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Nerdy Nibbles Shakes up Ice Cream

You shake, I shake, we all shake for ice cream! Ha ha! This week for Nerdy Nibbles we decided to play with our food! We’ve been celebrating Back to School this month, so the boys and I have been doing some experimenting in the kitchen. What’s better than Science? Edible Science!! So much fun! We shook up some Homemade Ice Cream in just three easy steps! Check it out!

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup of half & half
  • 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Rock Salt (also known as Ice Cream Salt,) 1 cup
  • Ice, about 2 cups
  • A small plastic bag for the ice cream mixture
  • A large container to shake it in! You can use a gallon size plastic bag or a large mason jar

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In the small baggie, add the half & half, sugar, and vanilla. Gently press the air out of the bag and give it a few squeezes to mix.

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Fill your container with a cup of ice and 1/2 a cup of ice cream salt. You’ll find ice cream salt at your local commissary near the boxes of regular and kosher salt. It’s very inexpensive! Add your ice cream baggie. Top with more ice and salt. The salt actually lowers the temperature of the ice allowing the cream to freeze. Science? Check! I think this counts as a lesson. 😉

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Now it’s time to SHAKE IT UP! Your container will get incredibly cold so I recommend using gloves or a dish towel. The more ice and salt you use, the less time you’ll have to shake. We all took turns shaking our jar and the anticipation was so much fun! Our first batch took almost 5 minutes. The second batch took about 3 minutes!

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We made two batches. Original vanilla and for the second batch, we added some mini chocolate chips. YUM! This was so much fun and a great project to end our summer break!

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The ice cream is a little slushy and I’m sure if we kept shaking, it would have gotten even thicker, but we couldn’t wait that long! It was a great cool treat on a hot day and something we’ll definitely be experimenting with again! I hope you try it out as well!