Ice Cream Recipe

I had some requests for my homemade ice cream recipe so here it is.

Girl Scout Thin Mint Ice Cream

3 boxes (3.5 ounce) instant chocolate pudding

3 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

@ 7 cups whole milk (depends on how much to get to your "fill line")

1/3 to 1/2 a cup crushed thin mints (or grasshoppers or any chocolate and mint flavor cookie)

ATTN: I have a maker that MAKES 4 quarts of ice cream - you only actually put about 3 quarts of liquids in before you start freezing.  If you have a larger or smaller maker you can adjust the recipe.  

Wisk instant pudding into milk.  I usually start with about 5 cups of milk and add the rest "to the fill line" in the maker so that I don't overfill my maker.  

Add in the sweetened condensed milk and wisk until thoroughly incorporated. 

DO NOT add the thin mints yet!

Pour into your ice cream maker and fill to the "fill line" with remaining milk.

Start your freezer like normal.  

About 15 minutes into your freezing cycle wipe all the salt and ice from the top of your canister.  VERY carefully remove the top.  Your ice cream should be starting to thicken. 

Pour in your thin mints.  

Then take a wooden spoon or spatula and push the cookies down through the ice cream. 

Replace the top and continue your freezing process per the manufacturers instructions until frozen.

As much as you may want to add extra, PLEASE fight the urge to add TONS of thin mints.  It is better (more is always better) in reality but your ice cream won't freeze right.  I say that from experience.  About a 1/2 a cup is all the maker can handle before it bogs down.  Then your ice cream doesn't freeze the rest of the way.  

I am adapted this recipe from one that we found a couple years ago on www.food.com
 

The adapting part is what flavors you put in your ice cream.  The first time we tried this it was with white chocolate pudding, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate chips.  

 Next time I am thinking peanut butter pudding and chopped up Hershey's bars for a Reece's cup type ice cream.  Really the options are endless.  So pick up a few ingredients and head to your own back porch to make some ice cream, watch the sunset, and listen to the crickets chirp.  That's what summer is all about.  

Stacey