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For me, it’s not summer until you’ve had some homemade ice cream. So this year, I’ve decided that our new summer fun tradition is making homemade ice cream in a bag. Yes, you read it right. You can make ice cream using sandwich bags!
Now that I have found a fun way to use these sandwich bags I’m taking this idea camping with us. We are a camping family and we especially love doing this over the summer. So, this ice cream in a bag activity was the perfect summer fun activity for my boys and they had so much fun with it! Simple fun, low cost and delicious–now that’s a perfect combo!
I’m sharing below a normal homemade vanilla ice cream recipe and how to turn your homemade ice cream in a bag into more fun–Monster ice cream! The possibilities are endless with this basic vanilla homemade ice cream recipe!
You can also add an educational component to this ice cream in a bag activity. It’s the perfect way to get them using some science skills this summer.
You can have them do an experiment and figure out what dairy product gives you the creamiest and smooth ice cream–milk, half & half or heavy cream. Just sub any of those for the milk ingredients below. My son loved having a visual for our ice cream making fun. I found the free printable here.
Summer Fun: Ice Cream in a Bag
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup of rock salt
- lots of ice
- 2 Glad Sandwich Bags
- 1 gallon size bag
Monster Ice Cream
- 4 drops of yellow food coloring -for yellow Monster
- 2 drops of red food coloring & 2 drops of blue food coloring for Purple Monster
- oreo cookie & small round chocolate candy
1. Place milk, sugar and vanilla into a small sandwich bag. Add your food coloring if you’re making the Monster Ice Cream. Seal tightly, pushing out excess air.
2. Place ice and rock salt in the gallon size bag.
3. Put your small sandwich bag inside your gallon size bag and seal tightly.
4. Now let the fun begin. You can take turns shaking the bag for 20 minutes. Have a dance party and shake your bottom while shaking the ice cream bag. Pass it around and stop at 20 minutes.
For the Monster Ice Cream once it’s done. Just open up your Oreo cookie and add the chocolate piece to the top for the eye. For the purple Monster use marshmallows for the teeth.
Notes: Next time I will use two sandwich bags so that the salty water will not run down into my ice cream when I open it. Also, if you’re going to pass the bag around use two gallon size bags in the case that it gets dropped one too many times. If you want your ice cream to be a bit more yellow than mine add a few more drops of coloring.
Okay I have a confession to make–I love sandwich bags! I use them for everything. I have recently fallen in love with the snack size zipper bags. We use these bags for traveling, snacks, homeschool, organizing… So when I had the opportunity to share about Glad bags I jumped on it. It was a no brainer, we use them for everything and we love Krogers! My father faithfully worked most of my childhood at Kroger. Well, now they have these fun Glad movie character sandwich bags at your local Kroger stores so stock up for lunches and snacks this summer.