How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag
Hi there, here’s a fun science yummy activity that you can do with your child in the summer time and it’s making ice cream in a bag. I’m going to go ahead and go over those directions and then we are going to make it together. Right here, I have a video and it talks about making ice cream in a bag. It includes the ingredients that you’re going to need.
In a small sandwich bag, you are going to mix a half a cup of milk, one tablespoon of sugar, and a half a teaspoon of vanilla. You and your child can do this together. It’s great because you can work on it together. Now the fact that it goes into a sandwich bag, you’re probably going to have to do that part because if they let go of it, then it’s all over the place. so, you’ll probably want to do that. Go ahead and start with that.
How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag Video
Start by measuring a half a cup of milk. It’s going to come out of the carton so if your child is old enough to pour the milk out of the carton they can do that or you can show them on a measuring cup where the half cup point is.
Show them where that is so they are working on measuring and math and then you can pour the milk in and say “Ok, tell me when to stop.” You’re also going to need vanilla. I’m just going to get set up and ready to go.
You’re going to pour that half cup in the bag. Now this makes enough for you and your child to have a small little snack together, nothing to big. Then we are going to put one tablespoon of sugar in. Your child can measure that, they can put the tablespoon in the sugar and then pour it in the bag that you’re holding on to.
You can talk about that, what do you think this sugar is going to make the ice cream taste like? Is it going to make it taste sweet or salty? Of course we know that it taste sweet. Then you are going to do the half teaspoon of vanilla. Of course if you get more vanilla in then it’s ok because it tastes really good.
Then you need to seal it up really tight and make sure you get the air out of there. Now we are going to put that aside because we are done with that part. That’s the part you can talk about with your child, that’s the part that’s going to be the ice cream later.
Now what you need is a big gallon size bag. We are going to fill this up with ice and rock salt. You can talk about how that’s going to happen, the reaction between the ice and the rock salt and that’s going to make the ice cream.
Go ahead and fill up half of this bag with ice. It’s written on here, a half bag of ice and then six tablespoons of rock salt. Now you’re child can help you put the ice in of course. It’s wet and cold but that’s fine. The rock salt is just in a little bag here but of course it come in a box and you can just leave it in a box. Have your child measure 6 table spoons.
Put it in the bag with the ice. You can count together. One, two, three, four, five, six! That’s all in there. Now what’s going to happen, you’re going to put the small sandwich bag with the whole milk, sugar and vanilla inside this bag, that’s why you want it sealed up really tight. You don’t want to get the salt or the water in there.
Just kind of place it in there and then you’re going to seal this one up really tight. A good idea is to go outside and shake this up. The ice is going to start melting and you’re going to get water all over the place.
It’s going to take about five minutes to make the ice cream. You can have your child shake it a little bit and then once their little arms get tired you’re probably going to have to do most of the shaking. It’s fun because they can watch the process of it happen. You just keep shaking it and then pretty soon you will see in the bag that it starts to get hard.
Not as hard as ice cream but hard enough and it’s really yummy too. Shake, shake, shake and then it will start to get harder!
