Preparing the perfect homemade ice cream

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1/2 cup milk or half & half

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

• 6 tablespoons rock salt

• 1 pint-size plastic food storage bag

• 1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag

• Ice cubes

Instructions

1. Fill the large bag half full of

ice, and add the rock

salt. Seal the bag.

2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar

into the small bag, and

seal it.

3. Place the small bag inside

the large one, and seal it

again carefully.

4. Shake until the mixture is ice

cream, takes about 5 minutes.

5. Wipe off the top of the small bag,

then open it carefully. Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Custard, Ice Cream & Fro-Yo, oh my!

Custard ice cream is, as the name suggests, made from a custard base. Egg yolks or whole eggs are whisked together with hot milk or cream and sugar, and cooked gently until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Egg yolks are natural emulsifiers, and the resulting custard makes an ice cream that is remarkably smooth and rich. Chill the custard for at least one hour before freezing.

Ice cream is made by stirring, while freezing, a pasteurized mix of one or more dairy ingredients – milk, concentrated fat-free milk, cream, condensed milk – sweetening agents, flavorings, stabilizers, emulsifiers and optional egg or egg yolk solids or other ingredients. Federal standards require ice cream to contain a minimum of 10% milk fat (about 7 grams (g) of fat per 1/2 cup serving) and 20% total milk solids by weight. Some premium ice creams contain 16% milk fat.

Frozen yogurt is made by freezing a mixture of pasteurized milk, with or without other milk products, flavorings, seasonings, stabilizers, emulsifiers and lactic acid cultures. Because there are no specific standards for frozen yogurt, its ingredients and characteristics can vary. Frozen yogurt is pasteurized before freezing so it generally does not contain live, active cultures like many unfrozen yogurts. Frozen yogurt may be soft (as in cones or sundaes) or hard-frozen.