Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Homemade Ice Cream For One

With temperatures soaring this summer, my thoughts turn to memories of past summers. Growing up out in the country, making homemade ice cream was a big treat for a hot summer day. At that time, we had the old fashioned wooden bucket kind with a hand crank. As kids, my siblings and I would fight over the coveted position of being able to sit on top as our father turned the crank. Well those days of hand cranking gave way to the electric freezers. Nowadays you have those freezers that don't even require the use of ice and salt. Simply freezer the drum and place on the base. In no time you have rich homemade ice cream. But being a single person, making a whole freezer full of ice cream just isn't practical. So I would miss out on having it unless with my family. Being the internet junkie I am, I found a way around this by searching for recipes. This one is my favorite. Hope it sparks a few memories for you.

Homemade Ice Cream For One

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp Splenda
1/2 tsp SF vanilla extract
6 tbsp salt
3 cups ice
1 ziploc bag, sandwich sized
1 ziploc bag, gallon size

In sandwich sized ziploc combine the sugar substitute, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Seal the bag and shake slightly to mix ingredients. In the gallon sized ziploc bag, add 3 cups of ice (or fill half the bag with ice) and add 6 tablespoons of table salt.
Place the sealed sandwich sized bag into the gallon bag and seal the gallon bag. Shake the entire contents for at least 4 minutes. Once desired hardness has been achieved remove smaller bag and rinse thoroughly with cold water.

**Note: Shake longer than 4 minutes for harder ice cream. Also be sure to rinse the small bag prior to eating, if you miss this step you may wind up with salty ice cream.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. For those of you with kids, fix up individual bags for each and let them shake it. It is FUN.