Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag (Just 3 Ingredients!)

Today we made ice cream in a bag. And what the heck, it's flipping easy! I could make it every night if we had enough ice and heavy whipping cream!

Probably a lot of you have used this method before, maybe in like first grade or for Family Home Evening or with your roommates at BYU-I (that's where I did it the first time), but it's probably even easier than you remember it. Seriously, I did it as a completely last minute thing and it came out AMAZING so I guess my poor planning didn't influence the ice cream quality;)

Anyway, if you want to make some tomorrow, or this weekend, or heck--tonight--here's what you need:

Mix 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream in a resealable sandwich bag. (If you buy a half pint container of it--it's the tiny purple one at Wal-Mart--that equals 1 cup, so you can make two bags).

Add 1 tsp. of vanilla extract (or peppermint might be good if you have that!) to the bag.

Then mix in 2 1/2 tsp. sugar (I used regular granulated) and slosh the bag around to get the sugar and extract mixed in well.

Then you put your little bag with the ice cream mixture (sealed nice and tight!) in a sealable one-gallon bag filled about 1/2 of the way with ice cubes and 6 Tbsp. coarse salt. I do not know if regular salt is good enough. But since the risk you're taking involves ice cream, I'd probably play it safe. Or have a back-up plan.

Then, you seal the little bag in the big bag and shake them for about 5 minutes! I shook mine for 6 just to play on the safe side and my ice cream was pretty hard when I checked it! I had to use an old t-shirt in our car (we made our ice cream on the ten-minute drive home from Dalin's workplace) to hold the bag in my hand because it was FREEZING with the ice, plus the salt which makes it colder.

After the first two minutes of shaking the bag in the air I was thinking, Man, I don't think I can last three more minutes, so I bounced the bag up and down against my seat instead repeatedly. And like I said, when I checked on it (P.S. your hands get really salty when you touch the outside of the small bag), the ice cream was hard! I was going to scoop it out into a bowl but after having one bite, I knew I was never going to make it.

So the one sad part of this story is that I didn't get any pictures because the ice cream was so delicious that it was gone in a flash, but I did find plenty of images on Google to borrow.

See? It looks like just an off-white liquid when you add it to the bag of ice and salt, but then...

It looks more like this by the time it's finished. It doesn't look that solid (ours didn't) but Dalin's bag felt like a rock and I admit, I was more focused on shaking mine than his so I am not sure how that happened. But once you take them out of the ice, they start to melt so it was the perfect texture when we ate it.
Anyhow, it kind of looks like this inside or when you scoop it out:

And it seriously seems to taste better because you made it yourself.

I highly suggest you try this activity with your family, friends, roommates, ward members, and so on. It's so easy that a high-energy four-year old could do it.

This ice cream was just what I needed to raise my spirits which have been down due to the stinking heat that I blogged about yesterday. I would love to hear if you have done this or plan on trying it! Also, if you have any improvements or variations, I wanna know for next time (which may be tomorrow;).

Have a lovely evening,