A Families Love

Whew, we sure had it hot for a few days lately, unusual for this early in summer too, but we managed.  Cool weather dinners like my yummy Balsamic Chicken and Egg Salad are a great relief, but to really beat the heat there is nothing like a sweet treat, and when combined with a bit of fun science it just does not get any better:-)

So, for the fun recipe you will need a few non food ingredients, and lotsa fun goodies…

In The Bag Ice Cream

1 gallon sized sipper baggie

1 quart sized zipper baggie

3 cups ice cubes

4-5 tbsp sea salt

1/2 c half and half

3 tbsp heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp Stevia(optional we found it sweet enough without)

Goodies, options we used included chocolate chips in many flavors, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, raisins, instant coffee powder packets, Ovaltine chocolate powder,nuts and fruit.  The blends you can come up with are limited only by your imagination and refrigerator contents, so be creative.

Place the ice cubes in the gallon size bag along with the sea salt, into this place the quart size bag.  Pour into the quart bag the half and half and heavy cream, plus any flavorings you want to try out.  Carefully zip the quart bag shut, squeezing out most of the air as you go.  Make sure it is fully closed and does not leak, then place fully into the gallon bag and zip that shut around the quart bag and the ice/salt mix.  Then the fun, sweet science begins, you just need to gently squeeze and knead the bags, letting the ice melt and become colder(salty sea water freezes at a much lower temp than plain water, that is the neato science part!).  As you knead and mix the cream it will start to harden and freeze up, and in about 5 minutes you will have freshly created, sweet and delicious soft serve ice cream.  Sweet, science indeed!!!

Check out this sweet treat, and many yummy others in the Slightly Indulgent blogroll today, or go and check out some great allergy friends recipes at Allergy Free Wednesday.