One of my husband’s clients gave us a Nostalgia Electrics Old Fashioned Ice Cream Maker* a long time ago. I looked at it, stuck the big box in a closet, and didn’t think of it again until we cleaned out said closet last weekend. The girls begged me for ice cream. Begged. “I’ll think about it,” I said. For some reason I always thought making ice cream was a lot of work. And I don’t need more work.
I mentioned this to my neighbor as we were trimming some flowers the other day, and she emailed me a simple recipe for vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book*.
So we did it – we made ice cream! All I had to buy was heavy cream and salt, as I had all the other ingredients on hand. I didn’t need special salt, but I didn’t want to use up all my table salt, and rock salt is just cooler anyway! I also made sure we had plenty of ice in the freezer. It’s a big bucket!
Figuring out the right ratio of ice and salt was tricky at first, but I got the hang of it, and after almost two hours of churning, we had the most delicious ice cream…
I added some chocolate chips, and it was divine! While the ingredients can be pricey, the ice cream maker itself is only $24.99 and it does all the work! And I feel good giving my kids something that doesn’t have all those extra preservatives. Now to start experimenting with flavors and add-ins, and hopefully find a recipe that has less fat… 😉
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