Ice Cream School

The week of July 4th I keep the boys home from summer day camp. It's a true vacation week for them, where I put on "Mama Camp". 

At almost 9 and 6.5, they play on their own, get ready for the day, and do a quick house clean up in the morning. Then the fun begins.

Monday we took a free tour of our county's recycle plant. Smelly, but REALLY cool.

Tuesday they both had play dates with friends.

Wednesday we had ice cream school.

Yeah. Ice cream school. We made an easy, four ingredient, no churn ice cream... complete with the boy's own mix ins. It turned out excellent, and definitely will need to be repeated.

4 Ingredient No Churn Ice Cream
Inspired by Nap Time Kitchen

Ingredients
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Any mix ins you want (chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, Nutella, sprinkles, M&Ms, health bars, etc)

Directions
1. Whip the heavy cream either in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until stiff peaks (whipped cream stands up & doesn't drip off beaters)
2. In a separate (large) bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt
3. Slowly add the whipped cream to the sweetened condensed milk bowl--folding to combine
4. Mix in whatever toppings you want
5. Pour in a freezer safe container & freeze for at least 7 hours

Notes: We stirred in some Nutella into the base of our ice cream, then I let each boy put their own mix ins in a ziplock bag and crush them. Now that's fun! After that I split the ice cream mix into two smaller bowls so they could fold in their own mix ins and froze them in two separate containers. 

Now... a few years ago I made a Nutella ice cream--churned in the ice cream maker. And people went wild over it. Here's that recipe:

Nutella Ice Cream
Inspired by Chocolate Moosey

Ingredients
1/2 cup Nutella
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. In a blender on low speed, blend together all ingredients until smooth. Do not use high speed or it may curdle 
2. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour
3. Churn in an ice cream maker
4. Transfer to an air-proof container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours

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