How to Make Ice Cream in a Plastic Bag

Ice Cream on a Hot Day!

Making ice cream doesn't have to require a lot of time or special machinery. A great summertime activity for the kids is to make ice cream that freezes in minutes in standard resealable plastic bags. The only specialty ingredient is rock salt, which you can find a home improvement or hardware stores. This recipe makes one bag of ice cream.

Things You'll Need

• 1 tbsp. sugar
• ½ cup milk or half-and-half
• ¼ tsp. vanilla
• 6 tbsp. rock salt
• 1 pint-size resealable plastic bag
• 1 gallon-size resealable plastic bag
• Ice

Instructions

1. Mix 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ cup milk or half-and-half and ¼ teaspoon vanilla in a pint-size resealable bag and seal it. Half-and-half makes richer ice cream, but milk works just fine too. Make sure the bag is sealed tight.

2. Put enough ice in a gallon-size resealable bag to fill it about halfway. Add 6 tablespoons rock salt and seal the bag. Mix the salt and ice together a little by squeezing and gently shaking the bag. Open the bag and insert the smaller bag with the ice cream contents into the larger bag. Seal the larger bag.

3. Shake, squish and generally move the bag around until the smaller bag's contents change into ice cream. This only takes a few minutes. The outer bag will condensate water, so this is best done outdoors.

4. When the smaller bag contains ice cream, open the larger bag and remove the smaller bag. Wipe the water off of the smaller bag. Open the smaller bag carefully and enjoy your homemade summer treat.

Tips & Warnings

• You can add or substitute other flavorings for the vanilla.

• Try adding cocoa powder to the mix for chocolate ice cream.

• Water softener tablets can be substituted for the rock salt.

• Use fruit juice instead of milk to make sorbet.

• Use two different-sized cans — cleaned coffee cans work well — instead of plastic bags. If you seal the cans well enough, you can have the kids roll it back and forth or play catch with it. This method will also give you a container to store leftover ice cream in.

• Be careful when handling rock salt. Thoroughly wash any utensils that touch the salt, and supervise kids to make sure they don't eat it. Pour out the salt and ice/water mixture on the ground, away from gardens or sensitive plants.

References

• "Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America's Favorite Treat"; Shannon Jackson Arnold