Friday 3rd July

Hello everyone and a happy Friday to you all!

As promised, today's challenge is one of Year 3's '50 Things to Do at Swan Lane' - it's time to have a go at making some ice cream!

You might think that in order to make ice cream you would need a fancy ice cream maker or lots of special equipment - but there is a really simple and fun way for you to make it at home!

Although the Chinese are originally said to have invented ice cream, historians know that the Ancient Romans also enjoyed tasty frozen desserts.  Their ice creams were made using  snow (from the mountain tops) mixed with fruit juice and sometimes milk, and they were strictly reserved for the very rich.  Luckily, we don't have to be Roman royalty to try making our version!

In order to make ice cream at home, you will need:

300 ml semi-skimmed milk

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1kg ice cubes (that's a lot of ice cubes - you can buy them ready frozen from a supermarket or just fill up a lot of ice trays at home!)

6 tablespoons salt

2 medium zip lock freezer bags

1 very large zip lock freezer bag

Sticky tape

Sprinkles and ice cream sauce, to serve.

Method:

1.    Put the milk, sugar and vanilla into a medium zip lock bag, and tape up the seal.  

2.    Put this bag of ingredients into the second medium sized zip lock bag, and tape up the seal again.

3.     Tip the ice and salt into the large zip lock bag, and then place the doubled up ingredients bags inside.  Seal the large bag with sticky tape as well.  

4.    Now for the fun bit: you have to keep the bag moving for 15 minutes!  You can keep turning it over in your hands and shaking it, or if you are outside, you can play catch with it (carefully!). Your hands will get quite chilly so you might need to pop your winter gloves on to protect them.

5.    Keep moving the bag until you notice the milk is starting to thicken and freeze - this usually takes about 15 minutes but you might need to keep going for a bit longer.

6.    When the ice cream is ready, carefully remove it from the bags - make sure you don't get the salty, icy water in it as that would be disgusting!  The ice cream won't be as solid as the ice cream that you buy in the shops, but it is still very tasty as well as being fun to make.  Decorate your ice cream with sprinkles and sauce, and eat it quickly before it melts!

Buon appetito!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Vaqueiro