I grew up in Waterbury, Vermont, home of the main Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory. With the exception of my brother, all the kids in my family worked there at some point during our teenage life, either in the gift shop or giving tours. It was a fun atmosphere to work in and I enjoyed meeting tourists from all over the country, but I'd have to say the main perk was, hmmmmm, the ICE CREAM. All employees got three pints of ice cream a day for free. Just take it out of the employee freezer and go home to gorge yourself. Most of the ice cream we would get factory seconds, meaning that the chunks or swirls weren't distributed right. That meant that sometimes you were stuck with a pint that was mostly chunks. Tragedy, huh? With that much ice cream, I hate to say it but my siblings and I just started to take it for granted. Eventually we would stop even eating the ice cream part and do what we called "mining", which is digging through the pint for the chunks and leaving the rest behind. Now that I have to pay for the stuff myself I can't believe I let so much go to waste, but that's kind of how it goes when you are a teen.

Anyway, the thing is, despite all that great ice cream and great time eating the chunks from the ice cream, guess what I'd say my favorite ice cream flavor is? No, not Chubby Hubby, although that is a close second. It's vanilla. Nothing fancy, nothing special, just vanilla. You can add whatever toppings you want, or none at all. It's delicious any way you scoop it. And as far as vanilla ice cream goes, pretty much nothing tops homemade. There's just something fresh and creamy about homemade ice cream. Sadly, though, my husband and I have never owned an ice cream maker, and I don't foresee the purchase of one in the near future. I just have way too many kitchen gadgets and way too little extra cupboard space. That's why when I found this recipe a few years ago I got really excited. It claimed to make delicious chocolate ice cream without a machine and it looked super easy. Could it really be true? Could it be modified to make delicious vanilla ice cream? The answer is, oh boy yes it's true, and my mouth is so much happier for it.

Ice Cream - Without a Machine

By HeatOvenTo350 Published 05/04/2010

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons milk (optional)
• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream - hey, I never said this was a healthy recipe

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk with vanilla, salt and milk (if using. If you like your ice cream slightly soft when you take it out of the fridge, add the extra milk. If you like it harder then omit it.)
2. With an electric mixer, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
3. Take 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture and stir it into sweetened condensed milk mix. Don't skip this step. It lightens up the milk mixture so you don't deflate the whipped cream completely when you add everything together. Fold this mixture into the whipped cream and pour into a freezable container.
4. Freeze at least 6 hours or until firm, then enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 6 hours Yield: 6 servings

Posted in: Dessert