Cost – Using items you probably already have in your kitchen, it’s free!

Have you ever had a craving for ice cream while spending an evening at home, only to find your empty freezer staring back at you? Well, if you have a few basic food items in your cupboards, and 10 minutes to spare, you can make homemade ice cream.

SHE SAID:

To me, ice cream is a major food group. I will indulge in its creamy goodness any time of the year, rain or shine, heat or cold. It can be a costly comfort food when you go for the good stuff, so I was really excited when I found out I could make it in a bag for a fraction of the cost.

The process was easy enough, with just 5 items needed from the kitchen. A special note to those of you who have never frozen ice before (I’m looking at you, love bug), it actually takes longer than half an hour. Perhaps our half frozen ice cubes played a factor in the crumbly consistency of our final product. That, or the fact that we used 1% milk instead of whole milk. Either way, the end result was hardly worth the 10 minutes of intense, frigid shaking. Winter gloves are highly recommended.

Though the final product would make Ben and Jerry shudder, I didn’t really care because we didn’t waste a bunch of time and money trying it out. We may even try it again with some whole milk and fully frozen ice cubes.

HE SAID:

There are two major issues that come up for us a lot when we decide to spend an evening at home.

1. The need to do something, but not knowing what to do.

2. The need for snack food…RIGHT NOW!

Making homemade ice cream solves both of those problems at the same time. It gives you something to do without requiring much preparation time, as well as it provides snack food in the end.

Making homemade ice cream should be easy, even for those (like myself) who are a little less savvy in the kitchen. You simply combine milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and any other items you want to add for special flavours (i.e. chocolate chips) into a sealable plastic bag. You then place that bag into a bigger bag filled with ice cubes and salt. Seal the second bag and shake it like a polaroid picture! Wait….is it still cool to use that expression? Seriously, you need to shake it for a good ten minutes. You’ll notice the ice cream starts to harden around the five minute mark.

I was amused but slightly disappointed in how our ice cream turned out. It ended up looking like frozen popcorn. The flavour was surprisingly good, but definitely not up to par with the more expensive stuff you can get at the grocery store. It sort of tasted like a more watered down version of normal vanilla ice cream.

Though I wasn’t totally satisfied with our icy creation, it was a blast. It was fast, easy to make, and very cheap. For those reasons, I can forgive it for not tasting rich and creamy. I’m still impressed though at just how simple it is to make something that closely resembles ice cream. Who knew shaking milk, sugar, and vanilla against some ice cubes would turn into this little treat? It’s SCIENCE!

If you’re at home tonight and are looking for something fun to try, this might be up your alley. Don’t expect the world’s best ice cream to emerge from that plastic bag, but be proud of your cold creation. If you’ve ever made homemade ice cream before, or if you decide to make it after reading this, we’d love to hear about it. Send us an email, or leave a comment and tell us what you think!

How To Make Homemade Ice Cream:

Place 2 trays of ice cubes & 6 tbsp of salt in a large plastic bag

In a smaller bag mix:

1/2 cup of milk

1 1/2 – 2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Place the smaller bag inside the bigger bag, seal it tight and shake well for 10 minutes.

There’s a new ice-cream joint in town that takes the ice cream experience to a whole new level. The Cold Stone Creamery has made its way to select Tim Hortons locations in Bedford and Dartmouth.

SHE SAID:

We’ve been going through quite the heat wave here in the Maritimes, so when my sister told me about the Cold Stone Creamery the other day, we gunned it to Bedford. It was kind of weird for me walking into Tim Hortons and smelling waffle cones, but I quickly got over it when I saw the endless ice cream possibilities!

I found the options weren’t that obvious to me, so I’ll save you the trouble and explain. You can choose from one of their twenty Cold Stone Signature Creations or create your own custom creation by selecting your base ice cream and adding in the gazillion choices of mix ins, such as Snickers bars, almonds, brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough.

I decided on the Cookie Doughn’t You Want Some in a chocolate dipped waffle bowl. I’m really glad I went with the “Like it Size,” which is technically a small, but really the size of a small baby. Needless to say, I could not finish it.

I noticed on my way out that you can get ice cream cakes and cupcakes or your favorite flavour packed in a cute container to go if you find a flavour you love and just can’t get enough of. It might also be a great gift idea for your ice cream loving friends/wife (wink wink, Brad).

HE SAID:

When Susan told me we were going to this new place called the Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream I thought it sounded like fun. I wish I could say the experience lived up to the expectation.

First of all, I didn’t realize it was going to be in a Tim Hortons. Nothing against Tim Hortons, but I was picturing something more similar to the Cow’s Ice Cream places in PEI.

Secondly, I didn’t know what their ice cream making methods were ahead of time. For instance, I got what was called “All Lovin’ No Oven” which was supposed to be cake batter ice cream with fudge, cookie dough, and whipped topping. All good things, right? Well what I didn’t know is that they take all the ingredients and just mash them all together, kind of like they are kneading bread with ice cream scoops. This is a problem for me. A big problem. You see, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like it when the food on my plate touches. I don’t load my fork up with a bit of everything. I eat things one at a time. So when I saw them mashing up my ice cream I kind of panicked, but I wanted to try to be open to new things so I continued on.

What I ended up with was a huge pile of goo inside a massive waffle cone. It didn’t have the texture of ice cream at all. It was thick and weird, but the texture could have been because of the cake batter ice cream. And although some people would probably love the fact that the small is the size of a puppy, it was way too much for me.

So I can’t really recommend it based on my experience. I was expecting chunks of cookie dough and fudge with whipped topping on top like it has in the picture on the menu, but instead it was like they filled one of those cake icing bags and just squirted cookie dough, fudge, and whipped cream into the ice cream. I know my phobia of mixing food is a big factor in not enjoying the ice cream, so I would recommend you go take a look at what they offer. You may end up liking it and thinking I’m crazy.