Ice Cream: The Family Recipe

I enjoyed a happy childhood full of summer time ice cream. We often went to Baskin Robbins 31 flavors. But the real thrill was when we cranked homemade ice cream using our Green Mountain Freezer and Grandma’s delicious family recipe. I am happy to share this treat with you. It takes some time but it’s SOOOOO WORTH IT!

3 Cans Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

3 pints half and half

3 half pints of cream

4 Tbsp vanilla

Caramelize the sweetened condensed milk: Place the cans, unopened, in a large pot. Cover the cans with water so they are submerged with half an inch of water on top. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the cans for three hours. Fill with more water as necessary. Let the cans cool to room temperature and then chill them for several hours.

Put the caramelized milk in a large bowl and add the cream in small amounts to avoid lumps. Then add the half and half and vanilla. Place the mixture in ice cream maker and follow instructions for the machine. We used to make this in a a hand crank model, so the next step would take several hours of turning. If you didn’t crank you didn’t taste. We’d turn till the crank got very hard to move. Then we knew it was time to lick the dasher!!! The rest goes into containers and get popped into the freezer.