Ice Cream in a Bag

Did you know you can make ice cream in a bag? There is actually a lot of chemistry involved- the ingredients and temperature change dramatically change during the process!

Materials:
Half and Half or Whipping Cream
Vanilla Extract
Salt
Ice Cubes
Small sealable bags
Gallon sized sealable bags
Measuring spoons

Procedure
In a small sealable bag, put 1 tablespoon of sugar, ½ cup of half and half and whipping cream, and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Seal the bag.
Add 4 cups of ice to one, large gallon-sized bag. Add ½ cup of salt to the large bag.
Put the small bag with the ingredients from step 1 into the large bag from step 2. Make sure both bags are sealed tight!
Shake the large bag for 5 minutes. Stop every few minutes to make sure the bags are sealed. Shake until you get a chunky and creamy texture.

As you held the bag, you could’ve felt that the ice cubes melted much more and felt very cold. Because of the ice, and especially the salt, the ingredients could’ve been able to cool down and harden, thus turning into ice cream. A salt and ice mixture allowed the ice cream mixture to get colder as opposed to a mixture with pure ice. This is the same process that occurs when salt is spread onto icy roads during the wintertime! If you ever see actual ice cream made the traditional way, you now know why there is rock salt around the container holding the ice cream mixture.

Picture Source: foodnetwork.com