Vanilla Ice Cream

(Prepared without an ice-cream machine!)

I think that the food in this part of the world (Israel) is the best – but one of the things which I really missed when coming here in the 1960’s was REAL vanilla ice-cream! The ice-cream here in those days was made with vegetable fat and with fake vanilla flavoring – not real vanilla extract.

In desperation, I tried all sorts of concoctions, including trying to make icecream in the electric icecream makers of the 1970’s that you put in the freezer, with the electric cord sticking out, and connected to the electricity. The icecream maker took up a lot of space in the freezer, and the cord sticking out ruined the rubber part of the freezer door. And after a while I gave up on that. When I would come on visits to the U.S. I would buy a huge container of vanilla icecream and bring it to the hotel where of course it never fit into the tiny freezer in the tiny hotel room refrigerator. So, it got eaten – at first in the form of icecream, and after a few hours in the form of Icecream soup.

Finally, here is a recipe for very good vanilla ice-cream, and it’s a snap to make! I make it in different flavors and it has become very popular in our house. (More flavors to follow in the future, although you can use your imagination, and use this recipe as a base for many flavors).

Ingredients:

• 1 can (397 grams or 14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1  or 1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 2 cups of whipping cream

Preparation:

1. In bowl mix, with large spoon, condensed milk, cold milk, vanilla extract, and salt (optional).
2. In mixing bowl of mixer, beat the whipping cream till stiff.
3. Fold the two mixtures together with spatula or large spoon, till the whipped cream is incorporated into the condensed sweetened milk-cold milk-vanilla mixture.
4. Pour into plastic box with hermetically closed cover. Put the box in a plastic bag and into the freezer (the plastic bag is supposed to help prevent the formation of ice crystals in the ice-cream)
5. Freeze till hardened.
6. Can serve as is, or put some raspberries, or strawberries on top – or whatever you like, for ex. chocolate syrup.
   • And of course, you can have it the simple way, as in the photo, in a good ol’ ice-cream cone.
7. Enjoy!