Vanilla Ice Cream

One of the things we registered for before getting married was an ice cream maker, and we were lucky enough that some one gave it to us. With it, making ice cream is so easy (all you have to do is remember to leave the bowl in the freezer - no salt required!) However, if you don't have an ice cream maker, there are still many ways that you can make homemade ice cream. I have used these two methods, in a can, in a bag, and both seem to work well.

**1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/8 cup sugar
**3 cups heavy cream
2 TBS vanilla extract


**If you are worried about the calories and the fat levels of this ice cream, you can substitute heavy cream for half-and-half or whole milk for 2% or 1% milk. We have used both of these substitutions without any problems with the taste (we ALWAYS do the milk substitution since we only buy 1% milk)

 1. Place sugar and milk in a medium sized bowl, mix with a hand mixer on a low speed, about 2 minutes (until sugar granules are dissolved)
2. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla.
3. Turn ice cream maker on.
4. Pour the mixture into the freezer bowl.
5. Let it mix for about 25-30 minutes.


This is a simply perfect vanilla ice cream. It comes out of the ice cream maker a little soft, but if you put it in the freezer for a couple hours it will harden up to be nice and firm. This ice cream tastes great with any sort of mix-ins, fruit, candies, etc. You can either put something on top of the ice cream after its done mixing, or if you want to add a mix-in directly, add about 5 minutes before the mixing is finished.