Almost Instant Soft Serve Ice Cream (Vanilla or Chocolate)

Craving for ice cream but have none in the freezer, and feeling too lazy to go out and get some? Here’s an easy and simple recipe for an almost instant soft serve ice cream, made from everyday ingredients. It’s ‘almost’ instant as it takes about 10 minutes to make. Vanilla extract can be used to make vanilla flavoured ice-cream, and cocoa powder can be used to make chocolate flavoured ice-cream.

Ingredients for the ice cream
(Vegetarian)
½ cup milk
1½ - 2 tablespoons sugar
For vanilla ice-cream: ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For chocolate ice-cream: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Additional equipment/ingredients
1 large (approx. 3.8 litre) zip lock plastic bag
1 small (1 litre) zip lock plastic bag
2 trays of ice cubes
6 tablespoons salt


Method

1. Milk, sugar, and vanilla extract or cocoa powder: In the small zip lock bag, mix the milk, sugar, and vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Ensure the zip lock bag is well sealed.
2. Ice cubes and salt: Into the large zip lock bag, put the small zip lock bag followed by the ice cubes and salt.  Ensure the large zip lock bag is well sealed.
3. Shake the large zip lock bag for about 7-10 minutes. You will notice that the milk in the small bag will start to freeze and that its texture will become like soft serve ice cream. The plastic bag will get really cold, so it best to wear mittens or wrap the bag in a cloth while shaking it. It’s good exercise, you might burn a few calories during the work out. 
4. After 10 minutes, take out the small zip lock bag and cut a corner off, to use it like a piping bag to squeeze the ice-cream out for serving.

Options
I can think of a few variations on the recipe, though I haven’t had a chance to try any of these yet. If you try any of them, let me know how they turn out.

1. Substitute the milk with non-dairy alternatives such as soy milk, almond milk or rice milk. 
2. Substitute the vanilla essence with other essences or extracts, such as almond, strawberry, peppermint or lemon extracts. 
3. Substitute the sugar with other sweeteners such as palm sugar, brown sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners.