Easy 3 Ingredient Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Growing up, I ate a lot of homemade ice cream. My mom made it for church socials, family events, outings to the lake, and so on. Mom had a number of recipes including her classic vanilla, rich chocolate, peach, and many others. My parents owned a White Mountain hand-crank freezer which required ice and rock salt to successfully transform a liquid mixture into delicious ice cream. Every one took a turn at the crank. The whole operation was well-supervised, because if the salty ice leaked into the canister of ice cream, the entire batch was ruined. Usually, the ice cream came out perfect and delicious for a hot summer day.

No more cranking

Today, while you can still buy White Mountain ice cream makers, the trend seems to be towards ice cream makers that are easier and more convenient to use. Many different models exist that feature a bowl with insulated sides. The bowl is placed in the freezer overnight. Because the bowl is insulated, ice and salt are not needed. Kitchen Aid makes an ice cream maker ($99) attachment for the mixers, and Oster makes an inexpensive one ($30 at Walmart).

All of my mom's ice cream recipes included copious amounts of heavy cream, whole milk, and eggs, things we typically don't eat at home. Yet, nothing still satisfies like homemade ice cream. Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I came across this recipe which is just as delicious as more complicated recipes and only has three ingredients. Best of all, this ice cream does not crystallize in the freezer, and retains just right softness to easily scoop on to a warm brownie or as the foundation for a sundae.

Warning: Quality control needed

You may find that you need to sample the product throughout the production process - when transferring from the blender to the ice cream maker, when transferring to the freezer-safe container, and every hour until the desired consistency is reached.

 

Preparation

To achieve a better result when preparing the ice cream, place the cans of coconut milk in the refrigerator over night (or at least 4-6 hours).

Ingredients

• 2 cans unsweetened coconut milk
• 1C sugar
• 2t vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until mixed.
2. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker. Let the machine stir the ice cream for about 30 minutes.
3. Transfer to a freezer-safe container. Cover with plastic wrap (with the plastic wrap pressed against the ice cream). A foil, one-time-use, bread pan works great.
4. Place in freezer over night for best results.

This recipe makes about 1 quart of delicious homemade vanilla ice cream.

Douglas G Pratt, 2014