DIY Ice Cream in a Mason Jar

I’ve always wanted to make my own ice cream. However, I don’t have an ice cream maker, and I’m a little iffy on making room for another kitchen contraption that might not be used as often as I imagine it will.

But then someone told me about this crazy notion that I could make my own little batch of ice cream without any fancy equipment. Just ingredients (heavy whipping cream, sugar, salt, vanilla), a wide mouth pint mason jar, muscle, and a freezer.

Well, I can handle that. Plus, it saves a lot of dollars because I’ve already got that stuff laying around.

Five minutes of shaking will give you some heavy whipping cream that’s turned thick.

Several hours in a freezer, and you’ve got yourself some ice cream.

Three reasons I really like DIY Mason Jar Ice Cream:

You can control the ingredients—especially the sugar!—according to your diet or taste buds. The first batch I made was delicious but admittedly pretty sweet (for my taste buds, not my husband’s). I’ve since cut the sugar in half for both the vanilla and chocolate versions I make.

You can’t eat a ton of this. If you’re like me, there are times when you can scoop yourself up a big ol’ bowl of store bought ice cream, inhale it, and then have to convince yourself that no, you don’t need seconds. DIY mason jar ice cream is not that ice cream. Since it is made from plain ol’ whipping cream, it’s got some heft and some fat content to it. You will not be sitting down to eat the entire jar in one sitting. I love ice cream, and a couple few spoonfuls of this deliciousness is plenty for me.

You have to work for it. If you’ve got little kids, you can pass the jar around and have them join in the fun. Five minutes of constantly shaking a jar is actually more work than you think it will be. (Ask me how I know!) But ice cream you have to work for takes the guilt out of having ice cream, right?

Different flavors for your mason jar ice cream!

The things you add to the cream before you shake it have the potential to change the way ice cream sets up. When I tried to make strawberry ice cream using some of our homemade sauce, the cream expanded to fill almost the entire jar and could no longer be shaken, but wasn’t as “thick” as the vanilla or chocolate had been. Maybe because our strawberry sauce was pretty liquidy and affected the thickening of the cream?

Also, it has been suggested that if you make a chunky flavor with cookies, candies, or other such add ins, that you should continue to occasionally shake it as it’s freezing so all the chunks don’t sink to the bottom of the jar and are equally distributed throughout the cream.

So who is ready to make ice cream?

If you’d like to watch my video about making vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry mason jar ice creams, check out How to Make Ice Cream in a Mason Jar.

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DIY Mason Jar Ice Cream

Make your own ice cream with no special equipment, just ingredients, a jar, a freezer… and muscle.

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a wide mouth pint size jar.

2. Cover tightly with a lid, shake vigorously for five minutes. You will hear the liquid change to something more thick as it gets closer to being done.

3. Check after 5 minutes. Cream should have changed from liquid to something more like the consistency or brownie batter or a fluffy pancake batter. It will not immediately drip off a spoon like liquid cream.

4. Place cover back on jar and place jar in the freezer. Depending on your freezer, it could take anywhere from 3 hours to overnight to be frozen to your liking. I generally make this and stick it in the freezer overnight. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Experiment with different flavors!

I’ve enjoyed making chocolate ice cream using this method as well.

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened coca powder
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• a pinch of salt

Try strawberry, peanut butter, cookies and cream, peppermint mocha, caramel chocolate… let your imagination go wild. Note: some add-ins or flavors might change the consistency/thickness of the cream, and any “chunks” (candy, cookies, etc) might require you to occasionally shake the jar as it freezes to make sure the chunks are distributed and don’t all sink to the bottom of the jar.