Recipes
You Can Make Homemade Ice Cream Using A Mason Jar
Just put in your ingredients and shake it all up!
Ryan Aliapoulios
05.09.18

There are few desserts in the world that get as much widespread love and enjoyment as ice cream. More so than many other foods, we have an emotional connection to ice cream—just think back to when you were a kid and your parents took you to Dairy Queen after getting good grades, or when your friends brought you a tub of ice cream to cheer you up after a bad break-up. Beyond the soft spot it holds in our hearts, ice cream is also creamy, delicious and a perfect dessert for summer.

Still, ice cream can get kind of expensive if we buy it all the time—and we don’t always know what other ingredients are going into our favorite flavors besides the basics. No matter what the reason, we may want to take a different approach to this tasty dessert by finding a way to make it ourselves. While many people probably think they need professional equipment to make ice cream, that’s actually not true at all! Today, we’ve got an easy and delicious ice cream recipe you can make right at home.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • mason jars (one per flavor you plan to make)
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar (for a small jar—2 for a bigger one)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (for a small jar—1 teaspoon for a bigger one)
  • cocoa powder (optional)
  • cinnamon (optional)
  • peppermint essence (optional)

Here’s what you do:

1. First, get your mason jars ready and pour your cream into each one. Though you can use any size of mason jar you want, smaller ones will be easier (even though they yield less ice cream). In any event, you’ll ideally want your cream to fill about half of the jar—just be sure to adjust the other ingredients in proportion to the amount of cream you use and the instructions above!

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2. Next, add in your sweetness and flavoring. For basic vanilla flavor, add in a tablespoon or two of sugar and 1/2 to a full teaspoon of vanilla (depending on the size of your jar). Once the ingredients are in there, give it a quick stir and screw the cap on tightly.

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3. Make sure the lid is fully sealed and then start shaking! The fun thing about this recipe is that it’s a good activity to do with your kids as well as an easy recipe—but it’s definitely an arm workout as well. Keep shaking the jar for a few minutes until you can no longer hear any kind of liquid sounds from the inside. The whole process should take about three to five minutes.

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4. Next, wrap your jar in a wet paper towel and throw it in the freezer for about an hour. Once the time is up, remove the paper towel, open the jar up and enjoy!

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As you can see, making your own ice cream couldn’t be easier or more fun. While the recipe we’ve included here is only for vanilla, making any other flavor you could imagine is basically just as easy. For chocolate ice cream, follow the vanilla recipe but add in a tablespoon of cocoa as well. For mint chocolate ice cream, follow the chocolate ice cream recipe but add in a few drops of peppermint flavor and some green food coloring (if you’d like). On the other hand, you could also just add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon to your vanilla recipe and enjoy some cinnamon ice cream as well—the choice is basically up to you!

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As an added bonus, this recipe is particularly good for picnics and day trips because the jars can be thrown in a cooler, each with one personal serving size of ice cream. Though the result may be slightly crumbly and a little heavier on fat than you may be used to, you can take your time and adjust these recipes as you see fit. Happy eating!

Have you given this ice cream recipe a try? Let us know how it went in the comments.

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