Making Vanilla Ice Cream From Scratch [MakerID-32]

Our project for the Black Pine Circle Maker Fair was to make homemade ice cream. The inspiration to take on the endeavor came about when we realized that the ice cream store we usually go to keep driving up their prices. We realized that making our own ice cream would be cheaper, and we could have fun while doing it, instead of going out and purchasing ice cream. We researched the different ways in which to make homemade ice cream, and found that it could be made with household materials.

We have all had the experience of paying too much for food that we knew we could make at home. Well now add ice cream to that roster. Whenever we crave the creamy goodness of ice cream, we hit up the nearest store, and buy a couple of scoops, or go to the grocery store, and buy a pint. Well here’s a secret big ice cream stores have been keeping from us. We can make ice cream ourselves. Why would you ever want to buy ice cream, when you can make it at home, and here’s the surprising part, you can make ice cream in 10 minutes. While this might seem ridiculous, my partner and I were able to discover a way in which to make ice cream in a Ziploc bag. We formulated the different ways in which to make ice cream before doing any research on the recipe, and discovered the most efficient, and cheapest way to make ice cream.

The cheapest and most effective way to make homemade ice cream is as shown. In a small Ziploc bag, combine half-and-half milk, sugar and vanilla extract. Push out excess air and seal Ziploc bag. In a second larger Ziploc bag, combine ice and salt, and place small bag inside the bigger bag and shake vigorously for 7 to 10 minutes. When the ice cream has hardened remove from bag and enjoy with your favorite ice cream toppings.

While making our first batch of ice cream we ran into some problems. The Ziploc bag which contained the ingredients for the ice cream slowly began to wear and tear. We noticed some of the holes that were forming in the bag, and did our best to patch them up with duct tape, but in the end the project was not successful. But, don’t let our failure deter you from making your own ice cream. We found out that the bag we were using was faulty, and had taken precautions no to make the same mistake in our future tests we suggest buying freezer Ziploc bags, as they will be harder to break.

 We learned that eating homemade foods is usually much cheaper than eating at a restaurant or buying processed foods from the market. I know getting processed or ready made foods are a quick solution, but it is unhealthy and expensive reality, many times it can be much faster to cook something at home, especially when you plan ahead. If we had more time in the maker fair we would have set up a station, and hand out ice cream to the people that viewed our project. Our advice would be that you might enjoy the experience of cooking your own dessert, such as ice cream

We were able to find our method for making ice cream with this website. And the approximate cost of this project was $11.80