Everyone’s saying there’s only a month left of summer, but we still think that leaves plenty of time for dips in the pool, trips to the park, and lots of yummy summer treats. One of the favorites at our house is HOMEMADE ice cream.
At first the thought of making your own ice cream might seem a little intimidating, or not worth the effort. However, with today’s electric ice cream makers, it can be very simple. Usually they come with an inner piece that you keep in the freezer for 24+ hours. Insert this piece into your machine, pour in the ingredients, turn it on, and you’re done! If you want to go “off-the-grid”, you may use a hand-crank version or even a plastic bag version if you don’t have a machine*. It only takes about 30 minutes total, and while the ice cream is freezing we can eat our dinner or do something else together like play a game or read a book. It’s a great bonding activity: My girls love making it, I love how healthy it is for their growing bodies – no yucky “stabilizers”, “emulsifiers”, or other mystery ingredients, and to top it off, we all love the taste!
Grace & Violet’s Favorite Ice Cream!
2 cups half-and-half or milk
½ -¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (or other extract such as almond or mint)
1 cup whipping cream
Optional: ½-¾ cup chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, nuts, candy bar chunks, SPRINKLES!
Blend first three ingredients together, including chocolate syrup, if using. Stir in whipping cream. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions. Add chips, nuts, etc. just before ice cream solidifies. For optimal consistency, transfer to a container and ripen in your freezer for about four hours. Eat in a cone, in a bowl, in a root beer or Vernor’s float… it’s all good!
Non-dairy /Vegan variation: Use Silk French Vanilla Creamer in place of half-and-half and whipping cream. Silk Creamer is sweetened, so you may wish to decrease quantity of sugar, to taste.
*Grace & Violet’s super-secret hint: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you don’t need one to make ice cream! Place the blended ingredients in a e-z zip plastic freezer bag. Place some ice and salt in a larger plastic zip bag, and put the smaller bag of ingredients inside the larger one, and seal tight. Then shake your bags together, until frozen! Teachers: this is a great activity to do at school during “circle time”, and a teachable moment when explaining why we use salt on the ice.
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Michelle Mersy, C.P.C. is the mother of two wonderful children (who like the vegan version better :), and a certified Life and Parenting Coach. She affirms, “Stop just wishing things could be different. They can be, if YOU do something different. Coaching will make that difference.”
989-397-8386 ~ [email protected]
www.MichelleMersy.com