Homemade Ice Cream Party!

I LOVE ice cream. Let's just get that out of the way right up front. I will eat ice cream year-round, even when we have snow here in Utah, and I don't like being cold. But buying ice cream year-round can get pretty expensive, especially if you like the fun flavors like I do. (Darren is easy to buy ice cream for -- he likes plain ol' vanilla.) Because of all of this, making homemade ice cream sounded like a brilliant idea for me. There's just one problem -- we don't have an ice cream machine, the extra cash to buy one, or (perhaps most important) the space to put one!

So imagine my delight when I came across this recipe for homemade, super-easy, amazingly creamy ice cream without an ice cream machine! And only a few ingredients required to make the basic vanilla ice cream! YAY!

Two-Ingredient Ice Cream

Like I said, this is super easy to make and tastes delicious. The texture is much thicker and creamier than store-bought ice cream, which makes it even better. All you need is:

• 2 Cups (heavy) whipping cream
• 1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• (And vanilla extract, but that basically doesn't count because it's always on hand, right? ... Right?)

Here's what you do:

• Using hand mixer (or whisk or stand mixer, whatever floats your boat), beat the cream until peaks form. Don't be impatient here, folks, like I was the first time I made this. The medium-stiff whipped cream helps the ice cream keep its texture and all that lovely stuff.
• Mix sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.
• Slowly fold (don't stir!) the whipped cream into the milk mixture in a few batches (2 or 3 should be good). You don't want to deflate all that lovely whipped texture you worked so hard for, so be gentle with it.
• Stick it in an air-tight, freezer-safe container and let set for about 6 hours.

That's it! How easy is that? The best part is how customizable it is! You can mix in whatever flavor strike your fancy; just add them to the sweetened condensed milk. I chose to make mint chocolate chunk ice cream, so I mixed in:

• 1/4 tsp mint extract (or less)
• 1/2 Cup (or so) of semisweet chocolate chunks (you can use chips, too, of course)
• a few drops (2-3) of green food coloring
• leftover, scraping-the-bowl-remains of homemade hot fudge sauce -- recipe below!

Um. Yes, please. We're not even going to talk about how
many bowls of this stuff I had that night.

This might be THE best mint ice cream I've had in a long time. And I made it all by myself! Topped with this hot fudge sauce (recipe from Our Best Bites), the ice cream was heavenly. I actually packed some in a little tupperware container, surrounded it with ice, and took it to work for my after-lunch snack! Best. Idea. Ever!

Other flavor combinations: Chunky Monkey (bananas, walnuts, and chocolate chunks), Heath Bar (toffee bits), strawberry, blackberry, peach, birthday cake (dry cake mix and some frosting and sprinkles - how fun!), Reese's (peanut butter, chopped [or mini] Reese's cups, fudge sauce, etc), and SO MANY MORE.

Note: If you're adding any extracts, leave out the vanilla called for in original recipe.

Homemade Hot Fudge

• 1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
• 1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• pinch of salt (optional, but it helps cut the uber-sweetness of this fudge sauce a little bit. Chocolate and salt always play nice together in baking.)

In a saucepan, mix butter and condensed milk until butter is melted. Add in chocolate chips and pinch of salt. Stir until combined. Remove from heat. Pour into Mason jar to store. Voila! You've just made hot fudge sauce. (And if you wanted to make actual fudge out of it, just melt in some mini marshmallows and you'd have my family's fudge recipe!)