Homemade Ice Cream

Jeff and I have a new hobby this summer. Actually, "obsession" is probably a more appropriate term. Homemade ice cream. It's no secret that I love ice cream anyway, but homemade ice cream is just that much more fantastic. We have been using my mom's ice cream recipe that I think originally came from Southern Living magazine. This is the perfect size recipe for a standard ice cream freezer. If you have a small one (like the KitchenAid attachment I covet) you'll probably have to adjust this accordingly.

4 eggs

1/2 gallon whole milk

1 pint heavy cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup sugar

1 small box instant pudding mix

1 tsp. vanilla, optional

Basically, just mix everything together, put it in the freezer, and let it do its thing. Jeff prefers it if it's had time to harden overnight. I like it to firm up a little, but I will happily eat it straight out of the freezer.

The best part about this recipe is how easy it is to change it up. Vanilla is the obvious choice, but you can quickly and easily change your flavor by changing the pudding flavor you use. Our most recent batch was chocolate, and we have a box of cheesecake flavored pudding we want to try next because cheesecake ice cream is my new obsession. Other obvious choices are whatever fruits you have available. I'm thinking the next time I make chocolate I'll throw a little mint extract in instead of the vanilla. That should keep jeff out of it for a while and make for some very tasty milkshakes.

Give it a try. You won't be disappointed!