How to make Ice Cream at Home :-)

Not feeling too good this morning cos I didn't sleep too well last night. Kept waking up cos my sore throat was too pain and after waking up, it took quite long to get back to sleep for the same reason. I think I'll need to see the doctor again if the pain doesn't get better after today. Wonder if I can claim medical fees from my IA company...

The inspiration for today's post came from smiles (thank you ;)). Now, I think most of us love to eat ice cream. But (I used to think at least) that you'd need an expensive ice cream making machine to make it at home otherwise you'd have to go out and buy some. However, I found this little receipe for making ice cream using plastic bags! Yes, plastic bags (ziplock bags to be exact), and it seems so simple and the ingredients are so readily available, I might never have to buy ice cream again. Anyway, here's the receipe I obtained from this site.

Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups crushed ice
4 tablespoons salt
2 quart(~1 litre) size Zip-loc bags
1 gallon(~4 litre) size Zip-loc freezer bag
1 hand towel or gloves to keep fingers from freezing as well!

Instructions
1) Mix the milk, vanilla and sugar together in one of the quart size bags. Seal tightly, allowing as little air to remain in the bag as possible. Too much air left inside may force the bag open during shaking.

2) Place this bag inside the other quart size bag, again leaving as little air inside as possible and sealing well. By double-bagging, the risk of salt and ice leaking into the ice cream is minimized.

3) Put the two bags inside the gallon size bag and fill the bag with ice, then sprinkle salt on top.

4) Again let all the air escape and seal the bag.

5) Wrap the bag in the towel or put your gloves on, and shake and massage the bag, making sure the ice surrounds the cream mixture. Five to eight minutes is adequate time for the mixture to freeze into ice cream.

Tips
Freezer bags work best because they are thicker and less likely to develop small holes, allowing the bags to leak.

You can get away with using regular Zip-loc bags for the smaller quart sizes, because you are double-bagging. Especially if you plan to do this indoors, we strongly recommend using gallon size freezer bags.

For a more traditional and complicated method for making ice cream, click here.