Ok, I’ve been really lazy these days. I cannot stand winter. It’s so cold outside. I truly dread leaving my house on any day below 50 degrees. HATE. So, yesterday when I was absolutely craving ice cream and it was-Heck, I don’t even know what the temp was. Alls I knew was that it was February 23rd and winter was in full swing so I was not trying to leave the house. And so the mission began to make my own ice cream at home. Ladies and gents, I don’t think I was ever so excited to make anything as much as I was with this ice cream. I knew if it came out well, that the possibilities were endless. I was already thinking of strawberry cheesecake ice cream, chocolate ice cream, caramel swirl ice cream. Man, my mind was on overload. This just HAD to work. I do not have an ice cream maker so I searched the web for a recipe that didn’t call for one. I found a super easy recipe on Martha Stewart’s site BUT I added a special ingredient, just on a hunch and boy, all I can tell you that this was the richest, creamiest, vanilla-est ice cream I have ever tasted. Haagen Daz better watch their back!

Modified from Martha Stewart Recipe

Ingredients:
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups cold heavy cream
1 TBSP instant vanilla pudding mix (See Notes)

Method:
1. In a medium bowl, stir together condensed milk and vanilla.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream on high until soft peaks form, 3-5 minutes. Add instant pudding mix in the last minute of beating.
3. With a rubber spatula, gently fold whipped cream into condensed milk mixture. Pour into a metal or ceramic bowl or pan. (Cut a piece of parchment paper that would fit directly onto the “batter” so as to cover it. You can just peel this off once ice cream is frozen)

4. Freeze until firm, 6 hours or more.

Now a little caramel sauce and we’re good to go!

Notes:

*During my research, I ran into this article about the ice cream making process and pectin. My thought process started going and for some strange reason I thought of adding pudding to the mix because I had no pectin on hand. I had vanilla pudding in the kid size containers and instant pudding mix. I did eeny-meeny-miney-mo and ended up using the pudding mix. I can’t explain it but all I know is that it worked like a charm. The pudding, or something in it, really helped to keep ice crystals away. I’m not sure if that’s what contributed to the creaminess but my goodness, this really is the creamiest ice cream I have ever tasted.

** One complaint I have though is the sweetness of this ice cream. I find that an entire can of condensed milk may be too much. It was a little on the sweet side for me, so next time I’d probably go with 3/4 can and see how it works.

***This ice cream, I estimate, cost me about $5 to make and I have just under 2 quarts. This works out to be so much more cheaper and funnnnn than buying it in the supermarket. I cannot wait to try different flavors.

One more pic for the road….

Bye For Now…..