Make Your Own Ice Cream in Five Minutes

I have such fond memories of making homemade ice cream in the summer when i was with my kid. We used to go pick fresh strawberries and blackberries and then come home and pull out the electric machine and load in the ingredients. Watching the ingredients solidify into a delicious dessert had our eyes glued to the spinning bowl. I keep wanting to do it with my kid,  but it always seems like such a production to pull it out so I was thrilled when I came across a recipe for how to make individual servings of ice cream using just a few ingredients, zip top bags, and a little man power.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole milk or cream (you can use 1 or 2% milk, but you will get some crystalization due to the water content)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp Kosher salt
2 cups ice

Supplies:
1 quart size zip top bag
1 sandwich size zip top bag

Step 1: In the sandwich size zip top bag (if you can get the higher quality bags, I think it would be easier than with the store brand ones I bought) combine the milk, sugar, and vanilla extract and seal the bag tightly. In the quart size bag add the ice and Kosher salt. Place the smaller bag into the larger bag and seal the larger bag tightly.

Step 2: Now for the fun part! Shake the bag as hard as you can (without popping it open) until it becomes the consistency of ice cream.

It should take about five minutes before the ice cream begins to form, but may take a little longer if you have some slow shakers. We found that having a dish towel on hand to hold around the bags made it easier as the ice does make your hands very cold quickly.

Then just serve and enjoy. You can also add other fixings into your ice cream such as fruit or candy. We put ours on at the end, but they would be just as good in the mix. The above recipe makes one serving, but you can double the recipe if you want to make it for two. I think it's more fun to let each kid make their own and put whatever flavors they want into it. It would be a great way to keep the kids busy at a summer play date or barbacue, and the adults are likely to have just as much fun with it too. Enjoy!