Back in May, I went ahead and purchased a homemade ice cream machine and haven’t looked back. It’s safe to say, making homemade ice cream is my new summer hobby! What started off as being an item on my SAFE New England Summer Bucket List, read about that here, turned into discovering a new passion! Not only is it a fun activity to do by yourself, with your partner, or with your kids, but the final product is refreshing and delicious! Need I say more?!

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Homemade Dairy Ice Cream

Making homemade ice cream (regular, not dairy free) is actually super easy to do! It’s basically just 4 ingredients, half & half, heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. If you want to flavor your ice cream, go for it! You can also purchase these pre-packaged flavor mixes so your speciality flavor doesn’t have to be a headache to make!

Don’t get me wrong though, not all special flavors are hard to make! While I haven’t tried to make mint chocolate chip yet, I have made fresh strawberry ice cream a few times and it couldn’t be more simple! In addition to the 4 ingredients mentioned above, you’ll just want to cut up your strawberries, put them in a blender, and then pour the fresh purée into your mix prior to starting the ice cream maker. Just make sure there are no large chunks that could potentially harm your machine.

Homemade Non-Dairy Ice Cream

Dairy-free ice cream has been a bit more difficult to make, however, I’m loving the challenge! As you guys know by now, I’ve been dairy free for gosh, 7 years now! Time flies! And for any new faces around here (hi!), the reason I’m dairy free is because dairy has a HUGE negative impact on my cystic acne. Alrighty, back to the ice cream… I am SO eager to share a dairy-free recipe with you guys, but I want to make sure it’s perfect first so just hang in there for a little while longer!

The current dairy-free ice cream options that are sold in stores aren’t bad. I actually really love Ben & Jerry’s dairy free ice cream, it’s delicious! If you’re willing to spend a lot of $$ on your non-dairy ice cream then I highly recommend the cashew-based Van Leeuwen. Nada Moo was a favorite of mine for a while, but then I bought it 3-4 times in a row and each time it was freezer burnt, which was of course disappointing!

Ultimately though, I want to be able to make my own dairy free ice cream, A) because I’m pretty sure it’ll be less expensive than the store options and B) because it’s way more fun to eat your own creamy creation! ALSO, I’ve always dreamed of a chocolate cookie dough ice cream and that’s my goal here. Make. It. Happen. It baffles me that I haven’t seen any brand put that flavor out yet, I mean HELLO us cookie dough lovers want a chocolate option, not just vanilla!

Make sure you shop my homemade
ice cream essentials here!

Now I want to know what summer hobbies you’ve gotten into this summer! Comment below with what you’re up to! What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Any fun/creative ideas I should try next?

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