezing. This allows you to shake the bag long enough (before the ice in the larger bag completely melts) to get the ice cream in the smaller bag to solidify. So your concoction gets really cold really quickly (mere minutes), much colder than what it would be if you were just using ice without the salt. And because you’re shaking your bag continuously, the mixture is creamy and the perfect consistency of ice cream!
Feel free to experiment with different topics and different base ingredients. (Some recipes use half & half instead of whipping cream.)
