98 Seconds: Creating and Testing Out Homemade Ice Cream

You've probably seen or heard of a recipe to make your own ice cream at home, but have you ever tried to do it? We decided to test out one of these recipes and see if it actually worked, and if it was any good...

Homemade ice cream! As a kid (and even a young adult), this always sounded too good to be true. I had always wanted to try to make my own ice cream, but I guess I never got around to it. Recently I saw quite a few recipes online for make-your-own-ice-cream, and after seeing how quick and easy it is (supposed to be), I decided it was time to try it for myself. And that's exactly what we do in this week's "98 Seconds with Naomi Lynn" video.

First of all, I have to give credit where credit is due. I got this recipe from Genius Kitchen (you can find a link to the recipe at the bottom of this story and in the caption of this video on YouTube). The recipe says it takes about 7 minutes to create your own ice cream, and only called for five ingredients: Milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, and ice (and two Ziploc bags). That's simple enough for me.

In the video (at the top of this page), you can see me showing you step-by-step how to create the ice cream. Of course, we had to speed things up a little bit because it actually did take about 7 minutes to create the ice cream, and this isn't "420 Seconds with Naomi Lynn." So if you would like to test out making your own ice cream, go ahead and follow the directions in the video (above).

Now, it's one thing to create the ice cream, but obviously we had to test it out as well. Is it worth making your own ice cream instead of buying it? Is it cheaper? Is it easy enough? Does it taste the same? You can't know the answers unless you taste it. So I did. And here's what it boils down to:

PROS OF HOMEMADE ICE CREAM:
- Cheap (I already had all the ingredients in the house, and you probably do too)
- Fast (seriously, 7 minutes)
- Pretty easy (although my hands and arms got tired of shaking the bag after a while)
- Tastes almost exactly like store-bought ice cream (almost)

CONS OF HOMEMADE ICE CREAM:
- Melts really REALLY fast
- Easier to just buy ice cream at the store

So there you have it - That's what I thought of our little homemade ice cream. It's a great idea if you've never done it before, just to say you've done it. Or if you want to get the kids involved and have them make their own ice cream (I'm sure they'll think it's pretty cool). But unless the store is closed or I have no other way of getting ice cream, I'm just running to Hannaford or Stewart's and grabbing a pint.