It's So Easy, It's Scary.....

Happy Halloween everyone!! I've made a great treat today that you'll be sure to love. I've said before that there are two things every kitchen must have, and now I'm adding a third item to this essential list.

1. Crock Pot
2. Cast Iron Skillet
3. Electric Ice Cream Maker - Yes, you need one!

Here is ours, but there are several other brands out there. We keep the insert in the freezer at all times, so that we can make ice cream whenever we want. The options are endless and you are really only limited by your imagination.

Here it the basic recipe for vanilla ice cream. From there, you can add whatever you want. We've tried several combinations that were tasty, including chocolate chips and rasberry jam -- it was to die for!!

Today, I used some of our Halloween candy for the flavoring. My sister Katie and I love Hershey's Special Dark, which you can only find in the Hershey's miniatures bags. I chopped up about six of those mini bars and put it in this ice cream. Trust me, it was good!!!

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream:
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 chopped up Special Dark miniature bars (you could use anything to mix in)

Directions:
1. Whisk ingredients together
2. Place ice cream maker insert into the machine and turn on
3. Pour mixture into the ice cream maker
4. Allow ice cream maker to mix 20-25 minutes total
5. After 20 minutes, add your chopped up candy bar (or other mix-in)
6. Place ice cream in freezer

*You can eat the ice cream right away and it has the consistency of a soft-serve ice cream. I always let it set in the freezer for at least an hour before serving so that it can harden just a bit. Homemade ice cream never gets as hard as store-bought ice cream, so it will still be soft. Enjoy!!