Vanilla Ice Cream

My favorite freezer-friendly recipe has to be ice cream! I make all of our ice cream (due to allergies to nuts), and this is the base for all of our "vanilla" ice creams -- oreo cookie, chocolate chip, cookie dough... yum.

This particular recipe dates back to my days working at the Nature Center... when we made ice cream with "Squirrel" and the kindergarteners during summer camp!

Nature Center Vanilla Ice Cream - Cooking with Squirrel, the chef
{Print Recipe}

3/4 C sugar {you can get buy with a little less}
16 oz Half and Half
8 oz. whipping cream
2-4 tsp. vanilla {depending on how strong you like it!}

Freeze your ice cream maker bowl...overnight is usually best.

In a large bowl combine sugar, half and half and and cream; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add in vanilla, to taste, and stir to combine.

Then, carefully pour into the ice cream maker following the machine directions.

I've found it easy to use a 4 C liquid measuring cup (with a spout) to mix about half of the ingredients together and then all the remaining liquids immediately to the ice cream maker after pouring in the liquids from the measuring cup.

Let the ice cream "make" for 30-40 minutes (depending on your desired thickness, and machine).

Then, scoop into freezer safe containers, and enjoy cleaning out the bowl!

The ice cream makes excellent soft-serve, ready right from the ice cream maker.  However, freezing the ice cream for about 2 hours will yield a nice hard-scoop ice cream.

We freeze the ice cream in 3 C freezer-friendly containers.  This way, we don't have to defrost all of the ice cream every time we want some.  We just defrost one of the containers!  I've kept the ice cream in the freezer for as long as 3 weeks, although it usually doesn't last more than a few days.

We have some fun variations on this regular recipe...like cake batter ice cream :)

This recipe is linked to: Ultimate Recipe Swap: Freezer-Friendly Food edition!