Ethan’s well deserved milk shake

Being that this is the first official day of summer which also happens to be the first official day of my boy’s summer vacation, I decided to whip up a summer treat. We got an ice cream maker last year for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) Now the reasoning behind buying an ice cream maker was that we thought maybe we’d save some money on our grocery bill by not consuming twelve dollars worth of ice cream in a couple short days  a week. We experimented with it, tried numerous recipes, but they were all somehow disappointing. They were either too creamy or the texture was not right. Let’s just say that we have not seen any reflection of a savings in our weekly grocery store outings.

Being that the temperatures are in the nineties and it would seem somehow inappropriate to operate the oven while the air conditioners are on full blast, I thought we would give it another try. My boy wants a vanilla milk shake. So that is what he shall have. By the way, he got all 3′s and 4′s on his report card (this is elementary school here, 3′s and 4′s are excellent) So he has earned himself a dessert made especially for him.

As I said, we have searched and searched for ice cream recipes that could handle our refined ice cream palate. I found this ”Low-fat Vanilla Ice Cream” recipe on the Taste of Home website. Click here for it. I ended up cutting the recipe in half.

My boy had a bit of chocolate syrup on top and I figured I’d try some homemade granola on top of my serving. Check back for that recipe. It should be gracing the blogosphere with it’s presence shortly.

First combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt

Add fat-free half and half and heat until bubbly on edges

After the sugar, cornstarch, salt, half and half, egg yolk and vanilla half been properly heated through, place pot in an ice bath.

Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to cool in the refridgerator for an hour

Place the mixture in your ice cream maker and let it do it’s thing

After 20 minutes or so, place ice cream in the freezer to firm up

Mine topped with granola

1/2 cup serving contains 182 calories, 1 g fat (trace saturated fat), 53 mg cholesterol, 139 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 5 g protein.

Do you have any go-to ice cream maker recipes?!