If you have children, I encourage you to get an ice cream maker. A REAL one - not one of those kinds that has the bowls that you chill in the freezer and then add ingredients and spin. No, I'm talking about the kind where you have to use ice and rock salt. A REAL ice cream maker. They aren't expensive. You can get a one-gallon ice cream maker at Wal-Mart for under $20. I promise you'll get your investment back, and then some.So many people are afraid to use these things and they really have nothing to fear. All it takes is a few simple ingredients, a big bag of ice, a box of rock salt, and in twenty minutes you can experience the magic of thermodynamics for yourself. Your kids will worship you because You Can Make Ice Cream!
HOW TO MAKE ICE CREAM
1. Get an ice cream maker. As I mentioned above, Wal-Mart - under 20 bucks
2. Get the ingredients. See below
Aunt Galen's Homemade Ice Cream2 cans sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla flavoring
1 small box Jello Sugar Free Instant Pudding, your choice of flavor (this is my SECRET ingredient! I used Cheesecake flavor in the batch I made last night and OH MY GAWD, it is soooooooooooooooooooo good. Orgasmically good. Trust me on this.)
1 quart Half and Half (this is important to make your ice cream "creamy")
1 gallon whole milk (not skim, not 2%. WHOLE milk)
1 16-lb. bag of ice
1 box rock salt (also sold as "ice cream salt")
Mix sweetened condensed milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and pudding mix in a large bowl until well blended. Pour into ice cream freezer can. Pour in the entire quart of Half and Half. Add enough whole milk to reach the "fill" line of the freezer can.
Insert the dasher (the mixing paddle) into the freezer can and put the lid on. Set the freezer can into the large bucket.
Put a good 2 inches of ice in the large bucket, around the freezer can. Top with a thin layer of rock salt - enough to cover the ice. STOP! Do not add any more ice!
Attach the motor to the top of the freezer can and latch to the large bucket. (Your ice cream maker will come with an instruction booklet that explains how to do this.) Plug in the motor to start the freezer can rotation.
Now you can add more ice. Add another layer of ice, then another layer of rock salt. Keep adding the layers until the large bucket is completely full - covering the top of the freezer can.
As the ice cream churns, the ice will begin to melt. Keep adding ice and salt so that the top of the freezer can remains covered. When the motor quits running, the ice cream is finished churning. It should take about 20 minutes. When it's finished, it should look like this:
You could eat this right now, but it will be quite runny. It's better to "ripen" the ice cream. Here's how: Remove the dasher from the freezer can. Go ahead and give it to the kids so they can lick it off, or else they will pester you to death. Or, you can do what I do - give it to your husband and let HIM fight the kids for it.
Next, remove the freezer can from the bucket of ice. Drain off the water from the bucket and dump the ice.
Put the freezer can back in the bucket and replace its lid. PLUG THE HOLE IN THE LID WITH THE CORK THAT CAME WITH THE ICE CREAM MAKER! If you don't, then you'll get salt in your ice cream and it will be ruined.
Repack ice around the freezer can in the large bucket with ice and rock salt at about 3 parts ice to 1 part salt. Fill the bucket completely, covering the top of the freezer can. Cover the top of the bucket with a towel for insulation.
Allow the ice cream to "ripen" for AT LEAST 30 minutes. An hour is even better, but I know it's tough to keep anxious kids and a husband settled for that long, but do try.
NOW, you can enjoy real homemade ice cream.
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