Homemade No Churn Ice Cream

Prep time: 10 minutes
Chill time: 4 hours
Yields 4 cups

Ingredients: 

1 vanilla bean
2 c. heavy cream
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

Optional, to serve:

Waffle cones/sugar cones, assorted cookies (for ice cream sandwiches), whipped cream, chocolate syrup, maraschino cherries, chopped nuts, rainbow/chocolate sprinkles, mini freeze-dried marshmallows, the options are endless!

Directions:

1. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and carefully scrape out the seeds with a sharp knife. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream at high speed until stiff peaks form. Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla bean seeds and stir to combine. *See below for fun variations on this base recipe, and fold in any additional ingredients before step 3.
3. Pour mixture into a bread pan or freezer-safe container (check out these cute individual freezer-safe containers on Amazon, or if kids are making their own labels, try these). Cover and freeze for 4 hours or overnight.
   

Here’s When The Fun Happens:

Before shopping for your ingredients, give the kids a piece of paper and tell them to come up with their signature ice cream flavors and fun names.  Once decided, make your grocery run to get supplies. Depending on how many flavors you’re making, you may need to double or triple your base ingredients. Help the kids add colors, flavors, and bits of fun to their base ice creams to make their signature blends. Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing:

• Lemon-Shortbread Ice Cream: Fold in 6-7 oz. lemon curd, and chunks of broken up shortbread cookies. For more kick, you can add lemon zest.
• S’Mores Ice Cream: Fold in mini marshmallow bits, broken up graham crackers, and chocolate chips or broken up Hershey bars. For chocolate S’Mores Ice Cream, add 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder to the base and blend well before adding other ingredients.
• Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream: Fold in 8 ounces of softened or whipped cream cheese, 6-7 oz. strawberry preserves and broken up graham crackers. You could also add fresh or freeze-dried strawberry bits for more texture.
• Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream: Go old-school with green food coloring if you really want to up the wow factor for kids. Then just add in peppermint extract to taste, and chocolate chips or broken up hersheys.
• Cotton Candy Ice Cream: Use food coloring to create the desired cotton candy color (usually blue or pink), add cotton candy extract to taste, and multi-colored dehydrated marshmallow bits.

And for a rainy day project (or just a break from the heat), have the kids design labels for their individual ice creams. I just scan their designs onto my computer, and helped them find fun graphics to add if they desire, then printed them out on label paper. Here are some pics from a few years ago:

School’s Out For Summer!

A couple years ago, we hosted a neighborhood “School’s Out For Summer” party. My son and I made Cotton Candy Ice Cream in two colors (blue and pink) and folded them together. We served it at an ice cream bar where the kids could make an edible bowl, a cone or a cookie-ice cream sandwich. We had a lot of games outside, including a double slip-n-slide, water twister, limbo, and a huge cooler of water balloons. And when it was time for a break, the kids could come inside for ice cream: