Homemade Ice Cream

Going back to school for these short few weeks has made me extremely lazy in lesson planning. I just really don't want too. But not having lessons, is not an option. Luckily the 2nd graders, as part of their lesson book, had a recipe for some homemade ice cream. A fun, easy, delicious way to kill two class hours?? Sign me up!!!

So the search for an ice cream recipe that doesn't require the use of an ice-cream maker became my new past time.

I found a few on all-recipe.com and about.com and some other cooking sights and decided to mix and match a little bit. The end result was excellent, and the students loved it! So here it is... homemade ice cream...

The Cast of Characters

- 1 1/2 cups  Milk

- 2 eggs

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp. Vanilla

- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Clearly this is not for the health conscious, and you really could just make it all with skim milk, but the more fat content, the more creamy your end result will be!

Whisk the eggs and milk together

Add in the sugar and the Vanilla

Heat over a low/med heat and stir continuosly

You want it to get a bit thicker, not pudding thick, but on it's way to that.

DON'T leave it unattended or stop stirring... that's when it boils over and covers your little burner and pot... lesson learned.

Pour the cream into the bowl.

Pour in the rest of the concoction and stir it up!

Cover in plastic wrap and whip out the peace sign

Then you can do one of two things. 

1) Put it in the freezer and stir every 30-45 min while it's freezing. This produces a creamier texture, instead of just a solid ice chunk of vanilla. The ice chunk will still taste great, but the texture won't be as fantastic.

2) Let the mixture cool in the fridge for a few hours then place 2 cups in a quart size bag. Get a Gallon size bag and fill it half up with ice and add some rock salt.  Put the quart bag in the gallon bag and start shakin' what your mama gave you for about 10 minutes! 

*Disclaimer... I read many sights that said this option (#2) was great. Jon and I experimented, but it didn't work... at all. I'm assuming that we didn't have enough ice.)

Anywho we clearly went with route number 1 and it worked splendidly.

After it's frozen you have nothing to do but enjoy the vanilla-y goodness :)