Let's Make Homemade Ice Cream

Scream for homemade ice cream!

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!”

The ice cream freezer wedding gift...

So Papa and I received a homemade ice cream freezer for our wedding almost four decades ago. In all those years we only made homemade ice cream a handful of times. 

Reasons for not using that old freezer

The first reason is that my brother makes the best homemade ice cream ever. And I will travel any Sunday afternoon to get a bowl full and to visit with him.

The second reason is that it is really challenging to manhandle the freezer, the ice, and the messy salt water mixture that runs out. Papa has to carry out the salt brine and dispose of it. Then, I clean it off the freezer so that the salt doesn't cause parts to rust.

Whew, that’s so much work.

Now I’m really not trying to get in a debate with my die hard White Mountain ice cream freezer friends (like my brother). I’m just saying that the messy part was just too big a hurdle for me personally. It wasn’t happening, hardly ever. 

The best homemade ice cream freezer! 🙂

One day some friends said, "You should buy a Cuisinart homemade ice cream freezer!” (I saw a beam of light that came down from the sky and heard angelic music being sung if I remember right!)

With a Cuisinart 2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker there is a sealed Cuisinart Freezer Bowl (2 quart) that goes in the deep freeze. [Not sponsored, just love this thing!] I let it freeze a couple days. The tub is ready to use in the ice cream machine and drops down into the top of the machine. Next you pour the ice cream mixture into the tub. The machine spins the tub and holds the paddle still. The cream mixture freezes into ice cream in about 30 minutes or so.

It’s magic, magic I tell you! 

There is no need for ice or salt and the clean-up is fairly painless.

I wash the tub out and place it back in the deep freeze for the next time I want magic to happen!

Very little muss and fuss.

Guess what? There is more homemade ice cream at Nana and Papa’s house these days! 

Tip- buy an extra ice cream freezer tub

Tip: We bought a second Cuisinart Freezer Bowl (2 quart) for the Cuisinart 2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker so we can freeze two half gallons at a time. We have a whole gallon available for crowds as the tub is a half-gallon capacity.

Let the grands help make ice cream

The grands like to help make home made ice cream. They are intrigued to watch it freeze.  The kids aren’t riveted to the whole 30 minutes of the ice cream freezing process, of course, but they do think it is pretty cool.

4 ingredients homemade ice cream recipe

Kids like to help mix up the ingredients and get the freezer started. After a bit of play time they are ready to help eat ice cream!! 😉 This homemade ice cream recipe only uses 4 ingredients; cream, milk, sugar and vanilla. The recipe is in the direction booklet for the freezer.

Stir in your favorite ingredients

Finally, it works great to stir ingredients into the ice cream right after it is frozen. Candy chunks, or strawberries are the favorites! Papa is a purist and only wants vanilla home made ice cream so we don't do that very often.

Tip: I like to place the newly frozen ice cream in the deep freeze for a while to hard freeze. If it doesn't, it melts fairly quickly. Don't forget to use a plastic spoon to remove the ice cream so you don't scratch the tub.

Passing on the home made ice cream tradition

We grew up saying “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!” I’m so glad to get to help pass that saying on to the next generation! Ha!!

Let me know what you think if you get a Cuisinart 2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker! Or maybe I’ll just hear you screaming for ice cream!

Make Your Own Ice Cream In a Bag

Now if you want something a bit more hands on, you need to try the recipe to "Make Your Own Ice Cream In a Bag" on WTN. It is so much fun and there's no need for a freezer at all!! Here is the link to that recipe along with the instructions for making individual servings of homemade ice cream in a bag.

Enjoy!

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